Slashdot Mirror
Putting a Panic Button In Smartphone Users' Hands
theodp writes "If you own an Android phone, you may have inadvertently butt-dialed 911 from time-to-time. So, wonders Kix Panganiban, why don't our phones come with a universal 'Panic Button', that would make it just as easy to intentionally dial the police when it's truly needed? Panganiban envisions "a smartphone app that when triggered, would discreetly send out a distress message to contacts of your choice, and perhaps do some other functions that can get you out of bad (and maybe even life-threatening) situations." While a quick search reveals that some have taken a crack at apps that put a Panic Button in smartphone users' hands, are there good reasons why such a feature isn't just standard on mobile devices? And, with GPS and always-watching and always-listening tech only becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous, how far out in the future is it before your person can be continuously remotely monitored like your residence, even while mobile, and what might that look like?"
Gentle people, In December 2012 after gang rape in Delhi my team and I embarked on creating a robust solution which will actually save lives - a solution which is robust and practical. We developed what was called 724watch.in a robust system. We went to New Delhi police in April 2013 and they mocked at the system we had created. We were showed many issues why the system will not work in the real world and why the system would be a nuisance for them. We worked with them for 4 months to advance 724watch.in to make it robust for a city as big as Delhi which receives 22K calls everyday - many prank, many inadvertant, many stupid and about 12K real. In our mind there was still one hole in the solution which was ability to discreetly send the SOS. In Sept 2013 we embarked on a bluetooth device called SafetyLINK. - see www.safetylink.org which took the www.724watch.in technology and added the SafetyLINK button. I say this with lot of confidence - SafetyLINK currently is the most advanced mobile personal emergency response systems (MPERS). The system takes care of things like - prank calls, inadvertent calls, automatically calling for falls and vehicle accidents. Notifyies friends and family and people within your network who are close to you. It has the ability to filter out miscreants. It connects to 24x7 monitoring station and in USA and Canada to PSAP. If there a system more advanced than SafetyLINK we would love to know about this. We welcome all questions and comments to safetylink@gmail.com and info@safetylink.org. All questions will be addressed.