I design control/monitoring systems for particle accelerators. One of our systems is in a enclosed room that is kept quite cold and quite noisy from all the pumps and cooling systems. Since we may do an implantation run for several hours I thought monitoring it remotely would benefit the operator health wise.

The system is monitored & controlled via a PC so I setup tightVNC on both systems and they can sit in their office to watch it and do other work. Had another idea, and is to allow them to monitor it from anywhere using a smartphone (android in this case). Got a lot of oohs and ahhs as I demonstrated it.

I used androidVNC for the phone app, available free in the Marketplace and tightVNC for the PC which is also free. Connection via Wifi is easy, quick and fast.

VNC has an advantage, IMO, over Windows Remote Desktop in that the remote computer screen does not change, that is one can't see it is remotely controlled. Plus, more flexibility in VNC in that it can run under any OS including Linux - obvious actually since Android is Linux based.

There was a topic on how to monitor their children computer activity. With this and an Android phone, can watch from anywhere without them knowing it. Of course this has ethical/trust questions which I will not address.

Very cool How is the speed when you're using it over the phone?

Very cool How is the speed when you're using it over the phone?

It's fast. Navigating around the screen is lag free and that is with a WiFi connection. I tested it by connecting to my main computer which has a complex printed circuit board design displaying and was able to pan around and zoom without delay.

//edit - this was with my HTC Desire. The operator was using a Samsung Galaxy? and also no speed problems.

Also works very nicely on my Blade.

Shame the PC's IP address has to be entered manually.