An iPhone owner in peril can now send a “Help” message and their location to friends or family using a free app from the iTunes Store, but the software may rely too much on the Internet as a way of sending critical information. The Silent Bodyguard app works on both the iPhone and iPad touch, and will send an e-mail and SMS message to your pre-programmed list of three contacts once every 60 seconds when activated. The app shares many of the limitations of text-messaging 911, which has been promoted by some as an essential NextGen 911 feature. The Silent Bodyguard app is endorsed by former FBI profiled Clinton Van Sant and—oddly—by a long list of organizations that includes the UCLA Russian Club. Van Sant says many of the hundreds of kidnap and missing person cases he’s investigated, “could have been resolved successfully” if the victims had some way of making a silent notification of their distress and location. However, even developer Fun at Work LLC admits some limitations of the app that might affect its live-saving capabiliites and complicate the response of comm centers.
First, the company says, delivery of the distress messages depends upon having an Internet connection, either by the iPhone’s cellular connection or Wi-Fi for either an iPhone or iPod touch. Because both wireless connections depend upon radio waves, reception is always tricky. iPhone users continue to complain about poor reception on the AT&T network, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone.
Next, the delivery of location information depends upon a complex chain of technology, including the GPS satellite network (iPhone) and Wi-Fi geolocating (iPod touch).
If the person in distress is out of view of the GPS satellites by being inside a building, in a transit tunnel or other obstructed location, the location cannot be determined. Geolocation by Wi-Fi nodes, as used by Apple for locating with the iPod touch, is dependent upon being within range of a node, and that node being recognized by the database Apple uses for geolocation.
For the delivery of the e-mail and SMS distress messages, the delivery chain is even more tenuous. Fun at Work notes that the distress messages are routed to the company’s servers, which then directs them to the proper destination. The messages are not directly routed from the iPhone/iPod touch to the recipients. This routing technique introduces yet another set of technology between the person in distress and the message destination.
Next, for the e-mail or SMS messages to be delivered from the company’s servers, a long chain of Internet servers and communications links need to be operating and correctly configured. On an ordinary day, it’s not uncommon for servers or links to go down, without any notification to those who send messages.
the SMS message delivered to a contact
If and when the distress message arrives at its destination, it displays the location as a set of decimal latitude and longitude within a Google Maps Web link. However, the link is not “hot” and must be re-copied into a browser in order to view the location.
The receiving comm center would then need to verify the person’s location from the latitude and longitude, and determine the appropriate jurisdiction to notify.
Lastly, even when the proper agency is notified, dispatchers wouldn’t know what type of assistance to send—law enforcement, fire or EMS—because there is no way to indicate the nature of the distress. The app does provide updated and more accurate GPS location information on subsequent distress messages, which shows if the person is moving.
The app developer limits the number of distress activations per month to five. If that limit is exceeded, the limit drops to two per month. It’s not clear if this limit was set to prevent an overload of 911 PSAPs or the company’s SMS message relay server.
It’s also not clear how long the app continues to send the distress messages after activation.
Check the iTunes Store for the app and view more information on the company’s Web site.
4 comments… add one
I am one of the developers of Silent Bodyguard and wanted to clarify a few things for your readers:
The SMS and email are sent via a service outside the user’s phone so that the alarm will be silent and automatic. A key feature that we built into Silent Bodyguard is that it is a silent and secret panic button–the home screen looks like a photo viewing screen so that the user can open the application and trigger it without anyone knowing–this means an nosy onlooker, a date who is drunk and getting unruly or an attacker or abductor.
We designed the app this way because of some tragic events that inspired the development of the app in the first place: a classmate of my youngest daughter was abducted and murdered while on an errand. Her abductor forced her to drive to a series of ATMs and when she couldn’t withdraw cash, allowed her to phone her parents–but she was unable to let them know she was in danger.
Silent Bodyguard’s emergency emails with updated GPS location go out every 60 seconds–until the app is deactivated. So the whereabouts of the user is refined and tracked through time and space–silently and secretly.
We cannot have the messages go directly to the police–yet. London, England is one of the few cities in the world whose police department accepts text and emails–but we hope US police will be able to receive these. In the meantime, a concerned friend or family member who has been selected to receive the SOS can alert the proper authorities or take action to help a friend or loved one in trouble.
Thank you.
Thanks for your feedback on the development of the app. The limitations I mentioned in the story are mainly the result of the way the Internet has been constructed, not the app itself. There is an inherent unreliability in communicating via the Internet that doesn’t usually affect day-to-day communications. In this case, if a Silent Bodyguard user relies upon the app for help when it’s activated, they may not consider other strategies or actions to get themselves out of danger. And if their distress message doesn’t go through (or the emergency contact doesn’t read their e-mail very often), they could be put into even more peril than if they considered other actions. Reliance on the app and the Internet may not be well-placed in critical situations.
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say superb blog!
I have read very carefully the review and the comments by developer. I have found another app, which solved the issue of location tracking limitations of internet, in the way that if WiFi signal is not available, the app can triangulate the position by measuring the positioning signal of the nearest 3 carrier towers and the distress notification being sent out, contains also the local GMT time when it was triggered.
This way if you are a parent in Germany and your kid is in Sahara on a school-safari, and their bus gets high-jacked, you will be able to call local police and beside position of the call, give them their local time when the event occurred.
The app website and details: http://www.redpanicbutton.com
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