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SilentAlert is a minimalistic, easy-to-understand web app that allows people to safely contact 911 silently.
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After users submit their info in SilentAlert, the "911 operator" (in this case, our phones), will receive an automated call from Twilio.
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SilentAlert sends users a text message depending on the 911 operator's response.
Inspiration
After brainstorming social problems in society, we found out that human trafficking and kidnapping are one of the biggest problems. With movies such as Taken and Eden, we realized that were are a multitude of situations in which one may require emergency services but be unable to speak. We decided to make an app which could have the potential to save lives by translating text to speech to an emergency service operator, and thus Emergency Contactor was created.
What it does
Emergency Contactor allows users to submit text into a web form that asks for information such as location, name, phone number, and description of the situation. The web form then uses Twilio to convert the text to speech, which will then be relayed to the operator. The operator can then report the status of the situation by pressing a button on the phone. .
Challenges we ran into
Figuring out how to use Twilio, Twiml and node.js, how to retrieve the information of a button being pressed on the phone (ie. how to tell the program to do something after a number on the phone keypad, such as 1, is pressed) and how to use GeoLocation to collect location information about the caller.
Accomplishments
Finally figuring out how to use Twilio, using global variables in node.js and retrieving digits pressed on the phone.
What we learned
How to use Twilio, how to use global variables, how to create servers, how to retrieve digits pressed on the phone
What's next for Emergency Contactor
Figure out how to automatically provide location info about the caller, how to get the 911 operator to be able to communicate more extensively with the caller, maybe using Voice to Text services
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