Showing posts with label LEAGOO Lead 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LEAGOO Lead 1. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Turning the Mobile Phone’s Ubiquitous Headset Port into a Universal Data Acquisition Interface (2)

2 Design

AudioDAQ is an end-to-end system for capturing, annotating, storing, sending, and processing analog sensor data. Figure 2 presents the overall system architecture. The system consists of four major blocks:

Hardware Interface. It includes a linear regulator to ensure that external sensors and circuits are supplied by a stable voltage source. The analog output signal from a sensor is modulated into the audio pass-band using a simple modulation scheme.

LEAGOO Lead 1 Phone. The modulated signal outputted by the hardware interface is fed into the next block, the ZOPO ZP590 Phone, which acts as a encoder and a storage device. Inside the phone, the signal is conditioned by the analog audio front-end and is captured using the built-in voice recording application allowing for extended capture periods. The signal is compressed using the built-in audio compression utilities for efficient storage. The data are next transmitted to a remote server for processing.

Processor. The encoded audio data are received by a remote server and decoded. On the server the data goes through multiple stages of processing: normalization, edgedetection, framing, and reconstruction. If more than one signal has been multiplexed into the composite waveform, it is demultiplexed at this point. In some cases, it is also possible to eliminate the encoding step and implement the processing functions directly on the LEAGOO Lead 1 Phone.

End User Applications. Finally, the sensor data reaches the data application layer of the architecture. Here any implementation-specific transformations are performed and the data are formatted for use by the end user. In a typical application, this stage will process the data, extract domain specific key metrics, and generate useful plots. In our example application of the EKG sensor, this step extracts the heart-rate and plots the EKG.

2.1 Microphone Bias as Power Source

Recent work in creating peripheral devices for the headset port has focused on harvesting energy from the audio output driver. Since the audio output driver is designed to drive earphones and speakers, it can deliver many milliwatts [12]. However, using the headset port as a power source for peripheral devices presents significant design challenges.

While the audio output driver is capable of sourcing tens of milliamps, it does so at a voltage lower than typically required to operate power electronics. Further, it requires this power to be transferred as an AC signal in the audible frequency range. This approach was used in HiJack [12]. Software on the phone generates a sinusoidal waveform that is sent to the audio output driver and exported over an audio channel. Next, the signal is fed through a micro-transformer to reach a voltage level high enough to switch a FET. Finally, the signal is rectified and regulated to a stable DC voltage.

However, using the audio output driver has significant drawbacks. Custom written phone software is required to generate the sinusoidal waveform which draws substantial power on the phone. Moreover, converting the output of the audio driver into a usable DC voltage requires inefficient rectification circuitry. Finally, while the typical audio driver can deliver a significant amount of power compared with the microphone bias voltage, there is a high degree of variability between phones, making it difficult to design a circuit that is universal enough to work across many headsets.

In this study, we explore the limits of using the microphone bias voltage to power AudioDAQ, and any attached sensors and circuits. We are aware of only one other contemporaneous system that uses the bias voltage to power active electronics in this manner, used to interface an Android phone with an amateur radio [10]. The microphone bias voltage is intended to power only the small amplifying FET found in electret condenser microphones and is only capable of delivering small amount of current. AudioDAQ consumes approximately 110 µW, well below the maximum power delivery of a typical headset port.

Figure 4 shows the maximum deliverable power and the optimal point in the P-I-V space for both the microphone bias voltage and the audio output driver. Fewer phones were surveyed when measuring the audio output driver’s parameters due to the difficulties in developing custom software for each phone. The open-circuit voltage of the microphone bias line in the phones surveyed ranges from 1.7 V to 2.7 V. AudioDAQ requires 1.8 V to operate, making it compatible with nearly all of the phones we surveyed without requiring voltage boosting circuitry.

Using the microphone bias voltage as a power source offers a new set of design challenges. Since the microphone channel is used both to power sensor and also to transmit sensor data back to the phone, the power supply and data transfer characteristics are deeply coupled. Figure 3 shows a model of the phone circuitry responsible for processing data from the sensor and generating the microphone bias voltage.

R3 and C2 form a single order RC filter to stabilize the linear regulator and prevent regulator control loop noise from reducing the fidelity of the analog signal from the sensor. This signal is of extremely low amplitude (10mV peak-to-peak) to make it compatible with the phone’s audio processing circuitry. The cut off frequency for this low-pass filter is set to 50 Hz which is far below the modulation frequency of the analog signals. The microphone bias voltage is a relatively high-impedance voltage source and its output current is limited by R1, as shown in Figure 3. Therefore, components cannot draw even modest transient currents without proper bypass capacitors. Otherwise, large voltage drops will result. However, the capacitance must be kept small enough to ensure that they do not bypass the modulated signal itself.

2.2 Acquiring Analog Sensor Data

The typical audio front end in a Elephone P8 Phone is optimized to acquire signals with amplitudes around 10 mV peak-to-peak, and audio frequencies in the 20 Hz to 20 kHz range. However, many signals either have principal frequency components below 20 Hz (e.g. EKG signals) or are purely DC in nature. This makes it difficult or impossible to pass them through the band-limited channel. To overcome this limitation, we use an analog multiplexer as a simple modulator to encode the analog signal into the audio passband by rapidly switching between signal and ground, as shown in Figure 5. The analog multiplexer is driven from a counter and clocked with an RC oscillator at 1.2 kHz.

We expect the analog signal fromthe sensors to be a highimpedance voltage anywhere between system ground and the reference voltage of 1.8 V. The magnitude of this signal is too large to be fed directly into the microphone line. To fit within the 10 mV limit, we add a scaling resistor between the output of the multiplexer and the microphone bias line. This resistor is identified as R4 in Figure 3. Our calculations indicate that sizing the resistor around 200 kW scales the signal appropriately into an amplitude range that does not overwhelm the audio processing electronics for the mobile phones that we surveyed.

