Despite current social and economic advances, there still remains an overabundance of criminal activity in most societies. Unfortunately, the amount of resources for combating such criminal activity is typically limited. Accordingly, when criminal activity occurs, police and other law enforcement agencies typically rely on citizen calling for aid via specific, well-established communications channels. For example, in the United States, the telephone number 911 is utilized almost universally as a means to contact law enforcement agencies and other emergency response services. However, 911-based systems are limited in some aspects.
First, even though 911 services are accessible via virtually any telephone, they still rely on a dialing process. On a landline telephone or a basic mobile phone (i.e., other than a smartphone) the dialing process is trivial. However, on various other types of devices (smartphones, computers, tablet devices, etc. . . . ), additional steps can be required to establishing the call. For example, on a smartphone, a screen unlocking process may be required, followed by selection of an phone application. Still another difficulty is that in some scenarios, even the simple act of dialing 911 can be difficult. For example, an individual being robbed or assaulted may be under high stress conditions and therefore may be unable to properly dial 911 or operate his phone at all in a normal fashion. In another example, an injured individual may be physically unable to dial 911.
Second, seeking assistance via 911 can sometime be an inefficient process. For example, in some circumstances, the closest or most appropriate emergency response service may not be reached by the call. For example, a college or university may have their own on-campus emergency response services. However, a mobile phone call to 911 from a person on the campus would not typically reach such services. Rather, the call would go to a central 911 hub from which the campus emergency response services may be dispatched. As a result, it is possible that life threatening delays can occur while the campus emergency response services are contacted or dispatched.
One solution to the above-mentioned problems is the use of specialized emergency devices. However, such devices are typically limited. For example, some devices are merely act as a distress beacon, which may communicate location information, but no information regarding the present state of the user. For example, it is not uncommon to see the use of call stations on university campuses that provide one-button access to on-campus emergency response services. Thus, location information is provided when such a station is activated, but no information about the victim is provided. Further, such stations are generally fixed, so they rely on the victim being able to reach the station and for the victim to remain in proximity of the station.
Other devices may be associated with specific users, but such devices are restricted to sending a signal that contains a limited amount of vital content about the user or may rely on a third party dispatcher. For example, emergency response services such as the LIFE ALERT system of Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc., provide a remote control device that allows users to cause a speakerphone in their home to automatically place a call to a monitoring service. The monitoring service then contacts appropriate persons for responding to the user's emergency. Unfortunately, such systems typically require the use of specialized equipment. Further, such systems typically lack the capability to directly contact emergency services to begin dispatch of emergency response services immediately. As noted above, delays in dispatching emergency response personnel can have adverse, if not fatal, consequences for the user.