Emergency Connect

App for stress free connections

Anchor 1

To preface this problem, you should know that I am a modern woman. I have not had a landline telephone since 1999.

My story begins at 4 am October 2015. I was awoken by a loud thud in my backyard. The neighbor dogs started barking, then my dog, Pepper, started barking. I get out of my bed to see if the neighbor dog jumped over the fence again. I looked out my bedroom window to see a man on my back porch about four feet from my back door. I jump over my bed to grab my phone on my bedside table to call 911. I was connected immediately. The dispatcher asked what my emergency was. I told her. Then, she asks me what my location is. I told her, but with my adrenaline pumping, I was not clear. She asked me to repeat my location. I did. Again, she could not understand me. After the fourth repetition of my address, she was able to dispatch the officers to my home.

I have no idea how long this process to get my address across to the dispatcher. It took the police officers five minutes to get to my home. They could not find the man. I do not know if he was ever caught or what his intentions were. In my mind, I am a lucky person and very thankful for my night-owl neighbor.

In a time where Google and Uber can find you where ever you are, why can't the people who can save your life find you when you need them to?

Anchor 2

Solution

Emergency Connect uses the technology that almost everyone carries in their pockets. Once activated, Emergency Connect will automatically send out your GPS location data to your nearest dispatcher, turn on your speakerphone, and cameras. This will allow the dispatcher to send services to your location and give them greater insight into the problem at hand. For a medical emergency, the EMT could see the victim and help diagnose the problem before arriving on site and can instruct the caller on care instructions until the EMT's arrival. In a criminal situation, the victim would be able to show the officers the suspect. Officers could send the image to other officers in the area with an accurate picture of the suspect.

Research

70% of 911 calls are made from cell phones.

While there are advances being made with E911 and cell phone technology. In San Francisco, over 80% of 911 calls made from cell phones fail to provide and location details.

Anchor 4

Synthesis

While accurate location services will be a vast improvement to the existing cell phone experience, Emergency Connect will go a bit further than the bare minimum.

Once activated, Emergency Connect will:

+ Automatically turn on and record speaker phone and cameras

+ Send accurate location data to nearest dispatch center

+ Connect user with appropriate emergency services for diagnosis and treatment while en route to location

+ If required, EMTs can provide instructions for care until their arrival

Anchor 5

Ideation & Iteration

Here comes Emergency Connect. Emergency Connect uses the technology that almost everyone carries in their pockets. Once activated, Emergency Connect will automatically send out your GPS location data to your nearest dispatcher, turn on your speakerphone, and cameras. This will allow the dispatcher to send services to your location and give them greater insight into the problem at hand.

For a medical emergency, the EMT could see the victim and help diagnose the problem before arriving on site and can instruct the caller on care instructions until the EMT's arrival.

In a criminal situation, the victim would be able to show the officers the suspect. Officers could send the image to other officers in the area with an accurate picture of the suspect.

Anchor 6

Use Case Flow

Whistle’s initial hypothesis was that they wanted to create a scheduling platform for pet care providers, but they did not want to actually have to manage a service provider business. After digesting all of this data, we decided that we needed to validate their hypothesis on our own.

We came up with our own screener to find the right candidates to interview along with our own interview questions. at this point, we took to the dog parks and tried to talk to as many dog walkers and dog owners as possible to figure out their pain points.

After interviewing owners and service care providers, we discovered that the original hypothesis could not be validated. User interviews clearly displayed that the pain point between owners and providers was in the communication of pet information.