Video Watcher

This app turns your Android phone into a sound-activated video recording device.

To use it you need only to select an appropriate noise level (in decibels) that will trigger the recording function, find a good place to locate the phone, and then click Tap To Start.

The default noise level setting is 65 db, about equivalent to a low conversation across a room. By tapping the drop-down menu, you can choose another setting as required.

If the decibel threshhold is set too sensitive (low) then the many recordings will eventually fill the space on the phone's internal memory. Always set it for the maximum level which suits your needs.

The phone should be laying on its left edge, with the back facing the area to be watched.

The app is designed to make no noise and to block the tendency of the phone to go to sleep.

It does not require that the phone charger be plugged in, although that might be a good idea if the phone is not being hidden somewhere.

The first clip is not recorded but it just used to help set up the camera angle.

The video recordings are 30 seconds in length and there is a 3 second gap before the next one begins to allow time to save the file.

After a recording clip is completed, its name is added to the top of the list on the lower drop-down menu. Therefore the most recent file is always at the top and moving down the list shows older recordings.

The file names have four parts, separated by dashes. The first is the hour, the second the minutes and the third the second on which the recording ended. The fourth number which is followed by 'db' is the maximum decibel level of the recording.

You can delete all the recordings by tapping Delete All. You are then prompted Confirm? to make sure that you really want to do that. Tap this again and all those files will be removed from the phone memory and from the dropdown menu list. (You also have the option of deleting a single recording selected from the drop-down menu.)

To stop the app while it is recording, wait for the gap between recordings and then click the button on the main page labelled Tap To Stop.

To replay a file, select it from the menu list and tap Replay. This sends you to a another page with a view window where your selection will start.

On this second page, there are three buttons. On the left is the Replay button whiere the name of the file playing will be displayed. To replay this same recording, tap this left-most button.

The middle button on the Play page would start the recording that was prior to the one you just viewed. This might not be for the time just beforehand, depending if there was any noise then, but for the interval prior during which a noise was detected.

The rightmost button on the Play page deletes the file which you have just viewed.