iGuard

I often find myself tired and in want of a nap when I happen to be in a public place, such as a library or laundromat. Being the slightly paranoid survivalist that I am, however, I find myself unable to relax enough to allow myself to drift off into oblivion. What if somebody tries to pull a fast one while I'm out? When I have my trusted companion Corona with me (my dog, not the beer), however, I don't have that problem because I know she'll alert me if someone gets too close for comfort. Even when I'm in a deep, sound slumber, there are three things that are sure to wake me: my dog growling, the click of a doorknob turning open, and my phone going off. I don't always have my dog with me, and not all public places have doors with knobs. But I *always* have my trusty phone.

Now, there are lots of apps out there that take advantage of a smartphone's camera. There are apps for scanning barcodes, and apps for orienteering by comparing what the camera sees with photos of landmarks stored in a database. There's some really wicked sh** out there for smartphones! In my personal and professional opinion, my app is the wickedest of 'em all: iGuard.

iGuard utilizes a smartphone's camera to run the video recorder, without actually storing the images, and detect motion while you sleep. Simply plant yourself against a wall or large tree, tuck the phone in your shirt pocket with the camera aiming out, or stand it up on a stable surface a foot or two in front of you aimed at yourself, and drift off into dreamland. If motion is detected, it beeps at you to wake you up. If the phone itself is moved, it will also beep at you, triggered by the internal accelerometer that every decent smartphone has. That part is Baked already, but I would incorporate it into this app's design as well for the total security package. The only part I haven't figured out yet is how to preselect a desired distance range in which to detect the motion and alert you. I originally was thinking that a phone's camera would be blurry enough that it couldn't detect motion beyond a short distance, but I put it to the test, and my phone's camera seems to see an awfully long way... looking through it I can see almost as far as with my naked eye. Maybe it detects moving objects that fill a certain percentage of the screen?

Note: when searching for prior art, I noticed an idea in the same category called i-Witness that seems to use similar technology. They are not the same thing. i-Witness is a good idea, however, and I give it my full blessing, and a warm bun.