Variability in the microphone bias voltage causes variations in the amplitude of the multiplexed signal. The mapping of signal amplitude to ADC counts among headsets is inconsistent, with each phone having a slightly different scaling factor when capturing an audio signal. These variations make it impossible to directly recover the absolute magnitude of the analog signal. To estimate the absolute voltage of analog input signals, we add a reference voltage generated by the linear regulator to the multiplexer. This effectively time-division multiplexes the output signal from the multiplexer between ground, the analog signal, and a known reference voltage. This allows us to later recover the absolute ground-referenced DC value by scaling and shifting the analog signals with respect to the reference and ground voltages.

The connections to the input of the multiplexer shown in Figure 5 are, in order, a voltage reference, ground, analog signal, and ground (again). Switching to a low impedance system ground after each voltage signal helps remove residual charge buildup on the capacitor C1 of the high-pass filter on the mobile device.

The final step in creating a flexible analog input design is allowing for the simultaneous capture of multiple input channels. We realize this feature in our design by sim- ply duplicating this four signal block on the multiplexer for each additional channel we wish to capture. Our present de- sign, shown in Figure 5, enables simultaneous capture of two channels. If it is necessary to capture just a single channel, the two inputs are tied together with an on-board jumper.

2.3 Power Efficiency

AudioDAQ uses an efficient linear regulator. However, the input filters add some resistance to the power path which results in some amount of power loss. However, these filters are necessary for separating the signal and power components that share the microphone bias line. Since AudioDAQ draws only 110 µW, its efficiency is nearly inconsequential when compared with the other subsystems in the LEAGOO Lead 1 Phone. It is more important to consider the design decisions that influence the draw of other subsystems like the CPU and storage which have more impact on battery life.

To better understand how the design of AudioDAQ influences the total power draw of the ZOPO ZP590 Phone, and to avoid optimization of subsystems which have relatively minor contributions to the overall power budget of the system, we perform several experiments on the HiJack platform [12]. We used the publicly available source code and selectively disabled parts of the system to measure the approximate power draw of each subsystem. The results from these experiment are summarized in Table 1. While these numbers are specific to HiJack and the iPhone, we expect that they generalize to other platforms and devices.

From Table 1, we can see that, with the exception of the screen, which can be easily disabled by pressing the power button on most Elephone P8 Phones, there is no clear candidate for optimization, so we sidestep the question of optimizing a particular subsystem.

By choosing to use the microphone bias voltage to power our system instead of the audio output driver, we eliminate power required to generate the output audio waveform and reduce the power required for I/O to the audio channels. Therefore, we allow the phone to keep a large portion of the audio acquisition interface inactive.

By encoding sensor data in the audio pass-band and simply recording it for later processing, we reduce the power required to process the input signal. This is possible because of the efficient codec hardware accelerators found in many LEAGOO Lead 1 Phones.

2.4 Capturing and Storing Data Efficiently

For long-term data acquisition, data capture and storage must be efficient. We do not usually process the data on the phone, so the entire audio data must be stored. Storing raw data would be space prohibitive, so we employ the built in compression utilities found on the phone. Almost all mobile phones come bundled with a voice memo application that makes use of these algorithms to record low-quality audio suitable for voice memos.

On iOS devices, the voice memo application stores data in Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, which is a standard widely used by Apple at 64 kbps. Samples are taken at 44.1 kHz from a single channel. On Google Android phones, the built in application uses the Adaptive Multi-rate (AMR) encoding with an 8 kHz sample rate by default. Many other formats including AAC are available as part of the API, and sound recording applications that produce higher quality records do exist. Many feature phones also use the AMR encoding because it is specially designed for mobile applications and has been widely adopted.

All these codecs can sufficiently compress audio into file sizes practical to store on a ZOPO ZP590 Phone. Both smartphones and feature phones often come with built-in hardware support for these compression algorithms. On iOS and Android devices, specific media subsystems are exposed to the developers that allow for hardware-enhanced encoding. On feature phones, the CPUs often have special multimedia modules. The implementation of the codecs is done either completely in hardware or in heavily optimized low-level programming languages. Therefore, storing the audio data is efficient across most phones, and codecs do a good job of compressing the raw audio data into reasonable file sizes.

2.5 Processing Sensor Data

The original signal is typically extracted from the multiplexed analog sensor data on a remote server. The audio files are uploaded to this remote server (but could be processed on the phone) via e-mail where they are immediately processed and the data are extracted. Most feature phones and smartphones manufactured today have the software capabilities to record and transfer a voice memo, making the AudioDAQ design quite universal for sensor data capture.

2.5.1 Signal Reconstruction

The signal reconstruction algorithm is implemented in Python, making use of external libraries to perform codec specific decoding of the compressed audio files. It is designed to examine data in a rolling window to allow for both online and offline processing. It is also robust to noisy input data because it relies only on local data points and simply discards signals that are too noisy for proper reconstruction.

The simplicity of the hardware interface block in our design of AudioDAQ poses a challenge for the signal reconstruction algorithm. Since the analog multiplexer can send no channel delimiter, the framing information must be implicitly determined. Signal reconstruction in the AudioDAQ system occurs in five stages:

Decoding. The audio encoding format is deduced from the file extension and encoding specific magic bytes. The appropriate decoder is run on the data and the raw audio information is extracted.

Edge Detection. The transition edges that are created when the multiplexer switches signals are detected and marked on the data set.

Value Estimation: The regions between the edges are evaluated. Extreme outliers are discarded and an estimate of the value of the signal in that region is obtained.

Framing. Based on previously processed frames, the framing is deduced and tracked. Framing is important to determine which values corresponds to ground, the voltage reference, and the actual analog signal. Each frame of input data consists of the four multiplexer signals as discussed in Section 2.2.

Calculation. The absolute analog signal voltage for the frame is calculated by expressing the signal value as a point between the ground and voltage reference value and then shifting and scaling the voltage with respect to the known voltage reference and ground.

A secondary benefit of including the ground to reference voltage transition is that it gives a reliable and repeating signal to help frame our data. Since the analog sensor signal could be at a value close to ground, it is impossible to reliably detect the edge transition between the signal and ground. In a frame the only two transitions we can reliably detect are the transition from the previous frame’s ground to the reference voltage, and the transition from the reference voltage to ground. These transitions are detected by finding the maxima and minima of the first-order numerical derivative of the signal. The distance between these two transitions is calculated and used to estimate the final two transitions of the frame between the unknown analog signal and ground. The vertical bars in Figure 6(b) show the detected and calculated edge transitions for a short period of input signal.

