BeSafe

Inspiration

Our inspiration for BeSafe came from the desire to empower people to take control of their safety in uncomfortable or risky situations. We wanted to create a seamless way for individuals to discreetly alert someone they trust or escalate to emergency services if needed. With a simple triple tap, users can discreetly request assistance and maintain a sense of security, whether they’re meeting someone new, navigating a potentially unsafe area, or just need a reason to excuse themselves from a place.

What it does

BeSafe allows users to send an alert to a preset contact by triple-tapping their phone. When the tap is detected, the app initiates a call from the designated contact to the user. Through our dashboard, users can customize the call script and severity settings. For lower-risk situations, the call serves as an excuse to exit, whereas for higher-severity cases, the app uses keywords to monitor safety and may bridge the call to law enforcement if necessary. Additionally, the app provides real-time updates via text to the trusted contact, ensuring continuous communication and support.

How we built it

We built BeSafe by integrating various APIs for AI speech-to-text, text-to-text, and text-to-speech, as well as message dispatching, all combined with a beautiful, user-friendly dashboard for customization. The backend assesses the severity of each alert and adapts responses accordingly, from generating a simple phone call to activating live location sharing and monitoring. For backend integration, we utilized a secure messaging API and leveraged machine learning to process voice commands for dynamic safety responses.

Challenges we ran into

Setting up the whole voice system proved to be the biggest challenge as we ran into countless issues with web-sockets and integrating APIs from so many diverse providers to get the best output.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of creating a unique and innovative solution that has the potential to improve personal safety in various real-life scenarios. Successfully building an escalation flow that seamlessly adapts based on situation severity and integrating a hands-free, discreet trigger were big wins for us. Additionally, developing a user-centered dashboard that allows for customized contact responses and severity settings added real depth to the app’s functionality.

What we learned

We learned a lot about user-centered design and the importance of balancing functionality with ease of use, especially for an app built for emergencies. This project also taught us how to efficiently integrate machine learning with real-time systems, handling data securely, and navigating the complexities of web socket programming.

What's next for BeSafe

In the future, we plan to expand BeSafe’s capabilities by incorporating more advanced voice and text recognition for faster emergency response. We also want to allow for further customization, and the ability for the user to add multiple contacts so that if they are in danger, multiple trusted people will be notified, widening the range for potential help. Additionally, expanding our dashboard to offer insights and suggestions based on user patterns will add even more value and keep users safe in various contexts.