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tsung-wei-huang / cs3992

Computer Engineering Senior Pre-Thesis and Pre-Project
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UGuard: Make Safety a Priority Through Connectivity #14

Open mfateh93 opened 3 years ago

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

Hello,

Our objective is to build a handheld device and phone application. UGuard, implement a groundbreaking safety protocol to help college students stay safe at their campuses. We are searching for motivated, skillful, and ambitious engineers with a strong background in programming, hardware, and wireless. Details are summarized below:

Project Objective: Build a wireless network for personal safety across college campuses.

Explain your project details, visions, and roadmap. Why should I care if it is successful? We as a team see college campuses' lack of security as a much-needed improvement. SafeU will provide additional safety measures to existing systems.

Current Team Members and Their Duties

Josh Merrill: Positioning System, Network Communication
Todd Nielson: Hardware Communication, Hardware Programming, Security
Salwa Bukhari: Hardware, Power, Hardware Programming
Mohammed Fateh: Mobile Application, Infrastructure, Data Integrity

If you can contribute to our project, we are looking for:

PCB Designers
Wireless Communication
Multi-threading programmers

Why should you purchase our product? Our product is a highly developed safety tool that suits all genders and ages. We all can see that these days with the rise of assault and kidnapping incidents. We want to make sure that our community has all the resources and access to be as safe as possible. Safety is our number one priority for our women, men, and potentially our children.

Contact

You can reply directly to this issue or contact the Mohammed Fateh at: moe.fateh at pm dot me

Website

You can visit our website by following this link: UGuard

altonbill commented 3 years ago

Jacob Bills & Collin Pollard

What is the practical use of this project? Personal safety device with rapid response capabilities

What are the challenges to implementing this project? Device size and ease of use Reasonable cost compared to competing solutions Quantifying the safety value of the product

What is the marketplace for this project? College Students

Will we buy it? Probably not, concerned about niche use-case that can be handled with a cellphone

What to improve the project from an outsider’s perspective Integrate with an existing safety device. Like having the button activate when a can of pepper spray is used. As well broad wireless support

MrYo531 commented 3 years ago

What is the practical use? This will help keep campus students safe and provide an application to improve campus safety. What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? It will be a challenge creating the phone application. It will require app development knowledge. Ensuring security for te user as well and providing emergency contacts is integral. Hardware challenges too such as power mangement. What is the marketplace for this projet? All university students, and even staff or faculty that care about their safety. Will we buy it? I personally don't care about my safety. I also only download apps that I will use so... What to improve from an outsider's perspective? I'm a bit unsure on the price. And how the hardware component is integral. Couldn't you just have a software application to notify emergency contacts.

jason-zavala commented 3 years ago

What is the practical use of this project? Campus safety seems like a big one.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? Wireless communication and interfacing seems like it will be the biggest project.

What is the marketplace for this projet? Students and other people who maybe work nights or live in dangerous areas.

Will we buy it? No

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? $120+ seems like a tough sell. I am a little confused what the hardware portion of this is for? It seems like this is entirely capable of living in Software

Interestle commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 9 (Colton Watson, Seth Jackson, Phelan Hobbs):

What is the practical use? This device is for safety across campuses. Someone presses a button, and corresponding people and personal would be notified. It would be useful for safety and survival situations on campus.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project?

Accidental presses or activations - Can it be cancelled? How can the product be made in a way someone would want to carry it?

What is the marketplace for this project? How will it be different from things like Life Alert but for twenty year-olds?

Will we buy it? I wouldn't. There's options on campus. Cell phones are ubiquitous. I'm not an expected demographic. Maybe as an app? On my phone, I can call 911 without unlocking the screen by pressing two buttons.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? It could be made to appeal to other people outside of campus.

Sam3077 commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 1 (Benjamin Wadsworth, Dalton Clift, Sam Hirsch):

What is the practical use? This is a personal safety device that provides immediate access to emergency services.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? With safety products you really want to guarantee reliability. How will you ensure a strong connection? What if the phone dies? What if the device dies? You may want a very clear notification to the user when the battery is low so that they don't accidentally forget to charge it. If you are trying to notify emergency services, how will you get a standardized protocol to communicate with them? They all use different platforms and many still only use phone calls to dispatch responders.

