Rave Wireless Turns Location-Based Application into Personal Safety Device Telematics Journal

location based services

Crime on college campuses is expected by analysts to decrease by as much as 70 to 80 percent with the advent of a new mobile phone application called Rave Guardian. The new service, developed by Rave Wireless, leverages mobile location-based services and transforms mobile phones into personal alarm devices, which allow students to alert campus safety and make their location known anytime they are feeling unsafe. The company is announcing the nationwide availability of the new application at CTIA Wireless 2006, April 5-7 in Las Vegas. “Until now, location-based services have been a technology looking for a compelling problem to solve,” said Rodger Desai, president and chief executive officer, Rave Wireless. “Rave Guardian was developed to help solve the real world problem of the more than 500,000 violent crimes that occur each year on U.S. college campuses. Over 90 percent of college students are mobile phone owners, and we have transformed those phones into powerful safety devices, which are like having a police officer at every student’s side.” Rave Guardian is a patent-pending mobile phone application. A student who feels unsafe can simply activate a timer on the mobile phone that alerts campus safety if it is not turned off within a set period of time. If the time expires, an alarm goes off at campus safety, alerting them to call the phone to ensure everything is all right. In the scenarios where there is no answer or there is a problem, Rave Guardian instantly displays the student’s location along with any other pertinent information such as medical conditions, photograph and local address. Since Rave Guardian uses the same GPS technologies as E911 emergency centers, students can use it on- or off- campus and anywhere in the U.S. email this story got feedback?