Finding that silent cell now made easy

Students of GSSS Institute of Technology for Women - Akshatha A M, Namitha J and Pooja C M - have designed the Mobile Access Controller Software (MACS) to detect your cellular phone even if it’s on silent mode.

Once MACS is installed on your phone, a pre-defined SMS to the ‘lost mobile’ from any other cellphone will initiate a wailing alarm - similar to a siren - helping the user to locate the missing mobile.

Guided by their lecturer, Ravi Kurapati of the Information Science Department, the trio designed the application on a Windows mobile. They believe that the application can be designed for any phone, not necessarily a smartphone.

Forgot to take your mobile?

Interestingly, the application is also helpful if you’ve forgotten to take your mobile and need a telephone number stored in your cellphone. All you need to do is send an SMS from another phone with the name of the contact whose number you want and a prefixed security code.

The application retrieves the contact and sends the phone number through an SMS. If you’ve spelt the name wrong, then a reply ‘Invalid contact’ arrives on your phone.

Panic alert

Adding edge to their application is the ‘Panic Alert’. If a user is in trouble or ill and wants to contact his/her family, a ‘panic icon’ is created when the application is installed on the Windows mobile. Immediately, SMSes with the message ‘Pls help me’ are sent to three prefixed numbers.

The application also performs other wonders such as giving you a list of missed calls and unread messages that have come to your phone, if you forgot to take it with you. It also stores a back-up of entire contact list on your email.

The trio say their next aim is to develop a software to keep reminders of birthdays, anniversaries and send matching messages to the respective people.