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Free personal-safety mobile app allows virtual friends to guide you in unsafe neighborhood
The Companion app, created by five students from the
University of Michigan, enables users to request a friend or family member to
keep them company virtually and track their journey home via GPS on an online
map.
Companion lets you reach out to family, friends or your
campus police and have them keep an eye on you as you travel late at night.
Wherever you go, get there safely with a Companion!
All you have to do is enter your destination and select
some contacts to be your Companion. They do not even need the app to be installed
on their phones or computers. The user can send out several requests to
different phone contacts in case people are not available to be a companion or
not with their phones at the time. Those contacted then receive an SMS text
message with a hyperlink in it that sends them to a web page with an
interactive map showing the user walking to their destination, from Point A to
Point B.
In the particular worrisome conditions, like If you start
running, do not make it to your destination on time, have your headphones
yanked out or your phone falls to the ground, you will be instantly checked in to
make sure everything is okay. If the user is fine, they press a button on the
app to confirm within 15 seconds. If they do not press the button, or a real
emergency is occurring, the Companion app transforms the user's phone into a
personal alarm system that projects loud noises to scare criminals from the
scene, and gives you the option to call the police. You can call 9-1-1 from this
app with just two taps. You will be connected to the closest dispatcher, who
gets your location automatically.
You can also report areas on your campus that make you
uneasy. Simply tap the "I Feel Nervous" button and this information will
be passed to your campus police department. Do not worry, all the reports are
strictly anonymous. Campus police will check the spot at the observed
conditions and will assure that this area will become safer, and perceived safer
in the future.
As the app was originally designed to aid students in
walking home at night across university campuses. If the user calls 911, the
app will also alert the person's relevant university campus safety department
within the US, but this feature is only applicable to universities that have
signed up to work with Companion.
At the same time, the app will send an alert to the
contact who is keeping you company, and that person can choose to call the
police and give them your location, as well as call you to find out if you are
OK.
Website: http://companionapp.io/
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