What is the marketplace for this project? Likely for young adults, campuses, or worried parents.

Will we buy it? We may misunderstand the scope of the project, but it seems basically like a bluetooth extension to pre-existing phone functionality. Personally, my phone had this function but I had to disable it because of too many accidental activations.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? You may want to clarify your project scope a bit further. It is unclear if your device connects through the user's phone, or if it is fully self sufficient. Additionally, what protocol is activated when the emergency button is pressed? I believe you mentioned notifying a list of contacts and emergency services, but that isn't clear from the website description.

JstaNate commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group HealthyBois (Nathan Hummel, Michael Linnebach, Brady Smith):

TristanStotesbery commented 3 years ago

Group 3 (Tristan Stotesbery, Spencer Durrant, Ben Van hoose): The practical use for this project is to keep people safe. It seems like one challenge might be how is the device going to be small enough to be carried discreetly. The marketplace could be people who are worried for their safety, or who live/work in sketchy areas where crime is more prevalent. We probably wouldn't buy it as described, we are having a hard time seeing the benefit to this over calling 911. Maybe expand on the benefits of this product compared to a 911 call? (is it faster, or is it's intended use different than contacting emergency services?)

Huchimama commented 3 years ago

VectorU (Scott Crowley, Aaron Tea) Personal safety always has a practical use especially for those who feel more vulnerable. One challenge we see is how fast is the response time? This seems to be the number one factor in personal safety, how fast can you respond. There is always a market for personal safety. It seems the ones that succeed is the ones that have the best and the most marketing. One option could be working with the university police.

lrm77 commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 5 (Luke, John, McKay, Benjamin): --Practical Use This product can be used to improve the safety of an individual by allowing them to quickly and easily contact certain people in an emergency situation. May be especially useful on college campuses. --Challenges One of the biggest challenges will be communicating wirelessly from the device to other phones in the area. It will be especially challenging to make the communication robust enough to get a message through even when there are wireless connection issues. --Marketplace This device could be beneficial to anyone who could be at risk of assault or kidnapping. It seems to be primarily targeted at students on college campuses but could also be marketed towards individuals in big cities. --Purchase? For the current price, we would not purchase this product. If the price could be reduced we would consider buying it for personal safety, and for safety of loved ones. --Improvements? -One improvement would be to further explain how the project is intended to function. It is a little unclear exactly how the device will work. -Another improvement to the product might be to directly contact emergency services such as campus police. -Make devices customizable so they can't be easily identified by potential threats.

alexCharters commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 6 Emmanuel Lotubai, Brandon Chen, Alex Charters:

What is the practical use? Safety device for a range of situations. For contacting emergency services or personal contact.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project?

What is the marketplace for this project?

Will we buy it? Probably not. With the iPhone's emergency feature it seems redundant.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? Cost reduction.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 1 (Benjamin Wadsworth, Dalton Clift, Sam Hirsch):

What is the practical use? This is a personal safety device that provides immediate access to emergency services.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? With safety products you really want to guarantee reliability. How will you ensure a strong connection? What if the phone dies? What if the device dies? You may want a very clear notification to the user when the battery is low so that they don't accidentally forget to charge it. If you are trying to notify emergency services, how will you get a standardized protocol to communicate with them? They all use different platforms and many still only use phone calls to dispatch responders.

What is the marketplace for this project? Likely for young adults, campuses, or worried parents.

Will we buy it? We may misunderstand the scope of the project, but it seems basically like a bluetooth extension to pre-existing phone functionality. Personally, my phone had this function but I had to disable it because of too many accidental activations.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? You may want to clarify your project scope a bit further. It is unclear if your device connects through the user's phone, or if it is fully self sufficient. Additionally, what protocol is activated when the emergency button is pressed? I believe you mentioned notifying a list of contacts and emergency services, but that isn't clear from the website description.

Thank you for your feedback. These are important points you have made. Below are answers to the questions you have raised.

1. How will you ensure a strong connection?

We will rely on a multi-tier communication network. Including college wireless networks, campus mass communication services, mesh networks (such as crowd GPS), and cellular networks.

