General
"Baby M" is an application for Phone, iPod Touch and iPad that is meant to monitor and record your baby and the sounds and noises around him or her. It can also try to help you pacify the baby.
Baby M does not claim to be, nor intends to be, a complete substitution for human monitoring of your sleeping child. However, it endeavors to enable you to continue your chores in close proximity of the nursery.
Basically, "Baby M" attempts to assist you by playing an sound clip, like a lullaby, for soothing the baby. This sound clip is triggered when the baby cries or makes noise which is louder than a threshold you determine.
General Instructions
You need to place the device as close as
possible to your
sleeping baby, the "noise source". The device can be placed
on the bedside table or
nightstand. Should you be worried about cellular radiation,
the device could be switched to
"Airplane Mode" 
before you start the monitoring.
If after using the application for a few sessions, you do not feel that it notices your baby's cries, or if it bothers the baby, you can try tweaking some of the settings and/or playing with the sound level and/or placing the device in a different place.
"Baby M" works even after the screen locks
and
the device goes into "sleep". It's actually designed to do
that
because it saves on the battery. We recommend that you
connect your device to a charger but if your device is fully
charged, you don't normally have to. Another feature is that
if you tap the lamp on the main screen, the device will not
go to sleep and the light will stay on during the whole
monitoring session. This setting usually demands that the
device is connected to a charger.
We also recommend that you kill all the heavy applications
that may be running in the device background (this is for
iOS 4.x). This is done in the following way: Double click on
the home button. The interface will slide up and reveal a
second dock-like set of app icons "in the background". To
kill an app, tap and hold the app until the icons begin to
jiggle, then tap the minus symbol (-) at the top left
corner. The app will then disappear, "deleted" from the
background dock (but not from your device).
The Main Screen
The main screen
shows
as the "Monitor" tab. While you are in this tab, "Baby M" is
constantly
monitoring the noise. When the baby has fallen asleep, make
sure that you press the
green "Start" button and choose whether or not you want the
whole sleep session to be recorded. Only then will Baby M
actually start.
At any time during the baby's nap, you may stop "Baby M" from monitoring and playing sound clips by pressing the red "Stop" button. You would then need to re-enable it by pressing the green "Continue" button.
While Baby M is stopped, you may visit the "History" , "Settings", or "Help" screens by selecting the appropriate tab. If you do that you will need to get back to the main screen by selecting the "Monitor" tab in order to "Continue".
The
History window displays a list of
all the sessions that you have saved when using Baby M. By
default each session is automatically saved and the sessions
are listed so that the most recent one is at the top.
Sessions that include a recording of the sound are
designated with the small icon of a microphone.
You may delete items from the list by selecting the
"Edit" button and then pressing the 
button which is to
the left of the date of the session.
You will then need to confirm the deletion by clicking the
"Delete" button.
You may get a full summary and see a graph of the session by
selecting the 
button which
is to the right of the date of the session. This will take you
to the "Summary" window that provides some statistics and allows
you to continue into the graph.
The graph shows you exactly how noisy or quiet your baby's nap
was. It allows you to zoom in and out (by tapping on the "+" and
"-" buttons and to pan into specific areas by moving the graph
(after you zoom in at least once) to the left or right with your
finger.
If this is a session that includes a recording, you will be able
to listen to the recording by tapping on the "Play" button that
will appear at the bottom center of the graph. Playback will
always start at the leftmost side of the visible graph and if
not disturbed, will automatically stop at the rightmost side of
the visible graph (length depending on your zoom level).
The graph also displays events that occurred during the
monitoring session (for example sound clips appear as red
pushpins).
The "Send Mail" button allows you to send the data from the
session by email. Currently, the email function does not support
sending a sample of the recorded sound.
It
is advisable that you
familiarize yourself with the different settings of this
program. The options
are factory-preset to some regular defaults but you may want
to practice with
them in order to achieve better results.
All settings that you change are being remembered indefinitely by the iPhone/iPad.
-
Sensitivity: This determines how sensitive the iPhone/iPad is to the ambient noise and to your baby's crying. To modify the sensitivity, you need to to select the arrow
button
which is to the right of the current sensitivity level.
This will take you to another window where you will be
able to modify the sensitivity and experiment with it. To
increase the sensitivity,
drag the bar all the way to the left. To make it respond
only to the loudest
cries, drag it all the way to the right. -
Play Sound Clip: The iPhone/iPad plays a pre-selected recording.
-
Select Sound: This displays the name of the sound clip that would be played when "Baby M" senses that the baby is crying. Pressing the "Change" button will take you to the "Pick a Sound Clip" screen.
-
Clip Volume: This sets the volume of the played sound clip. If you selected "Play Sound Clip" then you probably want to experiment with the volume to make sure that it is not too loud or too soft.
-
This screen enables the user to manage a small list of sound clips. The selected sound clip is what is required to be played when the baby is crying; (if this option is turned on). To choose a suitable sound clip, simply highlight a line in the scrollable list. The "Edit" buttons allows you to record new sound clips or to delete clips you created before.
To delete a sound
clip, select "Edit" and then click the button next
to the clip you wish to delete. You will then need to
confirm the deletion by
clicking the "Delete" button. You may also clear all your
history by selecting "Erase All".
To create new sound clips press the "Create New Sound Clip" button, SU will take you to the "New Sound" screen where you will be able to record new sound clips.
Coming up in the next version:
- Instead of playing a sound clip, the device can notify the parent by calling to another phone.
- Gradually increasing volume of sound clip if a sound clip does not appear to help.
- Automatically adjust sensitivity/threshold to the ambient noise.
- Many other small improvements!
Support
For support, please write to baby@pointer.co.il
We are planning many improvements and plan to update the app frequently in the iTunes store.
2011 © Pointer Software System, Ltd.