PC Control by Android Phones
Tufel Ali Qureshi
Department of Computer Department
MGM College of Engineering and Technology, Kamothe
tufelq6.998@gmail.com
Abstract— This article presents the proposed design and
implementation of turning smartphones into computer
remote controllers that allow users to wirelessly operate a
computer. Smartphones talk to a computer through either
wireless Ad Hoc or Wi-Fi access point network. A
computer user uses a smartphone as the mouse and
keyboard of the computer and operates the computer
remotely and wirelessly. Such a system has wide application
in many environment settings, such as conference rooms,
classrooms, workgroup project environments, and even
people’s living rooms, where the computer screen is
projected on to a big screen, such as a projector screen or a
big-screen television.
Keywords—PC Control, Wi-Fi, Android, Mouse, Keyboard,
remote.
I. INTRODUCTION
There exist several situations where we want to
Wirelessly and comfortably operate a computer, where
the computer screen is projected onto a big screen
through a projector or big-screen television, such as
classrooms, conference/meeting rooms, mobile,
workgroup project environments and modern office
environments, and even living rooms.
Several specifically designed devices are
available on the market for the purpose of operating
computers remotely and wirelessly. Wireless keyboard,
as shown in Fig. 1a, uses either Bluetooth or wireless
USB mini-receiver plugged into the USB port of
computer for the communication between the keyboard
and the computer. Some wireless keyboards have a
touchpad for controlling the mouse cursor. Wireless
presentation controller, as shown in Fig. 1b, allows user
to operate his/her computer remotely for PowerPoint
presentation through Bluetooth connection. It usually has
several buttons, including mouse-left, mouse-right, next
slide and previous slide buttons (for PPT presentation),
and even a small size rectangle touchpad for moving
mouse cursor.
Fig. 1 Wireless PPT and Keyboard Controller for PC’s
However, all those devices have certain drawbacks.
Wireless keyboard has limited flexibility and is not
convenient for a presenter to carry it around in the room
during the presentation. Presenters usually like to walk
around while presenting. Carrying a wireless keyboard is
definitely not convenient.
Wireless presentation controller does have good
mobility. However, most of such devices do not allow
user to have full operation on the computer, such as
running a program, moving or closing an application
window, etc. Even it has a small touchpad for moving
mouse cursor (as shown in Fig. 1b), however it is very
difficult for the presenter to use it to move the mouse
cursor while he/she is walking around. On the other
hand, a computer is allowed to have one and only one
such device controlling it. If an audience wants to operate
the computer to facilitate asking questions or provide
comments during the presentation session, he or she must
walk to the computer to use the wired mouse/keyboard,
or must get the wireless keyboard or wireless
presentation controller. This imposes inconvenience
when a group of people, such as a project team or a
company internal meeting attendees, are having
discussion and need to interact with each other through
the same computer with its screen projected onto a wall.
The widely used and very popular smart devices, such as
iPads, smartphones, PDAs, and smart game controllers,
an be the excellent alternatives as computer remote
controllers if we develop appropriate apps for them.
II. OBJECTIVE BEHIND THE IDEA
It operates PC from mobile device using Wi-Fi with
key pad inputs of mobile. It allows a power button, as
well as a switch or series of buttons to select which
device the remote is controlling at the moment. It allows
a numeric keypad for entering channel numbers and
some other purposes such as time and date entry. It
allows selection of a particular set of codes (usually
entered on the keypad) and allows user to cycle through
the list of available codes to find one that matches the
device to be controlled It allowing the user to program
command sequences to be sent with one button press.
Programmable soft keys allowing user-defined functions
and macros. It allowing the remote to be programmed to
control new devices not already in its code list by IR
coding Accept infrared signals from any remote and
transmit them to the device being controlled using
repeater. It allows the code lists programmed into the
remote to be updated to support new brands or models of
devices not currently supported by the remote.
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
In the proposed system there is a client-server
architecture. In which android mobile phone is a client
and PC/Laptop is a server. Client sends request to the
server for connection establishment via wireless
communication (Wi-Fi). Connection is established
using handshaking. After connection establishment ports