2. What if the phone or the device dies?

If the phone dies, the fob will operate independently from the phone. If the fob dies, the user can still use the app to trigger an emergency.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

Group 3 (Tristan Stotesbery, Spencer Durrant, Ben Van hoose): The practical use for this project is to keep people safe. It seems like one challenge might be how is the device going to be small enough to be carried discreetly. The marketplace could be people who are worried for their safety, or who live/work in sketchy areas where crime is more prevalent. We probably wouldn't buy it as described, we are having a hard time seeing the benefit to this over calling 911. Maybe expand on the benefits of this product compared to a 911 call? (is it faster, or is it's intended use different than contacting emergency services?)

Thank you for your comments. Please see the answers below.

Can you expand on the benefits of this product compared to a 911 call?

You are more likely to succeed in reporting an emergency with the fob than logging into your phone and calling the authority in a critical situation. In addition, the idea is to report an emergency to as many people as possible who are in a position of responding to the report such as friends and family, along with standard emergency services. Also, you can see the disadvantage of alerting the authority in a situation when you are being attacked versus you were in a car accident. Time is an important factor in these circumstances.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

VectorU (Scott Crowley, Aaron Tea) Personal safety always has a practical use especially for those who feel more vulnerable. One challenge we see is how fast is the response time? This seems to be the number one factor in personal safety, how fast can you respond. There is always a market for personal safety. It seems the ones that succeed is the ones that have the best and the most marketing. One option could be working with the university police.

Thank you for the comment. You are correct, there is a market for these devices, however, they are not being advertised for specific purposes. The idea is to find a practical way to handle reports around campus with faster response times. In addition, adding a community-driven safety network is a good way to expand the safety around campus. One solution can be routing the reports to campus safety services and have them handle it while other students/nearby responders can also help out, as you know, many sexual incidents can be avoided when there is a presence of individuals in that area.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 5 (Luke, John, McKay, Benjamin): --Practical Use This product can be used to improve the safety of an individual by allowing them to quickly and easily contact certain people in an emergency situation. May be especially useful on college campuses. --Challenges One of the biggest challenges will be communicating wirelessly from the device to other phones in the area. It will be especially challenging to make the communication robust enough to get a message through even when there are wireless connection issues. --Marketplace This device could be beneficial to anyone who could be at risk of assault or kidnapping. It seems to be primarily targeted at students on college campuses but could also be marketed towards individuals in big cities. --Purchase? For the current price, we would not purchase this product. If the price could be reduced we would consider buying it for personal safety, and for safety of loved ones. --Improvements? -One improvement would be to further explain how the project is intended to function. It is a little unclear exactly how the device will work. -Another improvement to the product might be to directly contact emergency services such as campus police. -Make devices customizable so they can't be easily identified by potential threats.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Please see our comments below.

Regarding the price of the device, it is an initial price that can be reduced as it depends on many other factors. We will also be addressing the website issues concerning the product description. A solution for reporting the incidents is to use the wireless network available on campus, cellular services, mesh network (such as crowd GPS), campus mass communication services.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 6 Emmanuel Lotubai, Brandon Chen, Alex Charters:

What is the practical use? Safety device for a range of situations. For contacting emergency services or personal contact.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project?

* Wireless networking.

* Keeping the device small and cost-effective.

* Mitigating accidental activation.

What is the marketplace for this project?

* College students who don't feel safe

* Children

Will we buy it? Probably not. With the iPhone's emergency feature it seems redundant.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? Cost reduction.

Thank you for your comments. Please see our comments below.

Regarding the iPhone emergency feature, since iPhone is not the primary choice for users it deems it useless for the other part of the population. In addition, pressing the lock button 5 times in a row might not be the best solution for someone in an emergency situation. Also, if the phone dies out, you are no longer able to report your location or any useful information to the authority. Our idea is looking to enhance the current emergency system throughout college campuses and to increase connectivity between college students to act as first responders.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group HealthyBois (Nathan Hummel, Michael Linnebach, Brady Smith):

* What is the practical use?
  -- Improve safety

* What are the challenges we think of to implement this project?
  -- How will you deal with accidental clicks?
  -- If you dont have a phone on you what does this device offer?
  -- Bluetooth priority on phones may be an issue.

