In the two previous articles, we have introduced technologies related to health, medical, and life-saving in emergencies. It is also important to be safe when we are outdoor. Nowadays, with the help of smartphones and applications, it is for sure more convenient and safer while we are doing outdoor activities. Let’s take a look at the following examples.
Location Tracking Technology
What should we do if someone went missing because of emotional instability, Alzheimer’s disease, or accidents? Google has developed a trusted contacts application for users to set their family members or friends as their emergency contacts. Actively share their locations with these contacts. These emergency contacts may also ask for location, the users may choose to accept the request and disclose the GPS location to them or refuse the request. If users do not respond within 5 minutes, the application will automatically send the current location (or the last location before they are offline) of the users to their emergency contacts.
Another example of a location sharing application is Life360, the application may synchronize the real-time location of all family members, and provide users with the one-month location history of their family members. The application may also detect if the family members encountered a car crash or other traffic accidents, and provide 24/7 roadside assistance. If the users felt threatened or unsafe, they may trigger the SOS alert and notice their family members.
Sending distress signals
Traditionally, when we ask for help on phone, if we are not able to recognize our current location or if we aren’t mentally sane, the emergency department may only estimate our location through the nearest radio tower. However, with the help of GPS-based locating applications such as SirenGPS, and Ratunek, users may make an emergency call with only one press, and the life-saving department may receive information like their real-time locations, emergency contacts, and medical files so that the life-saving mission will be faster and more effective.
When we are facing potential danger but do not necessarily have to call for help, an application like Noonlight can help. When users feel threatened or insecure, they may open the application and long-press the button on the homepage, keep pressing it until they have reached the safer place, if they feel safe, they may enter their PIN to settle the emergency status. If they left hold of the button but have not input the PIN for a long time, the application will automatically disclose the real-time location of the users to the emergency department, so as to provide help to the users. Apart from that, the application support audio and text messages. If the users are moving, the real-time location will be updated automatically on the map. The application is also available on wearable devices, users may send help from smartwatches.
Elderly Support
Personal Emergency Link Service of Senior Citizen Home Safety Association has always been popular and widely used in Hong Kong. Its 24/7 emergency support solved a lot of problems encountered by the elderly who live alone. When they have fainted or tripped down, if they press the bell installed in their home, the system will automatically notify the rescue team so their lives can be saved. With the development of smartphones, a lot of elderly have their own smartphones. The SCHSA hence developed a digital version of the Personal Emergency Link Service: e-Care Link and Care-on-call service. Apart from keeping the physical safety bell and 24/7 emergency support services, there are more extended caretaking services, such as medicine intake reminders, follow-up treatment reminders, and medical tracking. The status of the home alone elderly can be detected and kept tracked by phone calls so that their safety can be ensured.
Survival and Life Saving Knowledge
A lot of movies and computer games have used apocalypse and wild survival as background or theme Yet, in our daily lives, we cannot predict the occurrence of accidents, war, or disasters. When something unfortunate happened, the following applications might help us to survive the bad times.
Zello PTT Walkie Talkie is a PTT (Push-To-Talk) walkie talkie application, it turns our devices into walkie talkies when we are disconnected from the Internet, so we may keep in touch with the others. Apart from that, it supports real-time audio communication, there is a public channel that may include 6000 users, users may replay the voice messages, as well as send out their location. We may also use the application as walkie talkie when we are on a picnic, communicate with other PTT devices, and help us to keep in touch with people who are disconnected from the Internet.
When we are having outdoor activities, especially in the countryside, we might, unfortunately, lose our direction, lost contact with our friends, or encounter emergency situations in which we need to wait for help in the wild. In this case, an accurate map, compass, and altimeter are something that may help us to locate ourselves. Apart from the inbuilt application in our phones, there are a lot of military-standardized applications of the compass, altimeter, and speedometer that can be downloaded and used by us. If we cannot find any useful tool at all, we can only wait for the rescue team. Some survival knowledge tutorial applications like Army Survival Handbook, SAS Survival Guide, and Wilderness Survival Pro are some helpful tools, they will guide you on how to make use of the surrounding resources to keep yourself safe until the savior team arrives. LeafSnap is also a useful application to help us identify different plants and how to make use of the plants.
With the assistance of the different applications, we will surely be more secure when we are outdoor. Our family members will also be reassured. The last article of this series will be about workplace safety, don’t miss out on our introduction to the new technology that can make our lives better and safer.
Read the whole series: Morden Technology Development – 4 article series about technologies for better life