Saturday, March 9, 2013

INFOGRAPHIC: Presidential Security Facts

INTERVIEW: Guardly Offers Insight Into Indoor Positioning System and The Future Of Emergency Dispatch



I'm just going to put it out there. I love Guardly. After writing my last piece on the public safety mobile app, I decided to subscribe to the service. And to be honest, I'm blown away by it's user-friendly GUI, the depth of its coverage, how robust its emergency protocols are, and the overall potential it has for much greater deployment. So last week, when I saw that they developed a new feature for some of their college campus clients, I became quite curious and called Guardly to find out. Here's my interview with Guardly CEO, Joshua Sookman.

Josh, it's great to speak with you again. I love the product and I'm calling to find out about your latest development.

Scriven, it's great to hear from you. Well, we've been developing a new feature called Indoor Positioning System which will relay to emergency contacts and dispatchers where you are in much greater detail. By greater detail, I'm referring to your location inside a building.

Wow. Is that like GPS? If so, that sounds like an incredible development. 

Not quite. So here's how it works. We begin using the features that already exist in your phone to analyze certain data like WiFi connections and various radio frequencies to narrow down where you are.

How does that look to the dispatcher?

It works just like the original display but with added metadata. It can tell the dispatcher if you're in a specific room or the elevator shaft or a stairwell.  We use those radio frequencies and WiFi hotspots to do this. Each location in a building will have a different frequency signature. So that data can point to a specific location in the building. Basically, we want to take what used to be a 2D world and used augmented metadata to depict a 3D environment for the dispatcher. We believe doing this will decrease response times in getting help to you, as so much time is used in the initial moments of an emergency dispatch call to get this information out of the caller. Having that information available immediately, should reduce the time from call to dispatch.



Where is this available and on what platforms?

It's available only to select customers and is available on the Android OS.



So I've made no secret that I love Guardly and I see it as part of a greater movement in emergency management to decrease response times and provide better and more timely information to emergency responders. What are your feelings about such initiatives as Text to 911?

Great question. Honestly, I think it's a great step in the right direction. With it and services like guardly we should lesser response times. Again, the more information you get, no matter how you get it, is absolutely the key. An area of concern for us and those of us in emergency management is the potential for emotional stress and possible PTSD-related issues given the level of information dispatchers could be exposed to. As we expand what is capable from using all of the features mobile phones come with such as video and audio, there is a potential for having too much information exposure for those who may not be accustomed it.  We also believe services like Guardly are an evolution of technologies that have made things more "hyper-local" and personal. We believe, as these technologies grow and evolve, so will services like Guardly and the quality of information available to first responders.

Josh, as always, it has been great talking to you. I look forward to seeing more of what Guardly has in store for the public safety sector.

For more information on Guardly's Indoor Positioning System, see the link below:

https://www.guardly.com/solutions/technology/indoor-positioning-system

To read my review on Guardly, click on the link below.

http://blog.thesecuritydialogue.org/2012/12/review-guardly-will-change-what-you.html

To download Guardly, click here.

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