Witness Ear — Optional 24-Hour Sound Journal & PDF Report

Witness Ear is an optional feature of Vigilant Ear. It keeps a short, on-device log of sounds the app has classified around you, so you can export a simple PDF summary report when you need a written record—not only a live map. It records sound events, not audio or conversations.

It is off by default, free, and designed to stay out of the way until you need it.

What it is

While Vigilant Ear is monitoring, it already classifies environmental sounds (sirens, alarms, vehicles, speech-adjacent categories, and more). Witness Ear does one extra thing when you turn it on:

It stores recent classifications on your phone for up to 24 hours.
You can export those events as a PDF Summary Report to share via Mail, Files, AirDrop, etc.
You can delete the log at any time with the trash control. Turning Witness Ear off just pauses logging — what's already recorded is kept (and still ages out after 24 hours), so you can suspend it for a while without losing the day.

There is no separate Witness Ear “app mode” or display. Controlling it lives under Preferences → SOUND JOURNAL: a Witness Ear switch (with a small trash control beside it while the log holds events), plus a PDF Summary Report row with Export.

The report lists things like time, confidence, peak level (dBFS), direction when measured, which phone heard it (this device or a linked Constellation peer), and the sound label grouped by sound family. It is a pattern and awareness aid, not a certified noise meter.

Why you might need it

People use a short written log when memory and live dots are not enough:

Situation	How Witness Ear helps
Neighbor / HOA / landlord discussion	A dated list of what the app labeled and when, over a night or a day, as a conversation starter—not as courtroom-grade metrology.
“Was that every night or once?”	Rolling 24 hours so you can check recency without keeping a permanent archive.
Multi-phone home (Constellation)	Linked phones share what they hear over your local mesh. Shared detections can land in the journal too, so the report can show which phone heard an event—not only this mic.
Accessibility / awareness log	A simple export you can send to a family member or support contact after a noisy stretch.

If you never need a PDF, leave Witness Ear off. Detection and alerts still work exactly as before.

How to use it (iPhone / iPad)

1. Turn it on

Open Preferences (bell / Customizations path from the action fan or menu).
Find the section SOUND JOURNAL.
Turn Witness Ear on.
- Tap the ⓘ next to the name for the short in-app explanation.
Leave Vigilant Ear monitoring as usual (mic active for the sounds you care about).

While it is on, classifications that meet the app’s confidence floor are appended to a local log (with a short per-label gap so the file is not flooded with duplicates).

2. Export a PDF

Stay in SOUND JOURNAL.
On the PDF Summary Report row, tap Export.
- Tap ⓘ on that row for what the PDF contains.
Wait for the system share sheet, then save or send the file (WitnessEar-Report-….pdf).

If the log is empty, Export will say there are no events in the last 24 hours—turn Witness Ear on and wait until the classifier has fired at least once.

3. Pause or delete the log

Pause: turn the Witness Ear switch off. Logging stops; what's already recorded is kept and still ages out after 24 hours. Turn it back on to resume.
Delete: tap the small red trash on the Witness Ear row (it only appears while the log holds events). It arms a short Cancel (5)…(1) countdown — tap again to cancel, or wait it out to delete everything immediately.

4. Constellation (optional)

If Constellation is linked with other phones on your mesh:

Phones already share many non-speech detections for the live map and multi-phone picture.
With Witness Ear on, peer-shared detections can be merged into this phone’s journal and appear in the PDF under Heard by (peer name) vs this phone.

Each phone still keeps its own journal file on device. There is no cloud Witness Ear archive. For the fullest multi-phone PDF on one device, that device should have been linked and logging while the others were sharing.

What the PDF contains (sample shape)

The exact layout may evolve; the intent is a readable report via PDF or printed paper.

WITNESS EAR — 24-Hour Sound Journal
Generated Aug 7, 09:30  ·  Window Aug 6, 10:00 – Aug 7, 09:30
Sources: this phone + Constellation peers.  Repeats within 30 s are logged once.

[summary tiles]     classifier samples · episodes (60 s gap) · sound groups · span covered
[Activity by hour]  bar chart of samples per hour
[Sound groups]      raw labels coalesced by profile family (Music, Vehicles, …)
[Locations]         L1, L2, … — positions grouped within ~110 m, with accuracy notes
[Devices]           P1 (this phone, model · iOS · app build), P2 … (linked peers + model)

Episodes
#   Start         Length   Samples   Peak     Sounds              By
1   Aug 7, 01:44  10m 40s  17        −12 dB   Music, Animals +4   P1, P2

Episode Source Feeds (oldest first)
Time        Conf   dBFS   Dir    By   Sound
08:12:03    87%    −21    —      P1   Emergency & alarms · Siren
08:12:04    71%    −25    207°   P2   Emergency & alarms · Siren
08:14:10    64%    −34    —      P1   Household & speech · Knock

Method & Limits …

Integrity
SHA-256 of the N journal rows exported in this window (JSON, sorted keys):
a1b2c3… (full hex digest)
Location accuracy / simulated-GPS flags / device-state notes / exporting device / time base…

Attestation

I, _______________, attest that … Signature / Date lines for ink after print.

Every page carries a faint Wingdings watermark behind the content and a footer with the Wingdings mark, “© 2026 Wingdings, Inc. All rights reserved. · Patent Pending”, and the page number — an easy first check that a PDF someone hands you looks like a genuine export.

