VB + Home Security...What?!

You can use this for many "advanced cases" Like

Add email sending (which can also be used to send a text message) when your security is breeched

or use it the concept to

Connect it to telephony so it calls you (or use SIP trunks)
Connect it to an answering machine so when it hears "please leave a message" it sends you a text message or records the message onto the harddrive and emails it to you (yes all these features exist in technology today....but DIY for less, is so much more fun)

Earlier a question was asked in regards to sending speech through a program without using the very popular "Microphone to speaker method", and it reminded me of something I did at a younger age with much less knowledge of Visual Basic.

Consider this a Crash Course/Tut/Vb Related Story

Background Story(shows you my mindset for the idea)

When I was much younger I used to always get Spy Tech for my B-day, even at a young age I had a huge interest in small gadgets and their abilities.

I was about 19, maybe 18 when I stumbled across Speech SDK for Visual Basic (in this case, it was VB6) and I had downloaded a copy of this SDK, and trying to learn it played with the Basic Command (that came with the suite) The commands that were built in where nothing more then colors, (blue green and yellow) when you said a color, it will display the text of what color you said on the screen, at this point I was "amazed" I remember seeing a Qbasic program that listened for happy or sad and displayed a facial expression of which one you said or , this was far beyond that..... So I began playing around and adding audible responses to the commands using the speechtotext control, and it opened a new door (for me anyway)

One day I was out shopping at the local (moy's Are muff's, <---Sound it out, you will know which store im talking about (without advertising))And I came across a Spy Gear (not Spy tech...) Toy Called "Tracking Device" I was astonished..... $49.99 for a tracking device.......... I can place it in someones pocket and follow them.....? SOLD!!!! I said to myself as I went to the register... I got home, Opened the box, and found three small round devices...."Oh My God" I thought to myself... "How cool is this" then I peeled away that annoying piece of cardboard that separates the small things from the big things, I opened it up and found...... A Plastic Case.....(yes I had a wild imagination) in this plastic case was a marker, a plastic grid and a speaker. It was nothing more then cheap motion detectors..."What a rip off"I thought... I have to draw a diagram of my "parameter" and place these around the "parameter" and listen for "Motion Detected in Sector #" (and mark each sector on this grid ...with a marker...) How stupid was that, I could have went to my local "Radio Dwelling" (<---- You should know what that is...without me having to advertise the company) and picked up state of the art motion detectors with longer range for a few dollars more...I was livid (as I could be as it was my silly mistake)

So I thought to myself, What can I do to make this "worth" the investment, and almost immediately, I came up with the following Idea (Do it for fun).

Again, I am going by memory, I don't remember the code, but if you decide you want to do this "Cheap trick" it is not hard to figure out from my instructions.

So here is what you will need.

A Old Version Spy Gear "TRACKING DEVICE"



You may be able to use the newer model (I'm not sure if it speaks, I assume it does)



A Attenuating Dubbing Cord with 1/8" Phone Plugs (available for $4.99USD at your local "Radio Dwelling"



Note the Attenuating cable is very important, You can not just use speaker wire or mic wire, It will not work .

Microsoft Speech SDK 4

and VB6 (or upgrade the concept to vb.net, doesn't matter, just use SDK 5)

Ok here is the process as detailed as I can be

• Install SDK4
  
• Run VB6
  
• Open the Example with Speech SDK Suite4 called Basic Command
  
• Add a TextToSpeech Control
  
• Remove the commands for Colors and replace them with

"Movement Detected in Sector one"
"Movement Detected in Sector two"
"Movement Detected in Sector three"

• Create a Photoshop Mockup of your Parameter (House or whatever)
  
• Add this newly created Mockup to your Form
  
• Now add 3 more image boxes (pictureboxes) to your form placing them on your mockup in the same approx location as your 3 detectors.
  
• Set the visibility on all of them to false.
  
• Now Unscrew your "Tracking Device Box"
  
• Carefully remove the speaker leaving the ground and speaker wire intact (be careful, use tools to snip the wires at the base of the speaker....)
  
• Now trim the input end off one side of the Attenuating cable
  
• Strip the wire to expose the ground wire and speaker/mic wire
  
• Connect the wires to the appropriate place (white = speaker/Mic , Uncoated = ground)
  
• Solder or black tape these wires for a more permanent attachment (you can just twist and use hot glue to mount it down .....if you like)
  
• Re-screw your box closed (make room for the wire through the speaker hole or cut out a notch in the base of the box)
  
• Connect the other input into the mic input of your computer.
  
• Now when your "Tracker" detects movement , It will be sent to your computer and your computer will "hear" "Motion detected in sector one" and so forth . (or if your mic is unmuted and speakers are detected the alert will be transmitted through your speakers ( I don't suggest this method"
  
• Create the code now

In VB create the code which listens for the phrases mentioned above and makes visible the invisible image boxes plus says whatever you want it to say.

Again, this is more of a crash course, If you want a real step by step, PM me, and I will try and redo everything step by step and get images etc.

If you do it, Have fun. . . . .

Note: I remember a redundancy in the audio , When it hears itself it keeps repeating the message" the way to fix this is to listen for "motion detected in sector one" have the texttospeech say something other then that like, "Movement has been detected" and make the picture box visible. otherwise it will keep hearing motion detected in sector one.