Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Computer Science

Supervisor

Haque, Anwar

Abstract

Being an all-in-one gadget, smartphones play a vital role in our everyday lives. However, millions of people suffer every year by losing their phones. A lost phone creates a huge security threat and data loss possibility to the users. Some preventive measures are available to protect from unauthorized access. Moreover, there are some post-loss solutions to track down, retrieve data from a lost locked phone, and protect the privacy and security of lost phone data, but those have some drawbacks as well. Considering the situation, our proposed system offers a preventive solution which will protect the smartphones from getting lost. Our system involves a smartwatch which will be connected to smartphone via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and keep track of the distance between the smartphone and the smartwatch worn by user in real-time. The system will be able to identify if the distance goes beyond 20 feet or a customizable distance given by the user and immediately raise an alert in the smartwatch, creating vibration and sound in public places. The system allows users to mark their safe location (e.g., house, office) and radius where their smartphone will be safe, and they don’t need alerts. We have developed 3 different models to implement this system with different approaches using Ranging, Haversine formula and Geofencing. For our work, we aim to perceive how accurate our models are in terms of calculating distance and safe location tracking as well as alert response time and models impact on battery life of both smartphone and smartwatch. We have developed an Android application and a smartwatch application that run on both smartwatch and smartphone for each model and compared their performances based on our evaluation parameters. We conducted experiments under various real-world conditions and the system incorporated with Model 1 can generate alert with 96% accuracy when user is away from the smartphone beyond the threshold distance in an unsafe location. This affordable solution will ensure prevention from smartphones getting lost in public places in an effective way securing confidentiality and data protection to users.

Summary for Lay Audience

With the advancement of technology, nowadays, people are highly dependent on their smartphone. From personal information to confidential information, people store most of the important and essential information on their smartphones. However, people tend to lose their smartphones being inattentive and leaving their smartphones behind in a public place. Losing their smartphone creates a big financial loss as well as data loss. If there existed a device that could provide alert to the user in case they unintentionally left their phone in a public location, it would prevent the user from losing their smartphones. In this study, we began by analyzing various existing solutions developed by other researchers for smartphone loss prevention systems which provides alert to the users in case they leave their phone. By examining existing solutions, we identify potential research gaps in existing smartphone loss prevention systems and addressing those research gaps implemented a wearable solution for smartphone loss prevention system. We present a system that provides alert to the user when the user goes beyond a pre-set distance threshold (set by the user) from the user’s smartphone. In addition, the system doesn’t provide the alert when the user is in a safe location saved by the user, rather provide alert in unsafe locations. We implemented the system on smartwatch and an Android User Interface using three different models applying different technologies and techniques to provide solution to the users. We have tested all three of the solutions under various real-world conditions to determine which solution provide more accurate and efficient results. In our testing, we demonstrated that the system could successfully provide alert to the users in case they leave their phone behind in an unsafe location.

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