Homeland Security System Danny Butler EKU, Dept. of Technology.

Homeland Security System

Danny ButlerEKU, Dept. of Technology

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OUTLINE

Introduction of the Homeland Security System.

Behind the making of the Homeland Security System.

Simple instruction over the use of the system.

Potential future add-ins to the system.

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MOTIVATION The driving force behind the

homeland security system: The threat of theft or privacy

violation is always present, I decided to create something that alerts the end-user automatically of an intruder to provide peace of mind.

I was also just curious what, if anything, happened in my room when I was not there…

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INTRODUCTION Security has been an issue ever since people

began to collect things. The human emotion of jealousy can instigate activities of theft or sabotage.

Many great individual detectives, and agencies have arisen throughout the years to aid in the protection of our personal belongings: Nancy Drew, the Hardy boys, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Inspector Gadget…

and now we have Danny’s Homeland Security!

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The Goals of Danny’s Homeland Security

Everyone deserves a little confidence when it comes to protecting their things and themselves.

I feel that the average computer user should be capable of setting up their own home security system quickly and effectively.

To increase the ease of this usually complicated process, a number of features need to be incorporated in a pre-packaged system.

Also a zero maintenance/upkeep cost is appealing.

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The Making of:Danny’s Homeland Security

Identify the specific functions which a good security system will implement.

Research the topic. Hardware setup. Software setup. Testing & troubleshooting. Verifying results.

Specific Functions

List of features required for an effective surveillance system: The security system needs to create a

video of the intrusion. The security system needs to alert the

end-user of the intrusion in real time. The security system needs to save the

video to a location accessible anywhere by the end-user.

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Research Investigate other programs that are similar

in design and implementation. Determine what components will be needed

and how they will interact. Webcam. Motion detector (develop a hardware switch or

simulate through software.) Auto record video once motion is detected. E-mail the video File and send a text message.

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Hardware Setup

This step was very simple, I had shopped around for webcam and settled on the Logitech Orbit. One of the features that came with the webcam software was motion detection tied in with auto video recording.

Of course there are lists of other freeware programs I found through research that take pictures once movement have triggered the motion detection algorithms.

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Software Setup I did research into what programming language to use, I

discovered that I could achieve all of my requirements by using Visual Basic. (Plus I already had it installed.)

After a few trips to the internet I learned how to write using the system.net libraries, including .mail and .networkinformation. With these libraries I was able to write code to achieve the following:

Scan a selected folder and determine when a file has been written inside the folder. Once detected, the file pathname is saved to a variable.

This pathname is then passed to an e-mail writing function that attaches the file and sends an e-mail and text message

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Testing and Troubleshooting

I approached the testing process one function at a time in my code: I implemented a function, then tested it

independently. Once all of my functions worked separately I tied them

all together and tested how they worked as a program. The one significant problem encountered was

when g-mail changed the mail server welcome port number. However, I was able to quickly fix it after two or three google searches…

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Verifying Results

Simply put… It worked. I was able to receive text messages and check out video of my roommate taking some beer from my refrigerator while I was at work. (I told him he could… just not why…)

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Using the HomelandSecurity System

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Very easy to use: Set the webcam software to take videos of motion, point your webcam, enter your information, then activate your system. Now you have started protecting your things!

Using the HomelandSecurity System

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As you can see I have entered in my contact information, activated the system and now I am recording my movement to a video file.

Using the HomelandSecurity System

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Here is my e-mail message with the video attachment.

Using the HomelandSecurity System

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These are the snapshots of my text message corresponding with the last intrusion detection.

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RESULTS I have created a very

efficient security system that costs nothing and is portable from one computer to the next.

My belongings in my apartment are being watched!

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CONCLUSIONS

I designed and created my own security system that uses multiple steps to create one desired outcome.

I have, by accomplishing this challenge, gained more experience in researching Visual Basic’s .net libraries and the different functions they were designed to complete. I have, as a result of this, learned a lot more about Visual Basic programming.

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Potential Future Add-ins

The computer makes it possible to customize the security system to have more features than it currently possesses. Possible ideas include…

An audible alarm to deter the intruder. A picture snapshot sent to the user via attachment to

the text message. Increased scalability to include multiple cameras. Any other ideas from the audience?

~Fin~

Questions? Comments? Or, request your own copy of

Danny’s Homeland Security System!

Contact me at Danny_Butler18@eku.edu

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