Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#1

Post by JeanMarcS » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 6:42 AM UTC

Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool
esa.int

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#2

Post by maartn » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:08 AM UTC

Wow! But which editor approved to place an iPhone while it’s only available for Android?

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#3

Post by DarthNebo » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:15 AM UTC

We don't even have apps to turn an Android/iOS device into a proper native webcam using UVC over USB2.0 & all attempts at RTSP/other sttreaming protocols just feel hacky & laggy.

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#4

Post by ochrist » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:15 AM UTC

Off-topic, but why are they showing a graphic of an iPhone, if it's an Android app? (on-topic: I'll install this and try it out)

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#5

Post by detaro » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:17 AM UTC

DarthNebo wrote: post #3

We don't even have apps to turn an Android/iOS device into a proper native webcam using UVC over USB2.0 & all attempts at RTSP/other sttreaming protocols just feel hacky & laggy.

and that's relevant how?

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#6

Post by feymese » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:28 AM UTC

DarthNebo wrote: post #3

We don't even have apps to turn an Android/iOS device into a proper native webcam using UVC over USB2.0 & all attempts at RTSP/other sttreaming protocols just feel hacky & laggy.

android dev here.

afaik newer device kernels in android implements f_uvc function for it's usb gadget interface but i'm not sure you can use this without root. so, apps can't create this functionality without root.

also i'm not sure it's works even apps can get root. i didn't tried yet because my phone not support f_uvc and released kernel sources sucks.

src: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+/android-5.0.2_...

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#7

Post by nomercy400 » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:33 AM UTC

The fact that they can use the delay of the satellite signal to predict rainfall, is pretty impressive. It immediately links this app to more data for weather prediction, which might lead to better weather predictions.

I wonder how they would measure that on an android phone. Does android expose such low-level delays to the user? Is this not handled by a GNSS chip in hardware, or the OS driver/kernel?

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#8

Post by peter_retief » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:33 AM UTC

Doesn't seem to be finding any data for me?

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#9

Post by michelreij » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:53 AM UTC

April fools joke?

Re: Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

#10

Post by mdrzn » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 7:53 AM UTC

Interesting project, can't wait to help ESA out a bit. Seems like the phone will just track the satellites via GPS, so it's not even that battery intensive. Overnight left charging could provide a lot of data. The fact that there's a leaderboard makes it even more gamified.