A new app, SayVU, conceived as a graduate student project at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is being deployed at the 2016 Rio Olympics. International Security & Defense Systems (ISDS), the security integrator for the Olympics, selected SayVU as one of the Israeli technologies in use. SayVU, now available on the Android platform, enables a user to send a distress signal to an emergency hotline even if a phone is locked and without having to access the application. The message can be sent in a number of ways; shaking the device, tapping the camera button, or speaking into the phone.
SayVU Chief Executive Officer Amotz Koskas said: “SayVU strives to minimize the response time of emergency services and other authorities, and make sure the user gets assistance as quickly as possible. We have established a hotline center at the 2016 Rio Olympics, which help emergency and law enforcement agencies respond to alerts and ensure the safety of Olympics attendees.”
SayVU also includes the option for automatically turning on the phone’s microphone. It sends the recorded voice, GPS and other locating information to an emergency hotline. The app uses patent pending machine learning techniques to determine the user’s patterns and checks when it senses abnormalities. If there is no reply, the app automatically sends out a distress message. Besides possible saving life, the product provides real-time event and emergency reporting to emergency medical services (EMS) and law enforcers as well as threat management, regional threat mapping and trend prediction, the developers add.
The idea came after the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths in 2014. One of them managed to call and report the kidnapping but the police did not immediately respond because they thought it was a prank call. Koskas, at the time an MBA student at BGU’s Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, wondered if there was a technological means to prevent similar instances. A year later, Koskas won the joint Google and BGU competition “Students Thinking Innovation in the Public Sector” with “Digital Israel” and the staff of the “Accessible Government” initiative to promote information and communication technologies. The new app attempted to meet two main needs: to give citizens the tools to send out a distress message and location quickly in an emergency, and to enable the authorities to get a clear, real-time situation report.
Recently, the company ran a pilot with kindergartens in Ofakim, Israel; a pedophile was caught by a teacher who used the app. As a result, the Ofakim municipality decided to use the app for all educational institutions, social workers and the municipal hotline, with other municipalities following suit.
SayVU Ltd. has embarked on a $2 million round of funding. The company is developing strategic partnerships in the USA, China, Europe and Africa. The company was also just awarded a $1 million grant from the US-Israeli BIRD Foundation for a project funded by Israel’s Public Security Ministry and the US Department of Homeland Security. The goal is to provide orientation within buildings and non-failure communications under extreme conditions to first responders such as police, firefighters, and emergency medicine personnel.
