Smartphone app offers 1 tap protection

App aims for personal safety

Can your phone keep you safe? A new smartphone application offers one tap protection aimed at personal safety.

[WEB EXTRA: SOS Quick Capture ]

It's called S-O-S quick capture. It uses your phone's camera and messaging system to let others know youre 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 said.

Here's how the App works. Once you download the app for $2.99, you set up a list of emergency contacts.

If youre 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," Robert Sullivan said.

Sullivan developed the App with partner Larry Golsong and produced a video to show the Apps 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.
 


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