Can your phone keep you safe? A new smartphone application offers one tap protection aimed at personal safety. It's called SOS Quick Capture. It uses your phone's camera and messaging system to let others know you're in trouble.
"Now days
everybody has a phone," Lauren Fioretti said.
As a single, young professional, Fioretti says she takes her personal safety seriously. She says she never leaves home without her pepper spray and her phone.
"I always grew up with personal safety and always making sure I'm aware of my surroundings, whether it's driving or going to the store," Fioretti added.
Here's how the app works. Once you download the app for $2.99, you set up a list of emergency contacts. If you're ever in trouble, with one click, the app takes a series of pictures. It then sends those pictures via text message and email to your
emergency contacts, along with a message saying, "Emergency! I may need your help right now."
It also sends a Google maps link showing your exact location.
"There are situations that you're in, where you want to get notice out quickly where you are, and what's going on," said Robert Sullivan, who developed the app with partner Larry Golsong.
They produced a video to demonstrate the app's intent. It shows a young woman walking on a dark street being followed by a strange man. When he approaches her, she fires the app.
"This could, we're hoping, become a standard in phones," Sullivan said.
Fioretti says
the only drawback she sees is false alarms.
"A younger kid maybe has, it could be like the wolf cry," she said.
But overall, she gave it a thumbs up and called it a "genius" idea.
The developers say you can even add 911 to your contact list where texting to 911 is available.