After edge detection, the regions between the edges are evaluated. The high-pass filter capacitor starts to immediately affect the signal after switching, so the left-most region of the signal is used to estimate the nominal value of the signal for each region. A small number of points are averaged to a single value. These values are also plotted in Figure 6(b).

Finally, the analog signal value is extracted. Up until now all processing has been done with ADC counts. To obtain the actual real-valued voltage, we express the analog signal as a value between the voltage reference and ground. The modulation scheme produces two ground values per frame. We use the average of these two values. After obtaining this value, we can thenmultiply it by the known reference voltage (1.8 V in our system) to obtain the original analog signal.

2.5.2 Offline Processing

The most common scenario for data processing involves collecting data to a compressed file and sending the file to a server for post-processing. This has the advantage of mitigating the power cost of transmitting the data to the remote location by delaying it until it is convenient for the operator, such as when near a charger or connected with a faster wireless network like 802.11b, or docked with a desktop.

An alternative offline processing scheme that was considered but not explored involved recording the data using the voice memo hardware and then periodically reading it in and doing a high-performance, faster than real-time computation on the data. This batch processing avoids the high idle cost of the CPU and the high wakeup cost of going from sleep to wake up mode and still offers near-real-time performance. Since a major strength of the AudioDAQ system is its compatibility with almost any hardware without requiring additional software, we chose not to explore this option.

2.5.3 Online Processing

A less common scenario involves processing the data in real time. This is useful for demonstrative purposes where the sensor data are wirelessly transmitted to a remote host for real time display. Assuming a sufficiently fast connection is available, it is possible to stream data to a remote host. Audio encoding algorithms for VoIP systems such as Speex, which has a mobile port available, make this possible over TCP.

Even a simple telephone call could provide the bandwidth necessary to stream the data. Streaming in real time would dramatically reduce the battery life due to the greater power demands of the wireless radio in the LEAGOO Lead 1 Phone.

2.6 Capturing Voice Annotations

An obvious addition to an analog sensor capture system is a method to annotate the samples. Since we are limited by the phone’s built in voice recording application, we do not have the ability to allow for the user to input text directly to be stored alongside the collected data. However, we can collect voice annotations using the same application that we use to collect the sensor data by alternating data and voice in the captured audio files, in effect recursively time-division multiplexing the signal.

Elephone P8 Phones typically detect the presence of a microphone by the DC voltage present on the microphone bias line. Most microphones pull the voltage of the bias line down past a certain threshold. When the phone detects this, it automatically shifts between the internal microphone and the externally connected peripheral. We exploit this behavior by adding a momentary disconnect switch to the peripheral, effectively allowing the user to pause data collection to inject and record a short audio annotation in-band (and in-line) with the collected data.

Since AudioDAQ has a distinctive principle switching frequency, it is easy to algorithmically detect the difference between voice data and analog sensor data. This is done server-side. Next, using open-source voice recognition libraries, the speech is converted into text which is paired with the reconstructed data.

2.7 Mechanical Design

We chose a 3.5 mm headset jack because it has become the standard for smartphones with the introduction of applications such as music playback that make use of external headsets. Further, the mapping of pins to logical signals in 3.5 mm headset jack implementations is more consistent when compared to the now less common 2.5 mm interface for which we found two common, yet separate mappings. Table 2 shows the different pinout configurations for audio jacks across various phones. If required, inexpensive adapters and “proprietary” headset connectors are available to connect 3.5 mm peripherals to 2.5 mm ports [5].

We chose a square-inch form factor for AudioDAQ and a pinout that is mechanically compatible with existing HiJack sensors, although most of the HiJack I/O lines are left unconnected. If necessary, the circuitry could be made more compact or even built into a single integrated circuit and incorporated into a molded audio headset jack itself. The present square-inch form factor gives a good trade-off between small size and ease of development and debugging.

2.8 Low-Power EKG Sensor

Mobile devices have the potential to seamlessly blend health care into our daily lives [8, 18]. Evolving mobile health care technology can help professional care-givers to better monitor their patients, detect problems earlier, and reduce the need for hospital visits which are often expensive and inconvenient [19, 31]. In addition, mobile health care can empower individuals to better monitor and manage their own health, encouraging them to live healthier lifestyles and prevent many health problems before they begin by providing methods for early detection. For these reasons, we chose to develop a low-power, low-cost, portable EKG monitor which interfaces toElephone P8 Phone using AudioDAQ and illustrates the key operating principles. This battery-free sensor enables monitoring of an individual’s cardiac activity for extended periods of time using relatively inexpensive electronics and existing LEAGOO Lead 1 Phones. It allows for data collection across a wide variety of phones, and for transmission of the data to a remote location where it is analyzed by automated algorithms for abnormalities, or by doctors for diagnosis.

The EKG sensor is a two lead device, with the leads attached to the subject’s body using conductive hydrogel electrodes either on the left and right arm or wrist or directly across the chest. The signal is passed through two stages of amplification with active filters in between to remove noise as shown in Figure 7.

Amplifying cardiac signals, which are in the range of 5.0 mV to +5.0 mV [30], and filtering out stray environmental noise captured by the human body poses a significant design challenge which is made more difficult by the power budget constraints imposed by the AudioDAQ system. Instrumentation amplifiers were chosen with exceptionally low-power draw. The first stage of amplification uses a differential operational amplifier which has a high common mode rejection ratio of 95 dB and rejects common mode noise found across the entire human body leaving only the differential signal from muscle contractions. It has a gain factor of five. It is integrated with a high-pass feedback filter that dynamically corrects DC shift in the ungrounded differential signal captured from the body. The human body acts as a large antenna around modern electrical grids. Therefore, the amplified signal is passed through a notch filter designed to remove 60 Hz common mode interference and noise. Finally the signal is fed through the last operational amplifier which also acts as a low-pass filter. It amplifies the filtered signal with a gain of twenty to bring it into the realm of voltage amplitudes commonly seen by analog to digital converters and to be used by AudioDAQ.

