Withthe rise technology, advancement of modern medicine to tackle once most feareddeadly diseases like malaria, the emergence of new world economies and fastmeans of transport and communication there have also emerged new vices all ofthe world. With crime rates soaring rocket high in virtually every country andterrorism hitting the news everywhere. Stepping out of our homes nowadaysthere’s no guarantee of safe return in the evening. Even with the rise ofsmartphones and new gadgets to help in crime prevention there is still need ofmore work to be done to help persons in danger to get help more quickly andtherefore go out in confidence knowing that help is nearby. Kenya has not beenan exception either, there has been so many reported terrorism attacks in therecent past alone than there has been since independence. With high crime ratesall over the country especially in the urban areas raising by the day.
Recentreports have shown that Kenya is ranked among the worst globally in reportedcases of kidnappings and abductions. Most of this crimes can be prevented ordrastically reduced if the respond time by the police and medical facultiescould be reduced. But as of the situation now this is not the case with the nation’semergency hotline (999) being highly inefficient and in most cases notfunctional, most people are left by themselves to find innovative ways ofgetting out of trouble or getting help in emergency situation. Most Kenyans inemergency situations resort and prefer to call their relatives or close friendsor neighbors for help and they in turn call for security persons whom they knowor they themselves go out to help this victims. In most cases the reaction timeof the victims when trying to call for help is a life and death act.
Most ofthe time, for example in an abduction situation the first thing the abductorswill take from the victim is their phones so that they do not call for help. Alsomost smartphones are not completely reliable due to short battery life sincethe emergency can happen in time when the battery has died or when the victimdoesn’t have sufficient airtime to make a phone call. It is also not easy totrack down the victim’s smartphone when they call asking for help and they canaccurately explain where they are. Sometimes victims are found in situationwhere it is not possible to make a phone call as doing so might disclose wherethey are hiding, they are left with the only option of sending an SMS. How fastthis SMS gets to the help they want is also a life and death act and time iscrucial.Thisproposal tries to solve these issues by designing an electronic gadget thatwill have just one button (which saves a lot of time) that once the person inan emergency situation presses it will send a SMS to specific saved phonenumbers of people close to the victims that can send help as fast as possibleor they themselves can go to the rescue of this individual. This pre-savedphone numbers might include security personnel close to this person or a nearbypolice station number to where this person lives.
In order to accurately locatethe position of the victim the SMS will include the GSP co-ordinates of thegadget for it to be tracked. This SMS will continue to be sent after every 15minutes just in case the person is in movement. This will continue to happenuntil the gadgets batteries dies.
