Control-pc

A simple way to control your pc using a cellphone.

The problem

I wanted a way to control my pc while i'm lying in bed, without the use of a wireless keyboard/mouse. I would use it primarily when i'm watching some movie/series, to play/pause it or control the volume.

The solution

Considering that i wanted to play/pause the video and control the volume, i thought that the best way to do this is using the Fn keys on the keyboard. After searching the simplest way to do it, using the programming languages that i already know, i ended with the combination of Java + Autohotkey. I use Java for the server and basic keyboard/mouse controls and Autohotkey to trigger the Fn keys, since i couldn't find an easy way to do this with Java.

The easiest way that i found to access the server, running on my PC, from my cellphone is by fixing my IP address. After doing that, i can simply use that IP to access a front-end page that i made with HTML + Javascript + JQuery which contains some controls that send the commands to the server.

Technologies

• Java
• SparkJava
• Autohotkey
• Jquery

Requirements for development

• Java 1.8+
• Java JDK 1.8+
• Autohotkey
• Some IDE with Maven, like Eclipse or VS Code

How to run the project for development

1. Clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/nogenem/control-pc.git

2. Open the project with an IDE / Code editor.

   • With Eclipse, you should open it in the folder that you did the git clone and then go into File > Import... > Maven > Existing Maven Projects....
     • Make sure that the project is running with JRE 1.8+.
       • Right click the "JRE System Library" and click on "Properties".
       • Check if the "JavaSE-1.8 (jdk1.8.x_xxx)" is selected, or a higher version.

3. Copy the file .env.example and rename it to .env.

   • You can edit the values inside the file as you please, but the default ones will work fine.
   • If you want to create a new KeyStore.jks file, you can use the following command:

$ keytool -genkey -alias control-pc -keyalg RSA -keystore KeyStore.jks -keysize 2048

4. Open the Main.java file and click on "Run as...".

5. You can now open http://localhost:7777/ and start controlling your PC.

   • If you fixed your IP address, you can access the front-end on your cellphone too, using the same port (7777).

Requirements to run the compiled version

• Java 1.8+
• Java JDK 1.8+
• Autohotkey

How to run the compiled version

1. Download the latest release.
2. Extract the .zip file.
3. Open a terminal and navigate to the extracted folder.

cd /path/to/control-pc

4. Execute the following command:

java -jar control-pc.jar

5. You can now open http://localhost:7777/ and start controlling your PC.

   • If you fixed your IP address, you can access the front-end on your cellphone too, using the same port (7777).

Full image of the project