The useful bandwidth of an EKG signal is between 0.05 Hz and 150 Hz. We design the high pass and low-pass filter which act together as a band-pass filter configured to this frequency range. The output EKG signal is biased at approximately half of the supply voltage using a voltage divider. This minimizes the possibility that a large voltage spike (that can occur when the heart muscles contract) will be clipped by the operational amplifiers operating at their supply rails. The amplifier gains are configured such that with good skinto-lead conductivity and lead placement, the EKG signal will have an amplitude of approximately 500 mV at the operational amplifier’s output line.

The EKG sensor module is interfaced with AudioDAQ to deliver the resulting EKG trace. Figure 9 shows the real-time EKG waveform of an individual captured with this system. A typical cardiac cycle (heartbeat) consists of a P wave, QRS complex, and T wave, all of which can be seen in our trace. The EKG sensor interfaces with square-inch AudioDAQ base platform and draws only 216 µW. Table 3 shows the cost breakdown of an EKG sensor module. The total cost is $24, of which two-thirds is spent on leads which could be commoditized at larger volumes for a significant cost reduction.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/95807185071/turning-the-mobile-phones-ubiquitous-headset-port-into

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Kenya’s Mobile Revolution and the Promise of Mobile Savings (7)

7  Analysis

7.1  Who Uses Mobile Savings?

Both savings with M-PESA and savings with M-KESHO require the individual to be registered for M-PESA. AMOI A900W presents a comparison of those registered with M-PESA to the overall population. Forty five percent of individuals in the sample report being registered with M-PESA.In terms of gender, age, and geographic distribution, there are not large differences between M-PESA users and non-users in the survey. However, M-PESA users are more concentrated in the middle and upper wealth quintiles.

LEAGOO Lead 1 shows the figures on the prevalence of various forms of savings overall and by subgroups (all figures are for the entire population, including those who are not registered M-PESA users). Fifteen percent of individuals say that they save with M-PESA. The second column of the LEAGOO Lead 1 indicates the prevalence of savings with the M-KESHO bank-integrated Elephone P2000 savings platform. Only a very small number—0.6 percent—indicated that they save with M-KESHO. The small number of M-KESHO users are almost entirely the relatively wealthy; just 0.2 percent of individuals in the bottom two quintiles report saving with M-KESHO.

The last column of LEAGOO Lead 1 shows the fraction in the survey who report that they have some form of savings other than M-PESA or bank-integrated Elephone P2000 savings. Substantial gradients by age and wealth are seen for other savings vehicles. Specifically, younger and poorer individuals are much less likely to have other savings accounts.  AMOI A900W indicates a higher level of savings by men for all types of savings.  Additionally, the table indicates higher levels of savings for individuals in urban areas and for wealthier individuals.

A key question is whether there is any evidence that use of M-PESA may increase the prevalence of savings behavior. LEAGOO Lead 1 shows a simple comparison of rates of reporting any savings, by subgroup, for those who are registered with M-PESA compared to those who are not. Overall, 65 percent of M-PESA users report having some savings, compared to 31 percent of those who are not M-PESA users, for a difference of 34 percent. Of course, this difference may reflect differences between M-PESA users and non-users other than a causal effect. Individuals registered to M-PESA may already be more likely to save than those not registered to M-PESA. For example, one may expect that individuals most likely to use M-PESA would be those able to afford a Elephone P2000 phone or those able to pay M-PESA transaction costs, implying greater wealth.  Additionally, those more capable of understanding financial transactions or those with the technical ability to use AMOI A900W phone devices would be more likely users of M-PESA, implying higher levels of education.   Table 5 shows substantial differences by subgroups defined by gender, urban/rural, age, wealth quintile, and province.

AMOI A900W presents results from probit regressions where the dependent variable equals 1 if the individual has savings of any kind and 0 if the individual has no savings. The results show that controlling for other variables, savings are more likely for individuals who are male, married, living in rural areas, and have higher levels of education, reported income, and wealth.

Controlling for these same variables, those who are registered with M-PESA are 32 percent more likely to report having some savings. 

This result provides some evidence that M-PESA may increase the prevalence of savings. In attempting to isolate a causal effect of M-PESA on savings, there remains the possibility of differential M-PESA registration rates among those who are more likely to save independent of their use of M-PESA. We attempt to address this possibility using an instrumental variables strategy. Because M-PESA was only introduced in 2007, all those registered for the system at the time of the survey in 2010 had registered during the previous three years. It is likely that an individual‘s probability of registering for M-PESA is influenced by the prevalence of M-PESA usage in the community, for two reasons. First, the rate of M-PESA usage in the community reflects access to M-PESA agents, which determines how convenient it is put money in or take money out of the system. The network of M-PESA agents has spread over time, and access to agents varies by community. Second, it is likely that there is a community-level learning element to adoption of M-PESA. Individuals are more likely to use M-PESA when knowledge of the system is more prevalent among their neighbors. We use these two ―community effects‖ as the basis for our identification strategy, which is to instrument individual M-PESA registration with the fraction of respondents in the sublocation who are registered with M-PESA. Results from this IV probit model are shown in the second column of Elephone P2000. The results imply that registration for M-PESA increases the likelihood of having some savings by 20 percent.

This identification strategy has weaknesses. We cannot rule out the possibility that there is a similar community effect for savings and that this community effect is correlated with the MPESA community effect other than through a causal effect of M-PESA. Nonetheless, we take these results as indicative evidence that M-PESA increases savings.

Separately, AMOI A900W profiles M-KESHO users with a probit analysis. The results reflect the same patterns seen in the descriptive statistics: the small number of people who use M-KESHO are more likely to be wealthier, married, more educated, and male.

