An emergency assistance app that preemptively streams critical data into the cloud and automatically calls for help only if the situation escalates.
Help people when they are unable or too stressed to call for help.
A way to ensure an aggressor is caught.
Preemptive data gathering (just in case) without the need to actually escalate the situation to a call for help.
A long press on one of the phone's side buttons activates the app. From then on, it starts streaming into the cloud any useful data it can gather. For example:
audio and video
transcribed license plate numbers
multiple high-quality images of any face that gets into view
live GPS location, direction, and travel speed
road signs
While the app is already activated, if the person holds down a side button again, the app expects an emergency message from the owner. For example, "Help, I'm being kidnapped by <identifying information>". As soon as the button is released, the app calls the local emergency number (911 for USA). When the operator answers, the app broadcasts your emergency message twice, then your GPS coordinates, then proceeds to identify itself (as the emergency app).
The app gives the operator a short web link where they can access all the data that is being streamed into the cloud.
If anyone yells help 3 times, the app auto-activates. It simultaneously starts capturing data, calls the local emergency number, and puts the operator on speaker.
So as to not interrupt the conversation, the app speaks only if it detects no speech from the phone's side. It briefly identifies itself "automated emergency app, the phone owner is in danger, please send help to GPS coordinates, the app is capturing data and streaming it on website help.com/39489". Then it lets the operator listen to local audio. Every once in a while it repeats the emergency message.
When the screen of the phone is repeatedly tapped more than five times in four seconds, the app will silently activate. In silent activation, the emergency operator is not put on speaker. Everything else is the same as the above example.
While the app is activated, the owner has to put the finger on the fingerprit reader at least once per 30 seconds. If the phone doesn't see the owner's fingerprint for over a minute, it automatically calls for help.
Phone disconnected while the app was activated
If the phone gets disconnected for more than a few minutes the server calls for help using the latest available data in the cloud.
A young person hitchhiking (or going for Uber) alone activates the app because they don't feel safe. As the car approaches, they casually hold the phone so that it captures the license plate, the car make/color, and the driver's face. If the ride goes well, the owner disarms the app in the end. All data is deleted from the cloud.
Otherwise, whoever does anything to the phone's owner would be captured in the cloud before they knew it. They would have little chance of getting away with a crime.
Darko Savic Dec 14, 2021