* What is the marketplace for this project?
  -- General store or Amazon.

* Will we buy it?
  -- No

* What to improve from an outsider's perspective?
  -- Is this any more practical than having your phone in your hand?  What makes it different than having an app you can hit a button on?

Thank you for your questions. Please see our comments below.

How will you deal with accidental clicks?

This is a work-in-progress item. However, the initial thought is when a button is pressed, it will take some time (around 10 seconds) to send the emergency request. In this scenario, the user will have the opportunity to undo this action through the fob itself. If the time is passed and the request has been sent, the user can only terminate the emergency using the phone application for security reasons.

If you don't have a phone on you what does this device offer?

The fob will be self-sufficient and will operate independently from your phone. The fob will provide the majority of the functionality (the functionality can be triggered using the phone app as well) such as location, and sending alerts.

Bluetooth priority on phones may be an issue.

When the device is connected to the phone using Bluetooth technology, it will be able to communicate without priority issues since we are not using it as an audio output (such as the case of connecting your phone to the car and wireless headsets). In addition, the device will not be solely dependent on the phone to send the alerts, it can be self-sufficient.

Is this any more practical than having your phone in your hand? What makes it different than having an app you can hit a button on?

Yes. Because phones cannot be concealed and in situations where time is a critical element, you wouldn't be able to unlock your phone and contact emergency. The idea is to make the device alert emergency contacts and authority as soon as possible. If you have an app on your phone, you will still need to have access to your phone, unlock it, access the app, and then press the button, which is what our product is trying to eliminate.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 9 (Colton Watson, Seth Jackson, Phelan Hobbs):

What is the practical use? This device is for safety across campuses. Someone presses a button, and corresponding people and personal would be notified. It would be useful for safety and survival situations on campus.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project?

Accidental presses or activations - Can it be cancelled? How can the product be made in a way someone would want to carry it?

What is the marketplace for this project? How will it be different from things like Life Alert but for twenty year-olds?

Will we buy it? I wouldn't. There's options on campus. Cell phones are ubiquitous. I'm not an expected demographic. Maybe as an app? On my phone, I can call 911 without unlocking the screen by pressing two buttons.

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? It could be made to appeal to other people outside of campus.

Thank you for your comments. Please see our responses below.

Accidental presses or activations - Can it be canceled?

This is a work-in-progress item. However, the initial thought is when a button is pressed, it will take some time (around 10 seconds) to send the emergency request. In this scenario, the user will have the opportunity to undo this action through the fob itself. If the time is passed and the request has been sent, the user can only terminate the emergency using the phone application for security reasons.

How can the product be made in a way someone would want to carry it?

The fob can be customized when it comes to handling. It can be attached to a lanyard, bracelet, chain, or pants pockets.

How will it be different from things like Life Alert but for twenty-year-olds?

Although the functionality might appear similar to the user, however, the purpose is entirely different. In our case, we are not notifying medical staff or firefighters for the emergency. Our main purpose is to identify and report sexual incidents to authorities (campus safety and police) and emergency contacts of the user. In addition, the focus is on building a community-driven safety tool where the community can also play a role in responding to these incidents and actively discourage them (using crowd GPS functionality).

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

What is the practical use of this project? Campus safety seems like a big one.

What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? Wireless communication and interfacing seems like it will be the biggest project.

What is the marketplace for this projet? Students and other people who maybe work nights or live in dangerous areas.

Will we buy it? No

What to improve from an outsider's perspective? $120+ seems like a tough sell. I am a little confused what the hardware portion of this is for? It seems like this is entirely capable of living in Software

Thank you for your comment. Please see our reply below.

Price

Regarding the price of the device, it is an initial price that can be reduced as it depends on many other factors. Competitors have their prices close to $150, our intention is to make the device affordable if applicable.

Is the hardware functionality justifiable? Can it live entirely in software?