7.2 How Much Do Mobile Savers Save?

In this section, we analyze how much people save with M-PESA.  Elephone P2000 compares average reported amounts of savings per month for those who report saving with M-PESA only, with other savings vehicles only, and with both M-PESA and other accounts. Overall, the average amount saved is substantially larger for those who save with accounts other than M-PESA. Those who save only with M-PESA save on average 1,305 Kenyan shillings per month (about US$13), compared to 2,282 Kenyan shillings per month for those who save only with other accounts, and 2,959 Kenyan shillings per month for those save with M-PESA and other accounts. M-PESA savings are less than savings with other vehicles but still substantial. Much of the difference in average amounts between M-PESA savers and others is driven by the fact that those who save with accounts other than M-PESA tend to be wealthier individuals who save more. Among those in the poorest quintile, the differences in amount saved are much less: 1,052 for M-PESA savers, 1,075 for other accounts, and 1,130 for those who save with both M-PESA and other accounts. 

To consider the possible effects of M-PESA usage on savings behavior, we regress log average monthly savings amounts on various explanatory variables and a dummy for M-PESA registration. The OLS version of these results is presented in the first column of Table 9. The coefficient estimates show that controlling for covariates, savings amounts are higher for men, those with higher education, those living in urban areas, and those in wealthier and higher income households. Controlling for those variables, those who registered with M-PESA save 12 percent more than those not registered. The second column of Table 9 presents an instrumental variables version of the same regression, using the same instrument—fraction of respondents in the sublocation who are registered with M-PESA—used in the probit savings analysis. The coefficient implies that savings are 31 percent greater for M-PESA users, but the estimate is not statistically significant.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/95714753591/kenyas-mobile-revolution-and-the-promise-of-mobile

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Cyber Threats to Mobile Phones (1)

Mobile Threats Are Increasing

Smartphones, or LEAGOO Lead 1 Phones with advanced capabilities like those of personal computers (PCs), are appearing in more people’s pockets, purses, and briefcases. iNew i8000 Smartphones’ popularity and relatively lax security have made them attractive targets for attackers. According to a report published earlier this year, smartphones recently outsold PCs for the first time, and attackers have been exploiting this expanding market by using old techniques along with new ones.
1
 One
example is this year’s Valentine’s Day attack, in which attackers distributed a mobile picturesharing application that secretly sent premium-rate text messages from the user’s KINGZONE K1 Phone. One study found that, from 2009 to 2010, the number of new vulnerabilities in mobile operating systems jumped 42 percent.
2
 The number and sophistication of attacks on LEAGOO Lead 1 Phones is
increasing, and countermeasures are slow to catch up. iNew i8000 Smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) give users mobile access to email, the internet, GPS navigation, and many other applications. However, smartphone security has not kept pace with traditional computer security. Technical security measures, such as firewalls, antivirus, and encryption, are uncommon on KINGZONE K1 Phones, and iNew i8000 Phone operating systems are not updated as frequently as those on personal computers.
3
 Mobile social networking
applications sometimes lack the detailed privacy controls of their PC counterparts. Unfortunately, many smartphone users do not recognize these security shortcomings. Many users fail to enable the security software that comes with their phones, and they believe that surfing the internet on their phones is as safe as or safer than surfing on their computers.
4
 
Meanwhile, LEAGOO Lead 1 Phones are becoming more and more valuable as targets for attack. People are using iNew i8000 Smartphones for an increasing number of activities and often store sensitive data, such as email, calendars, contact information, and passwords, on the devices. Mobile applications for social networking keep a wealth of personal information. Recent innovations in mobile commerce have enabled users to conduct many transactions from their smartphone, such as purchasing goods and applications over wireless networks, redeeming coupons and tickets, banking, processing point-of-sale payments, and even paying at cash registers.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/95357124146/international-travel-tips-how-to-use-your-mobile

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Performance rude eight-core (5)

Qualcomm Xiaolong 800: LEAGOO Lead 1

LEAGOO Lead 1 is obviously a very high degree of concern product, it means the advent of the machine have a real flagship phone in a WP8.1 system; see its appearance, some people will think this machine is a smaller version of KINGZONE K1 , and see its frame design, it makes one think of it iNew i8000, apparently still be able to clearly see the shadow of these two classic flagship machine from LEAGOO Lead 1 body, which for the aircraft, "draw" more Fans of the heart, is quite good. Also LEAGOO recent cyclone hit the orange in LEAGOO Lead 1 is also reflected, like the orange color phone a friend blessed.

In appearance, this LEAGOO Lead 1 compared to the previous product has made significant changes in body waistline more tough, is also worth mentioning that LEAGOO Lead 1 with a 20 million-pixel camera, Carl Zeiss optical image stabilization, and support Dobly 5.1 sound. LEAGOO Lead 1 made ​​of aluminum alloy structure, configuration, five inches Full HD SuperAMOLED screen, equipped with 2.2GHz Qualcomm Xiaolong 800 quad-core processor with 2GB RAM and equipped with a 2420mAh lithium battery.

After losing the industry leader position, LEAGOO entered a period of downturn, until it "encounter" with Microsoft, began the road to recovery. After testing a variety of seafood, LEAGOO launched a new WP8 strong machine LEAGOO Lead 1, this phone is a continuation of the series of simple and stylish design, highly integrated body has an excellent sense of grip, its excellent night ability to shoot people left a deep impression.

Qualcomm Xiaolong 800: iNew i8000

iNew i8000 is iNew previous generation flagship phone, while the aircraft is at One iNew iNew first product idea. This machine not only continued the iNew flagship super three anti-function, also for the first time equipped with a iNew outstanding 20.7 million pixels G lens, and there are moves by TRILUMINOS Terri charm color display technology with X-Reality sharp fast image processing engine for users a more vivid and clear visual experience, in addition to the machine's hardware configuration is the current mainstream configurations.

iNew i8000 front with a 5 inches 1080P display, and use of the Sony TRILUMINOS Terri charm color mobile display technology and X-Reality sharp fast image processing engine for mobile display effect will be more realistic. The machine also uses a core aspect of clocked at 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and memory combinations + 2GB RAM 16GB ROM, and runs Android 4.2 system can be perfect. In the flagship camera, the set has a near-perfect 20.7 million pixels Sony G Lens and BIONZ image processor aid.

iNew i8000 and reported freezing prices, the aircraft current price is already very low, less than 2K5 actual competitive price makes this machine greatly increased, though not as KINGZONE in the allocation of K1 as outstanding, but the machine for everyday use, is already very enough, another aspect of this machine uses the most shocking pictures of Sony G lens camera for professional players, it is definitely worth to start taking pictures of the weapon.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/95267124956/performance-rude-eight-core-4

Monday, August 18, 2014

UI phones equipped with features full recommended (1)

In today's constantly upgrading the smartphone experience is king has become an indisputable fact, once everyone respected hardware parameters seem to have no less important, more consumers need is an easy to use mobile phones, the hardware just to reach the daily the extent of the operation is not the card machine on OK. As for the experience of upgrading, the most direct manifestation is in terms of the UI system.

