UnKnock

• 

  Main screen listening for patterns

• 

  Screen for recording the pattern to be used as key

What it does

UnKnock allows the user to use a secret knock pattern to unlock their phone. The app lets you set a secret knock and use that as a key to access your device.

How we built it

The project was built entirely in Android Studio. The scripts were written in Java and the layouts used XML. The knocks are registered by the device's built-in accelerometer and are processed by a statistical algorithm which detects how similar the recorded and measured patterns are.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenge was the security measures in Android that prevented us from accessing and overriding features of the operating system that would have made the app much more immersive. We had to get very creative to figure out alternatives to the features we needed and find loopholes so that we can make a _ security _ app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The algorithm works with fairly good accuracy and precision.

What we learned

We learned that many security features are hard to implement in an environment like Android Studio because of privacy and security concerns from Google.

What's next for UnKnock

In the future, we could disable the ability of the user to minimize the app by using Kiosk mode in Android. We can also create a password bypass feature, so if the accelerometer crashes or if the user forgets the secret knock they can still unlock their phone. The initial idea behind this hack was for it to be a multi-purpose tool controlled solely by the accelerometer. We could expand upon that and improve the current code to be able to pinpoint the origin of knocks.

Built With

• android-studio
• java
• xml