CRAYFIS

This project is just starting up and beginning their BETA testing. You can get on a list for when they invite more people to help test. I have not been added yet. It sounds interesting and is a non-CPU intensive (meaning it doesn't use much CPU). I have brought up the idea of using BOINC to the developers, and they said they would consider it as they had misunderstood how BOINC actually works. They thought of it like traditional work unit crunching and didn't realize that they could use it like some of the other projects have. It actually would work really well for them if they truly consider it.

Their site is: http://crayfis.io/
The sign up for BETA is: http://crayfis.io/join.php
Their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/crayfisapp

They plan on running on Android, iOS, and Windows phones.

Thanks goes to tjmagneto for pointing this one out to me.

Thanks for the props!

It appears I am now a BETA tester.

I have this on two devices right now as there seems to be a minimum Android requirement as well as requires a memory card be installed to even run.

I have found that it requires the screen to be active which could cause burn-in and would also conflict with some other apps such as Swagbucks or Perk TV...

More testing to come.

This certainly causes the battery to get hot. That is for sure.

This seems like a novel approach to observation. The problem they may have is the quality and type of cameras and just what each camera type can actually detect. They may have to build models for analyzing data from each type of smartphone based on the camera module in them. But, that shouldn't necessarily be a problem for talented individuals like them! Signed up, hopefully I can get in as well. My new Shield tablet needs something to do.

So far the app is fickle.

It will easily crash if you are merely swiping between screens.
It will make the phone/tablet really hot as it is using the camera and drawing a lot of power. Currently there is no heat detection implemented into the app.
- This causes problems for BOINC running in the background as it has a setting to pause BOINC when the battery reaches a specified temperature. With the Crayfis app running it hot all the time, BOINC will stay paused.
The app isn't allowed to run in the background since it has access to the camera. Apparently this is an Android security feature and the admins are looking into a solution.
They are looking to add the ability to name your own device. Currently it is randomly named based on Jeopardy categories. I have noticed the names are recycled between users too.
The app does not currently adjust itself according to screen size. So many phones cut off some of the data at the bottom. This makes it hard for troubleshooting.
The app should have a screensaver option since any OLED display will easily get burn in the way it is currently set up.
They do not currently have teams but they are working on my suggestion to add them.
They currently only list the top 10 users in their rankings list. I have requested that they add everyone or at least put it somewhere so that people can see where they stand. Another one of my suggestions.

The new BETA app blacks the screen which will help prevent burn in.
So, far two of my devices running the updated app are running much cooler.
One of them seems to allow the app to run while I have another app using the display. However, I can not confirm that it is actually making progress as of yet.
The website (while logged in) will also tell you not only the top 10 devices, but also the spots your other devices are ranked. It does not show you all devices though.

OK. So the new beta app does identify the pre-assigned name of the device now. On the status screen it tells you what they named it. On smaller devices you can now scroll down but it is only a very small section at the bottom. This certainly needs refined more as it is hard to do on small displays.

It looks like they now have it set up so you can name your own device from their page.

I've made it to the second highest contributor so far with BETA testing. Time to take 1st place... http://daq.crayfis.io/map.html - Coleslaw

I took first this AM.

downloaded v02e of the BETA app. Graphics look nicer and the app seems snappier. More stable to far. Daniel Whiteson said that when they exit BETA that points will not be reset, so anything earned during BETA will transition.

I would also like to remind people that this is one of the few projects that can be ran on iPhones as well.

I'm trying to get the developers to add a time stamp to the device stats page to show when work was last returned to help with trouble shooting devices and connectivity.

They are also taking my advice to develop a list of devices and how to's as it seems a few features are different between versions of Android and thus the behavior of the device can be different because of it.

New article released
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/39580...tle-astrophysics-this-app-detects-cosmic-rays

Looks like they have updated their page. Looks nice. They also switched the highlights of your own devices in the stats page from yellow to blue. That makes it tons easier to see.

Just an update.

1. The application uses very little data. This is good for a phone app as people will more than likely have data limits when not on WiFi.

2. Heat is still a big issue. They are looking into a way to put thermal controls into the app. I had to shut most of mine down as it was causing batteries to swell way too quickly. Even BOINC wasn't this hard on my phones (as it has thermal controls).

Just an update. They have made more progress on their BETA client. However, some features were not yet moved from the old client. I spoke with Daniel via email and he is hoping to implement teams to the project within the next 2-3 weeks. They also seemed to reboot the stats page as it was really broken before. Nothing said of the old stats and why they weren't continued as promised.