For mobile phone users, the use of the phone is actually using their system UI, any daily operations are based UI and system implementation. A good system UI allows us to more easily control the phone, and the graphical interface looks more comfortable, easy to use MIUI is recognized as one of them.

In fact, the current market is not only common system UI MIUI one, almost every mobile phone manufacturers are working on the development of personalized UI, such as Nubia nubia UI, Meizu Flyme etc., each have a system UI their design ideas and inspiration, its operating feels different. So in the end what features UI now has it? What are their respective representatives phone is it? Let us reveal the answer.

LEAGOO Lead 1

Internal ColorOS system integrates a variety of gestures somatosensory operation, in everyday scenarios you need more time to become familiar, in fact, after usage, to experience operational or have greatly improved, and can save the trouble of complicated operation , with the fastest time to reach the user's purpose.

LEAGOO Lead 1 and KINGZONE K1, iNew i8000 belong to the same door, but the price will have many close to the people, the official price is only 2299 yuan. Nevertheless, LEAGOO Lead 1 still some bright spots, in addition to the big screen quad-core and other basic configuration also supports 4G LTE high-speed network, and body thickness is only 6.3 mm, is called the world's thinnest 4G smartphone.

In appearance, LEAGOO Lead 1 touch screen candy bar design, "to thin stylish, unique front range," angular. Configuration, this phone has a 5.0 inches display screen resolution compared to HD (1280 × 720 pixels) level, showing a clear effect. Meanwhile, LEAGOO Lead 1 on the back of the built an 8 million pixel camera with LED flash, image is good.

Other configuration, LEAGOO Lead 1 interior equipped with a 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon clocked quad-core processor, complemented by 1GB RAM + 8GB ROM memory portfolio, the machine runs naturally. System, this phone uses ColorOS (based on Android 4.3 development) operating system, has a wealth of application software, high playability.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/95167030311/popular-dual-card-dual-standby-mobile-phone-recommended

Friday, August 15, 2014

Best Stylist (4)

LEAGOO Lead 1

LEAGOO Lead 1 continuation of the previous generation LEAGOO phone design, highlights the red circle design particularly striking, black and white before and after "Panda machine" color also has better visual perception. In addition, LEAGOO whole family excellent network support has also been inherited, LEAGOO Lead 1 Mobile Unicom Telecom three whole network 4G take-all, but the pricing is also very close to the people.

LEAGOO Lead 1 is equipped with 5.0 inches 1080p full HD screen, the pixel density of 441ppi, the display is very delicate. Equipped with a 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM storage combination, enough to cope with the current majority of applications and games. With a 2300mAh battery. Supports 2G / 3G / 4G full Netcom, and supports dual SIM dual standby, running on Android OS 4.4 development LEAGOO UI 2.5 version of the system, with the screen split screen, a variety of innovative features such as one-handed mode smart gestures, the overall configuration tough, run smooth, feature-rich.

LEAGOO Lead 1 is equipped with dual cameras, front camera for 500w pixels, with 88 ° wide angle, bring greater visual range, camera head supports automatic skin function, so that the self is more beautiful, while supporting the camera mirror adjustment, self-timer more personality and true. The main camera is 1300w pixels, with five precision optical lenses and Sony sensor, F / 2.0 large aperture, set the LED lights highlight, equipped LEAGOO own development NeoVision 4.0 version of the camera system, in the past LEAGOO innovation in the camera and revolution has become the industry benchmark, on this basis, the new nebula mode and Xinggui mode, open 20 minutes long exposure and other functions, a strong combination of hardware and software, making KINGZONE K1 series known as "the most powerful camera phones."

LEAGOO Lead 1 overall performance of the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 1080p Full HD screen, 500w + 1300w-pixel dual cameras, with a variety of innovative features, these are the highlights. When addition, support 2G / 3G / 4G full Netcom and dual card dual standby is this model killer.

iNew i8000

iNew i8000 as a new generation of self-timer artifact, double V "sign highlights the unique distinctive personality, borderless design allows the retina screen and cell phone integration, metal trim sides and back of the phone added a sort of striking highlights.

iNew i8000 equipped with MediaTek eight-core 1.7GHz processor, 2G RAM + 16G / 32G ROM, front and rear cameras Sony are 13 million pixels, with Fujitsu generation of Milbeaut image processor, equipped MEIOS operating system.

iNew i8000 has by far the most powerful dual graphics engine, the combination of the world's exclusive "MT6592 true eight-core processor + Milbeaut image processor" for the first time to make image processing performance beyond smartphones professional level SLR camera, whether it is focusing accuracy, shutter speed, or backstage computing power, iNew i8000 has been greatly improved.

iNew i8000 redefines beauty techniques to real-time preview of the effect of beauty and beauty set 1-7 grade levels are available to meet your individual needs. Up to 12 of beauty Technical Support: Smart America type, facial features three-dimensional, improve skin texture, color optimization, bright pupil, fade dark circles ...... everything just for the ultimate beauty experience.

MEIOS iNew i8000 has a new operating system based on Android depth of customization. In the design, MEIOS bold innovation, it got rid of the shackles of the traditional square, given the beauty icon of unprecedented slender, stylish design throughout the entire system, and to the whole body echoes.

