iSpykee

Overview

To use iSpykee on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you must have a Spykee robot and you must run the "iSpykee Controller" software on your LAN. In general, the setup and installation of iSpykee involves two steps, as follows:

1. Install and configure the "iSpykee Controller" on a computer on the same LAN as your Spykee wi-fi robot.
2. Leave the "iSpykee Controller" running on your computer and navigate to the iSpykee site http://ispykee.com/ with Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Source code to the "iSpykee Controller" is provided. The iSpykee distribution includes a pre-built iSpykee application for Mac OS X to make it quick and easy to get started using iSpykee for end-users. For other platforms, you may have to build the software from source code and run it from the command-line.

Mac OS X

Download and Install the Mac OS X iSpykee distribution: iSpykee.dmg

Mount the iSpykee.dmg disk image and follow the instructions in the Readme to install the software based on your Mac CPU architecture (Intel or PPC).

Run the iSpykee application on your Mac.

Select "Preferences..." from the menu and enter the username/password required to connect to your Spykee robot (the same username/password that you use with the standard Spykee console app).

Also on the "Preferences..." screen, assign a name and password for your robot. This is the name and password you will use on your iPhone to select your robot with iSpykee.

You can also define the Folders that the "iSpykee Controller" will use to save "snapshot" images and Motion-detector images - or use the default locations.

Click "Save" to save the "Preferences..." settings.

Click "Start" in the main iSpykee window. You should see the IP address of your Spykee robot and some other messages scrolling by.

Now your LAN is ready to accept connections from iPhone users.

Connecting to your Spykee from the iPhone or iPod Touch

Connect to the http://ispykee.com/ site with Safari on your iPhone.

Touch "Connect to Spykee" and when prompted, enter the robot name and password you specified above in the "iSpykee Controller" settings.

This will take you to the live connection screen for your Spykee robot.

	Webcam & Mover: Shows the picture of what Spykee is seeing. Updates automatically. Press the image to activate the "mover ring" which appears superimposed over the live image - the location of your touch sets the motion, left, right, forward, back. Each left or right movement is always in a fixed amount with each touch and release. Forward and backward movements are at the current speed and continue until you lift your finger or up to a maximum duration.
	Speed: Click on the speed dial to set the robot speed from fastest to slowest.
	Battery Level: Indicates the charge state of the Spykee battery. Touch the battery level indicator to begin (or cancel) self-docking.
	LED: Click to turn on and off Spykee's headlight.
	Surveillance: Click to activate "Surveillance" mode - motion detection.
	Snapshot: Click to take a snapshot of what Spykee sees.
	Resolution: Click to activate "low-resolution" mode - views will be of poorer quality, but much smaller in size. This mode is helpful when connected on a slow connection.

Notes for using iSpykee on Edge or 3G

There is a delay of approximately 3-5 seconds caused by these slower connections. Therefore, when using iSpykee while connected via Edge or 3G, get used to pressing an action and then waiting 3-5 seconds for it to respond. This is especially true of moving the robot. We suggest holding the "move-ring" and counting to 3 and then releasing it and counting to 5 to wait for the new view to update. Repeated actions, done in rapid succession will just frustrate you. Use the above "low res" mode for improved response.

Windows XP/Vista

Download the spykeewin.zip pre-built binary ZIP archive.

Step 1: Extract the spykeewin.zip file somewhere to create a 'spykee' directory

Step 2: Open a command window and cd to the spykee directory

Step 3: execute the 'spykee' command:

spykee username password botname botpassword

Username/password must be a username and password of the bot as used on the normal Spykee console to login to Spykee

Botname/botpassword are a name for your Spykee robot and a passaord that you wish to use when using iSpyee from an iPhone. These can be any names you wish - we suggest using lowercase letters only. Whatever you use here must be what you use when connecting from the iPhone.

Step 4: now your Spykee is ready for connections from iPhone. Open http://ispykee.com in your iPhone Safari browser.

Linux/Unix

The "iSpykee Controller" is a command-line tool available in C source code. It uses common Berkeley sockets and POSIX libraries and has been tested on Mac OS X and Linux. It should build without difficulty on most Linux/UNIX systems. See: Command-line Usage for further details.