The reason behind making the fob is to eliminate the dependency of the phone for reporting emergencies. It is difficult to report the incidents using a phone when you are in a critical situation, you will need to unlock your phone, make a call, and even respond to the dispatcher. Your phone can die and this will eliminate the use of the service. In addition, the fob can be concealed whereas a phone cant while being used for emergencies. Furthermore, the device can work independently from the phone which is a plus.

mfateh93 commented 3 years ago

What is the practical use? This will help keep campus students safe and provide an application to improve campus safety. What are the challenges we think of to implement this project? It will be a challenge creating the phone application. It will require app development knowledge. Ensuring security for te user as well and providing emergency contacts is integral. Hardware challenges too such as power mangement. What is the marketplace for this projet? All university students, and even staff or faculty that care about their safety. Will we buy it? I personally don't care about my safety. I also only download apps that I will use so... What to improve from an outsider's perspective? I'm a bit unsure on the price. And how the hardware component is integral. Couldn't you just have a software application to notify emergency contacts.

Thank you for your comments. Please see our responses.

Price

Regarding the price of the device, it is an initial price that can be reduced as it depends on many other factors. Competitors have their prices close to $150, our intention is to make the device affordable if applicable.

How the hardware component is integral?

The hardware is the essence of the project. Please refer to previous comments.

BradySmith1019 commented 3 years ago

HealthyBois comment:

Is the prototype related to the project? Yes, the prototype seems to be fairly related. More information would be helpful in describing what exactly the two endpoints being used are.

Will we invest after viewing prototype? Not enough information to determine investment. Would like to know what the endpoints are before investing.

bbleaptrot commented 3 years ago

Comments from Team 5 (Luke, Benjamin, John, Mckay): -Is this prototype related to the project?

Somewhat! Bluetooth technology is great for short distance communication, but performs poorly with long distances. For this product, we imagine there needs to be a strong signal to communicate to other devices.

-Is the prototype convincing us to buy?

Currently no. If the prototype used a communication protocol that could send / receive signals from longer distances, we would be more interested. If the goal of this prototype is to send communication to the user's cellphone to complete the communication, then we would also like to see it perform this silently on the phone.

Durrantula commented 3 years ago

Group 3's response Is the prototype related? Yes, bluetooth is commonly used in any wireless communication nowadays.

Is the prototype convincing to invest in? Not yet, maybe demonstrate a way this communication gives security

YeZhou0226 commented 3 years ago

• Is the prototype related to the project? (with comments) No. It doesn't include the accurate steps they need to finish. • Is the prototype convincing for you to invest? (with comments) No. They need some specific details, such as what wireless protocol is used and the choice of hardware.

MrYo531 commented 3 years ago

Is the prototype related to the project?

Is the prototype convincing for you to invest?

alexCharters commented 3 years ago

Is the prototype related to the project?

Is the prototype convincing for us to invest?

altonbill commented 3 years ago

Is the prototype related to the project?

Yes, getting some sort of wireless communication working will be a good starter goal.

Is the prototype convincing for you to invest? No, Bluetooth is a very different technology than GSM which would be the most critical technology for adoption.

Interestle commented 3 years ago

Comment from Group 9 (Colton Watson, Seth Jackson, Phelan Hobbs):

Is the prototype related to the project?

Yes, the prototype is related to the project. Getting one part of the communication working is vital for a project like this.

Is the prototype convincing for you to invest?

It's hard to say, this prototype isn't descriptive with the software, if it could be fleshed out more, we could see ourselves investing in this.

Huchimama commented 3 years ago

vectoru (Aaron Tea, Scott Crowley) The prototype is related to the project and easy to understand. We think the prototype could be a little more convincing with more description about the software.

ColinPollard commented 3 years ago

Is the prototype related to the project? Yes.

Is the prototype convincing for us to invest? In its current state, the prototype proposal is far too broad. As of now, it demonstrates nothing that is novel or very specific to the application. I think better defining of the scope would improve this greatly.

bcwadsworth commented 3 years ago

Group 1 (Sam Hirsch, Dalton Clift, and Benjamin Wadsworth)

Is the prototype related to the project? Sort of? The research does seem to be related but we don't understand why an FSM is an integral part of the project.

Will we invest? No. There appears to be several options on the market for this. The prototype does not seem to show enough progress to be appealing to investing.