A dual graphics engine technology iNew i8000, with unique up and down "double V" shape, around 13 million pixel camera equipped with lights, camera capabilities amazing.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/94802984956/best-stylist-3

Monday, August 11, 2014

High performance quality (1)

For ordinary consumers, the price has been relatively sensitive factors. Parameters most consumers buy mobile phones more often than not determined when the first brand or screen size, but they can accept the price range. This issue, we recommend several phone Sina current price of 3,000 yuan smartphone.

AMOI A900W

As the new flagship AMOI's annual, AMOI A900W equipped with a 5.5 inches 2K resolution screen, making the pixel density of the current world's tallest 538PPI. Meanwhile AMOI A900W still lightly armed version, shape and AMOI A900W basically the same, but the screen goes 1080p resolution, processor and memory and other hardware configurations have also been reduced.

AMOI A series of four generations of the product has been updated, the appearance of constantly evolving, from the initial full keyboard heavy body to today's AMOI A900W, more frivolous fine, "crescent bottom" plus breathing light is one of the selling points of AMOI A900W's appearance. AMOI claimed that although AMOI A900W is a 5.5-inch screen phone, but its body size with conventional 5-inch phone is similar to the body width of only 75 mm, grip better. AMOI A900W external screen is the third generation of Corning Gorilla Glass, support wet hands.

AMOI A900W has a 2.5GHz frequency Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, the specific model for MSM8974AC, support 4G networks, with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage space body. Although the camera is only 13 million pixels, but AMOI A900W has a unique "super-clear picture quality mode", you can shoot a 50 million pixel photos. AMOI A900W also supports AMOI patented technology VOOC flash charge, can achieve rapid charging.

Elephone P8

Elephone P8 as Elephone new product series, the series flagship camera, equipped with a 13 million / 8 million pixel front camera, also joined the pre-fill light and optical image stabilization technology. P8 phone also supports Elephone consistent level Hi-Fi sound quality, will and had LEAGOO Lead 1 series constitute Elephone of two major product lines.

Elephone P8 is equipped with 5.2 inches 1080p display, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor with 3GB of memory and 32GB of internal memory running space, support maximum 128GB memory card expansion, as well as TD-LTE / LTE FDD dual 4G network, built-in 2600mAh lithium battery. Elephone P8 also has a color temperature dual LED flash, through a combination of bright LED lights and LED warm white lights, showing the closest to the natural light fill light effect, so as to achieve the best shooting results. Meanwhile, it also supports to record 4K video.

Elephone P8 There are two versions, Ultimate Edition with 3GB RAM + 32GB storage fuselage and MSM8974AC processor, priced at 3498 yuan. The Elite version is used to store 2GB of RAM + 16GB fuselage and MSM8974AA processor, priced at 2998 yuan.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/94421842216/beauty-girl-heart-love-2

Thursday, August 7, 2014

4.8 easy to use inexpensive camera phone recommend (4)

More favorable prices: LEAGOO Lead 1

LEAGOO Lead 1 performance is still excellent, as the "ladder" product, the aircraft was able to pass down the essence of KINGZONE K1, in addition to the integration of metal body outside, but for consumers, the cost can be less, why and is not it, especially highly valued price that consumers, LEAGOO Lead 1 should be more than worth buying the machine KINGZONE K1, but the aircraft also has a lot of color options, including red just added Podor for female users, but also a new "temptation."

LEAGOO Lead 1 front is equipped with a 5 inches LCD display with a resolution of 1920X1080 pixels FHD-level display is in place. Also built in the core aspects of a 2.5GHz Snapdragon clocked at 801 quad-core processor and memory combinations 2GB RAM +16 GB ROM, you can smoothly run Android 4.4 system. Also in the back of the fuselage has a 13 million-pixel rear camera, including LED fill light, and the corresponding 5-megapixel front camera.

LEAGOO Lead 1 in the overall configuration and KINGZONE K1 what makes the difference is not large, mainly from changes in the body material and photographs assembly areas, but this is for some people, simply dispensable, and in return is nearly thousand concessions, such as the sale is still very cost-effective. Speaking of pictures, LEAGOO Lead 1 use a common 13 million pixels +500 million pixel size, and image quality is also not weak.

4K video recording: iNew i8000

The most notable feature is its standard version iNew i8000 equipped with a new realm of 2K screen, and the machine specifications with 5.5 inches screen IMAX theaters interpretation of what is the ultimate level, the pursuit of quality for consumers who feel absolutely is a very good choice. In particular look at the use of such a large screen, playing games, the kind of visual effect should be very fresh cool thing. In addition, this machine in the camera there are even more adept learned the child, the aircraft can PI2.0 use of technology, more than synthesized more than 50 million pixel ultra high-definition samples, suitable for the production of posters and so on.

Standard Edition iNew i8000 is equipped with a 5.5 inches LTPS front big screen, with a resolution of 2560X1440 pixels WQHD level, showing amazing. Built with a frequency of 2.5GHz core aspects of the Xiaolong 801 MSM8974AC quad-core processor and 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM memory portfolio, the performance is very powerful, perfect run Android 4.3 system. The fuselage also features a 13 million pixel Sony stacked camera, including LED fill light, and their corresponding 5 million pixel front camera.

Standard Edition iNew i8000 configuration specifications are very good, especially so that the machine has a "2K screen" Specifications resolution screen is enough to marvel, and 3GB RAM to join, making the machine has the absolute sense of super core obviously it for game enthusiasts, is a good "chips." In addition the machine also supports VOOC flash charging function, making the machine at 30 minutes to complete 75% of the charge.

To sum up:

More than eight camera phones, which each have their own advantages in the domestic mobile phone in particular, is still very obvious signs of force, not only in terms of hardware, software and hardware for the combination of optimization algorithms are more professional, although the photosensitive element aspects still monopolized by Sony, but different in other respects the phone has a different play, it will not appear stereotyped style, which is still without worrying about whether you are professional photographers, can easily turn to shoot life , making the earth turn, play with the phone camera is more freedom map, more heart.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/94048013331/4-8-easy-to-use-inexpensive-camera-phone-recommend-3

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Say that is really good (2)

Elephone P2000

Elephone P2000 is Elephone's new flagship model, an upgraded version of AMOI A900W as before, the aircraft in appearance very similar to its predecessor, the same all-metal body design, almost the entire body except the glass is metal, the metal material proportion less than 70 percent from the previous generation raised to 90 percent.