How to read it

Classifier samples — number of stored windows (not “number of sirens in the city”).
Distinct episodes — runs of samples separated by about a minute of quiet; a long continuous sound may be many samples but few episodes.
Conf — model confidence (0–100%), not decibels SPL.
dBFS — peak microphone level near the event, relative to that phone’s digital full scale (0 = the loudest the mic can record). Good for comparing moments; not calibrated dB SPL.
Dir — the sound’s absolute compass bearing/direction (0° = north), shown only when a two-microphone solve actually measured one; “—” means not measured. Never inferred from how the phone was pointed.
By — device identifier from the Devices section (P1 = the exporting phone, P2… = linked peers), matching the L-ids in Locations.
Integrity hash — fingerprint of the on-device journal used to build the PDF; helps detect post-export edits of the event table.
Attestation — optional human signature block after print (you vouch for possession/location).

Data privacy

Topic	Policy
Default	Off. No Witness Ear log until you opt in.
Where data lives	On this device only, in the app’s private Application Support sandbox (see below).
What is stored	Classification metadata: time, label, confidence, optional location/heading if the app already has them, optional peer id when a mesh event is merged. Not a continuous audio recording of the day for the journal or transcribed (or translated) spoken words.
Retention	Rolling 24 hours. Older rows are pruned.
When you turn it off	Logging pauses; stored entries are kept and still age out after 24 hours.
Delete control	Trash on the Witness Ear row (shown while the log holds events), with a cancelable countdown.
Upload	Witness Ear does not upload the journal to Wingdings or a Witness Ear cloud.
Export	You choose to share the PDF (Mail, Files, AirDrop, etc.). Once shared, that copy is outside the app’s control.
Constellation	Mesh sharing of live detections is a local network product feature between your linked phones. Merged journal rows still stay on the phone that received them until you export or clear.
Children / sensitive use	Do not use the log to identify or track people. It is for places, times, and sound categories, not personal dossiers.

What “Application Support” means

Application Support is a private folder that belongs only to Vigilant Ear on this phone. It is not a cloud drive, not a public “Files” album, and not email to support. Other apps cannot read it under standard iOS rules.

On an iPhone with a device passcode (or biometrics), iOS encrypts app data at rest using hardware-backed protection. Witness Ear does not upload the journal and does not add a second, app-managed encryption layer on top of that. When the device is locked, access follows Apple’s standard data-protection classes (typically protected until first unlock after boot, unless stronger settings apply). Backups (encrypted computer backup / iCloud backup rules) are separate from “sitting on the phone’s disk.”

Using this report in disputes

Witness Ear can produce an authenticated digital ledger of acoustic metadata (what the on-device classifiers labeled, when, and which phone contributed)—useful for informal conversations with neighbors, landlords, HOAs, or mediators. It is not a substitute for a certified Class 1/2 survey or legal counsel.

Practical steps:

Leave Witness Ear on for the period you care about (up to 24 hours retained).
Export the PDF; keep the original file without re-saving through an editor that rewrites PDFs.
Print a copy if a paper trail helps; complete the Attestation block (name, location, signature, date) in ink.
Point recipients to the Integrity section: the SHA-256 fingerprint of the journal rows. A later re-export from the same unaltered on-device log should match; editing the event table in a PDF editor will not update that hash correctly unless the attacker also rebuilds from matching source data.
Be explicit: this is app-generated metadata, time is the device clock, levels are not legal SPL, and labels can be wrong.
We do not currently operate a public “upload PDF to verify signature” website. The hash is a self-contained integrity note, not a Wingdings cloud attestation.

Do not invent events, crop the integrity block, or claim the PDF is a certified noise measurement.

Disclaimers

Not a certified instrument. Phone microphones are not Class 1/2 sound level meters. Confidence scores and any related levels are relative, uncalibrated, and must not be presented as absolute dBA/dBC for enforcement, fines, or legal metrology. The report may still be useful as an authenticated digital ledger of acoustic metadata when used honestly.
Not a guarantee of completeness. The log only includes what the on-device classifiers labeled while monitoring was active and Witness Ear was on. Quiet periods, muted mic, app not running, low confidence, or throttled duplicates may leave gaps. Absence of a row is not proof that a sound never happened.
Labels can be wrong. Machine learning engines can misclassify. A “Siren” row means the model’s top guess at that moment—not a guaranteed emergency vehicle. Treat the PDF as supporting notes, not ground truth.
Not a safety device. Vigilant Ear / Witness Ear are awareness and accessibility aids. They do not replace human judgement, certified alarms, or official emergency services.
Evidence and disputes. If you share a PDF with a landlord, HOA, or agency, be honest about what it is: an app-generated classification log, retention-limited, user-exported, with an on-device integrity hash. Do not alter the event table or invent events. We do not offer legal advice; local rules on recordings and evidence vary—when in doubt, ask a qualified professional.
Multi-phone reports. Peer rows depend on Constellation connectivity and sharing rules (e.g. non-speech sources). Clocks and GPS on consumer phones have error; “same night” multi-phone agreement is useful context, not lab-grade timing.
Time base. Timestamps use the device wall clock, which the user can change. The PDF notes this; it is not automatically cross-checked against network time in the current product.
Your responsibility for sharing. Once you AirDrop or email a report, recipients can keep copies. Export only what you intend to share.

Platform notes

iOS / iPadOS: Witness Ear controls ship under Preferences → SOUND JOURNAL as described above.

Good to know

Leaving Witness Ear off costs nothing in terms of phone CPU or battery usage.
Turning it on adds light local storage and occasional writes of events to build the report.
Export builds the PDF without requiring a separate user menu.
For day-to-day alerts and direction, use the main Vigilant Ear map and HUDs; use Witness Ear when you need a portable written snapshot of the last day's sound events.