are assigned and sockets are established at both ends
for communication. Desktop application is in Java and
mobile application is in android. Windows Registry is
hierarchical database which stores some configuration
setting options and some processes which helps to
control mouse movements. When the user Control mouse
from android mobile then in background the process of
desktop application will communicate with mouse
process which is in windows registry. And this
communication is done through Inter Process
Communication.
Similarly, windows task manager provides limited
information about computer performance and
applications as well as processes running on that
computer. For example, the processes of applications
such as Windows Media Player, VLC, Power Point
Presentations the processes reside in task manager. The
procedure of controlling these applications is similar to
the procedure of controlling mouse.
Fig. 2 System Architecture
IV. ALGORITHM AND STRATIGIES FOR
ITS IMPLEMENTATION
A. Algorithm
1) Start.
2) Request will be sent from android mobile to
laptop for connection establishment via wireless
communication.
3) Ports are assigned and sockets are established
at both the devices for communication and from
laptop the acknowledgement message in sent back
to android mobile. (Connection Successful)
4) Mobile will send request for controlling any of
the provided application, then the request of data
transfer is sent by mobile to the laptop.
5) Now, the Java application which is installed on
laptop responds to requested process by android.
6) Mouse controls in windows registry and other
processes previously running on laptop are paused
temporarily for few seconds.
7) Lastly, after serving all the interrupts, processes
stored in windows registry and task manager will
be resumed.
8) Steps 4 to 6 are repeated according to
user’s requirements.
9) Stop.
B. Wi-Fi Technology
To turn ON Wi-Fi on android device
WifiManager provides the primary API for
managing all aspects of Wi-Fi connectivity. A
programmer can get WifiManager instance
through
Context.getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SER
VICE).
WifiManager is used to find the currently active
Wi-Fi network and change the Wi-Fi state.
1)<uses-permission android:name=
"android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE"/>
2)<uses-permission android:name=
"android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE"/
>
3)<uses-permission android:name=
"android.permission.CHANGE_NETWORK_ST
ATE"/>
4)<uses-permission android:name=
"android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_ST
AT
E"/>
5)<uses-permissionandroid:name=
"android.permission.INTERNET"/>
These are some Wi-Fi permissions that must be
included in android manifest file.
 C. Requirements of Android and Java. [3] Sareddy Deepthi, A. Vasanthi, “Mobile Phone
Controlling PC-A Review”, IJCSMC, Vol. 1,
Android application must be installed on your Issue. 1, December 2012
android mobile (version 4.1 and above) and the Java [4] T. Wen, “The Comparison Between Bluetooth
application on your laptop or PC respectively. and other Wireless Network Technologies”,
Mechanical Management and Development,
V. ADVANTAGES OF SUCH APPLICATIONS vol. 4, (2006), pp. 81-82.
[5] Wireless Networks Local and Ad Hoc
• Portable because it is install in the phone itself Networks Book by Ivan Marsic.
• No need to carry any extra Device for that.
• Easy to install and use.
• Have Security Feature in it.
• You can access your files and folders and other
data remotely.
• They are designed for handholding and carrying
around. They are owned and operated by
individuals.
• Real-time control of the access point-Once the
access point is deployed, authenticated, and
connected to the controller, the protocol needed
to provide real-time control of the access point
for management and deployment of mobility
services.
• Centralized management

VI. CONCLUSION

This article describes the strategies and planning

while Implementing a smart device, more specifically
smartphones, into computer remote controllers. This
system can be widely used in classrooms and
meeting/conference rooms for presentation and
interactive discussion. It also allows multiple users to use
multiple smartphones to operate the same computer,
facilitating group discussion or classroom interaction.
Currently we are on the way to implement such an
application which can improve the way of living life and
make it more simple.

VII. REFERENCES

[1] Nguyen, S. Hao, and J. Szajman, “WiiKey: An

Innovative Smartphone Based Wi-Fi
Application,” inproc.IEEE Conf. International
Multi symposiums on Computer and
Computational Science(IMSCCS’08), 2008,
pp. 91-97
[2] “Mobile Web-Based System for Remote-
Controlled Electronic Devices and Smart
Objects “, Jordán Pascual Espada & Vicente
García-Díaz & Rubén González Crespo &
Oscar Sanjuán Martínez & B. Cristina Pelayo
G-Bustelo & Juan Manuel Cueva Lovelle,
Published online: 28 May 2014, Springer
Science+Business Media New York 2014