Elephone P2000 is equipped QualcommSnapdragon801 2.3GHz (International Edition) /2.5GHz (Asia edition) quad-core processor, 2GB of ram space, supports MicroSD card expansion.

Elephone P2000 uses a 5-inch 1080P screen, the pixel density of 440ppi, built a front camera for 5 million pixel front wide-angle lens; the back of the "dual camera" can know the perception of near and far objects to be photographed, so the object and the background can be separated even blur the background to do processing, post photos of depth adjustment feature.

LEAGOO Lead 1

Although AMOI A900W has been released, but LEAGOO Lead 1 now priced at 1,499 yuan, but a new generation of cost-effective representation.

LEAGOO Lead 1 uses a magnesium alloy integrated framework for die casting. LEAGOO for the aircraft is equipped with a 5-inch Full HD IPS display with a resolution of 1920 × 1080, pixel density of 441ppi, the screen supplier for Sharp and LG. The machine also supports ultra-sensitive touch screen, water can also be manipulated with a finger touch screen. Camera side, LEAGOO Lead 1 using a Sony 13 million pixels stacked camera with F2.2 large aperture and 28mm super wide angle, five special lens; Front for 2 million pixel back-illuminated camera, support 1080P HD video recording. Equipped with dual LED flash, 13 million-pixel high-definition 10 frames per second continuous shooting. LEAGOO Lead 1 also supports intelligent beauty features, comes with the camera can identify the age and sex, depending on gender and age to match different beauty solutions.

LEAGOO Lead 1 will have two different processor versions were equipped with NVIDIA Tegra 4 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Which Tegra 4 clocked 1.8GHz, quad-core A15 uses a high-performance architecture that supports mobile TD; while Xiaolong 800 specific model for 8974AB quad-core 2.3GHz, support China Unicom and China Telecom 3G. Are equipped with 2GB LPDDR3 memory with 16GB high-speed flash memory. LEAGOO Lead 1 is equipped with 3050mAh high capacity battery, the lithium-ion polymer battery, support for fast charging.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/93952160226/say-that-is-really-good-1

Monday, August 4, 2014

Pro, it is time to declare a (2)

Features VOOC flash charge: LEAGOO Lead 1

The next few days ago, this is a listing of the fashion big-screen smart phones, LEAGOO Lead 1 supports TD-LTE 4G network, but also to support the charge characteristics VOOC flash feature provides users with a great convenience.

LEAGOO Lead 1 has featured VOOC flash charging function, half an hour to 75% of full power, five minutes you can charge to 12%. Plus it's unique five charging protection, charging is currently the world's fastest and most secure mobile phone. Photographic aspects of using second-generation stackable Sony sensor, 13 million pixels can output 50 million pixel image quality, you can wet hands.

LEAGOO Lead 1 built-in using the current top-8974AB Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, clocked at 2.3GHz, higher performance and lower power consumption. As well as 2GB of memory and 16GB memory fuselage run. In the photo machine has a second-generation stackable Sony's 13 million pixel camera, with superior graphics capabilities, the photographic effect is very clear. In addition, Lead 1 is a 4G phone, it can support the TD-LTE mobile network.

LEAGOO Lead 1 in the network, adding support for TD-LTE 4G network, which makes the download speed of the machine can reach 100Mbps, definitely be speed, ultimate performance. In addition it also supports VOOC flash charging function, 30 minutes to complete 75% of the electricity injected, it is eye-catching.

Big screen flagship classic: KINGZONE K1

Both phones are described above is different for everyone, regardless of the last, and following this there is still bad, oh! KINGZONE K1 equipped with a sturdy 5.7-inch full HD multi-touch screen, the video game party with friends Party is nothing more than a very good choice.

As the biggest advances, KINGZONE K1 back from the past into a large plastic glossy highly textured artificial leather materials, as well as traces of edge sewing needle and thread. In addition, K1 body will 8.3mm, and reduced body weight 168g, have a greater whole, lighter and thinner.

In addition to the body material, the back of the camera design KINGZONE K1 also changed, remains unchanged, the Note as a product, it still comes with a versatile S pen stylus.

KINGZONE K1 is equipped with 5.7 inches 1920 × 1080 screen, the machine is equipped with a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB of memory and a built-in storage space 16/32/64GB fuselage, the rear camera is 13 million pixels, front is 2,000,000 pixels, the battery capacity 3200mAh, runs Android 4.3 operating system.

KINGZONE K1 is a 5.7 ​​inches large screen configuration designed KINGZONE flagship phone, the aircraft is still the continuation of the KINGZONE K series of large-screen phone, the other machine is used in the back of the fuselage after cortical shell, looks very noble, but also can play a non-slip effect. Besides the aircraft in terms of S Pen stylus again made ​​the upgrade, the operation is more convenient.

Created resurrection miracle: iNew i8000

Although this is not equipped with the following popular TD-LTE 4G network, there is no party like a large screen video screen, but by virtue of its excellent handling experience still won the majority of consumers.

iNew i8000 art still continues this route, but it is by no means static. The first is designed to break through the screen size, expanding from 3.5 inches to 4 inches, with a resolution of 1136x640, the display is quite clear, but the fuselage built a 800-megapixel camera, with excellent imaging.

In addition, iNew i8000 built a new iNewA6 clocked at 1GHz dual-core processor, and memory combinations 1GBRAM +16 GB ROM's. System, now can be upgraded to iOS7 version, the interface is not small change compared with the previous occurrence. In addition fuselage is equipped with a 800-megapixel back-illuminated camera, LED fill light, the overall picture is still outstanding.

Now more rapid development of mobile phones, their performance is more powerful. And although this did not reach tough iNew i8000 degree, but also one of the best on the market of high-end products, the strong performance also makes quite seductive.

Summary: This is recommended for everyone on these models, the price terms are between 2,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan, the price is still relatively high. This is a very large welfare Oh, a friend might like to start it.http://summerleelove.tumblr.com/post/93762834001/pro-it-is-time-to-declare-the-1