By Marie King
On Jan. 19, Guardly, a mobile personal safety app for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Phone 7, launched at 67 universities across Canada, including Memorial University.
By downloading the free app and registering with your MUN email address, members of the campus community will be provided with one-touch access to Campus Enforcement and Patrol when on-campus. The phone’s GPS will determine whether the individual is within the bounds of the university campus, and automatically contact the appropriate security measures.
“I had the product vision and guided development of the service,†said Josh Sookman, CEO at Guardly. “Our initial service was inspired by witnessing slow responses for calls to 911 assistance.â€
The development efforts for the technology were led by Nolan Dubeau. Guardly has been working on the application since Fall 2010, and the consumer service has been available since last April. However, this is the first time the application has been launched specifically for use on university campuses.
Sookman says the application can be used to attain assistance for a number of different circumstances: feeling as though you are being followed on the walk home from a night class or the library, having an allergic reaction or other medical emergency, witnessing a crime or wanting to report an incident, dating violence or sexual assault, or any other general feelings of insecurity.
“Emergencies come in many shapes and sizes, and are differently defined for many people,†said Sookman.
Students can download the app from mobile app stores, and can read more about Guardly’s Campus Hero campaign on their website, guardly.com/campushero.
“Inspiration for this free service for students came from better understanding how calls for help generally occur on university campuses and how archaic the systems are. Our technology brings the capability code blue emergency phones, typically found sparsely on campus paths and in buildings, onto students' smartphones, which we believe will reduce response times for those calling for help.â€
Share [1]
No comments:
Post a Comment