AUSTIN, Texas – What’s better than a rocket in your pocket when you find yourself in a sticky situation? Buddy Guard from MPower Labs of course! The app, which launched this week at SXSW is a mobile protector in your pocket, alerting friends and family of your whereabouts and status in case of emergency.
The app which comes in both free and paid flavors, is currently only available on Apple Inc.’s iOS, but has been tried and tested by law enforcement personnel and is backed by such heavyweights as GEOS, the global leaders in rural rescue, and Lloyds of London.
So, what does it do? The free version is actually pretty comprehensive, offering services like fall detection, crash detection, secure meetings and emergency SMS. The app can even detect an impact, fall or a 5G stop using the inbuilt accelerometer and if it isn’t deactivated within five seconds, it sends out an emergency alert to contacts.
In another scenario, for instance, if a person wants to go and meet a vendor they met on CraigsList and are concerned for their safety – Buddy Guard allows them to press an “emergency button” on their phone if the situation gets hairy, which automatically starts taking pictures every ten seconds, recording all sounds and pinpointing exact GPS coordinates. This information is then uploaded to the cloud and a link to it is sent out to selected emergency contacts. These contacts are selected by the user and they’ll receive the information both by e-mail and SMS.
If letting your emergency contacts know you’re in danger is just not good enough – say, you’re traveling in Haiti or Afghanistan and need a bit more backup – the paid version offers just that. For $120 you can get the power of the International Emergency Response Coordination Center at your beck and call, with GEOS search and rescue. That means someone on the end of the emergency hotline 24-hours a day in 150 languages and a $1 million Lloyd’s of London insurance policy to pay for emergency services like ambulances or helicopters to airlift you to safety.
The app will come out on Android soon and BlackBerry at some point in the near future, said the firm.
