WeOK | Devpost

Safety Radius image description

Project name: rUok - are YOU okay?

(AI-Powered Safety for Tourists in Hong Kong)
Smart Tourism - Enhance travel experiences and industry efficiency By WeOK

Problem Statement

Hong Kong was ranked third in Asia and fourteenth globally as one of the best cities to travel in 2025 (Time Out). The city has made a strong post-pandemic recovery, welcoming 23.6 million visitors in the first half of 2025—an 11.7% increase from the previous year (Staff Reporter, “Hong Kong Tourism Rebounds…”). However, this growth has been accompanied by rising concerns over personal safety. A recent report shows that 53% of tourists worry about safety while traveling in Hong Kong, yet only 35% use safety or alert apps—below the Asia-Pacific average of 38% (Staff Reporter, “Hong Kong Travellers Boost Insurance Uptake…”). This gap highlights a lack of accessible, intuitive, and multilingual safety tools for non-Cantonese speakers. Behind the city’s tourism boom lies a layer of anxiety that threatens the quality of travel experiences—one of the central themes of this hackathon. To address this, we developed rUok, a mobile-ready web application designed to enhance safety and peace of mind for tourists in Hong Kong.

Key Features of rUok

Safety Radius Monitoring Users define a safety zone (e.g., 2.5 km). If they exit this zone, rUok sends up to three alerts over 15 minutes. If the user confirms they are safe, no action is taken. If they request help or fail to respond, rUok automatically contacts emergency services and shares their live location. Image description about Safety Radius Monitoring can be seen in the file from Project Media. Emergency Contact Integration Users can register emergency contacts. If a safety alert escalates, rUok can notify these contacts in addition to local authorities. Mobile-Ready Web Application Designed for smartphones, rUok tracks real-time location and safety status throughout the trip.

How to Use rUok

Register/Login with email and password
Create a Trip
Name, description, start/end dates, safety radius
Add Destinations
Search location (e.g., “Bakehouse”), auto-filled address, optional arrival time
Enable Location Tracking
Dashboard → Location Status → Enable Tracking Once activated, rUok continuously monitors the user’s location. If they move outside their safety radius, alerts are triggered. If no response is received after three alerts, rUok initiates emergency contact protocols.

Impact on Tourists Visiting Hong Kong

rUok eliminates most reasons that tourists feel unsafe and helps keep them secure during their travels to Hong Kong. According to the survey of ‘The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,’ 48% of tourists to Hong Kong responded that language barriers make it difficult to handle emergencies or report to the police during their trip (“PolyU Unveils Large Language Model-Based Tourist Satisfaction Index, Providing Comprehensive Analysis to Enhance Hong Kong Tourism Service Quality | Media Releases | Media | PolyU”). Moreover, according to ‘Smartraveller,’ tourists feel anxious due to the lack of local contacts or acquaintances to ask for help when emergencies happen (“Hong Kong Travel Advice & Safety”).

Language Barriers In emergencies, tourists may struggle to communicate with local authorities. rUok allows users to send automated alerts to the police with just a few taps, which means no Cantonese required.
Lack of Local Contacts Tourists traveling alone may not have anyone nearby to notice if something goes wrong. rUok detects prolonged absence or inactivity and initiates emergency protocols within minutes. By solving these challenges, rUok empowers tourists to explore Hong Kong with confidence. It reduces anxiety, improves emergency response, and enhances the overall travel experience: encouraging more visitors to choose Hong Kong as a safe and welcoming destination.

How We Leveraged Kiro to Develop rUok

Tech Stack Backend: Python (FastAPI with SQLAlchemy) Frontend: HTML/CSS/JavaScript Database: SQLite with user/trip/location models Security: JWT authentication Demo Flow: User login → backend connection test → API documentation walkthrough Kiro played a pivotal role in developing the intelligent safety logic behind rUok. We integrated Kiro with our FastAPI backend to continuously evaluate user behavior against trip and location models stored in SQLite. Using Kiro’s GenAI reasoning engine, we defined dynamic thresholds for “unusual behavior” based on travel history, time of day, and location context. Kiro also helped us simulate edge cases (such as signal loss, panic scenarios, and prolonged inactivity), allowing us to refine our alert timing and escalation protocols. To accelerate development and maintain creative flow, we adopted vibe coding practices powered by Kiro’s GenAI capabilities. This enabled our team to iterate quickly, test safety logic intuitively, and maintain seamless integration between backend intelligence and frontend responsiveness.

What challenges we faced

We encountered some challenges throughout the hackathon, mostly during the app development process. Gaining access to useful programs like kiroAI was challenging because there were waitlists that inhibited us from proceeding with the development process. As a result, only one member who had preliminary access to kiroAI handled most of the app development, so the work could not be divided appropriately.

Conclusion and Future Implications

rUok represents a meaningful step toward redefining tourist safety in Hong Kong. By combining real-time location tracking, AI-powered behavioral analysis, and automated emergency response, our app empowers travelers to explore with confidence and peace of mind. However, we view this as just the beginning. In future iterations, we plan to expand rUok's capabilities to better serve diverse travelers and complex urban environments. This includes:

Expanding language support to accommodate a wider range of international users
Enhancing location accuracy for more precise safety zone detection
Introducing interactive maps that visualize user movement and safety alerts in real time
Providing nearby emergency resources, such as hospitals and police stations
Building a dynamic safety map using anonymized user data to identify high-risk areas
Allowing users to rate the safety of roads and places, contributing to a community-driven safety index Team WeOK is formed with foreigners who cannot speak Cantonese. Therefore, through the above enhancements of rUok, we aimed to address the very anxieties we’ve personally experienced: transforming our own challenges into a solution that can help others. More than just a safety tool, rUok represents our hope for a fuller, freer experience of Hong Kong. We envision a future where international students and tourists alike can move beyond the routine of classrooms and dormitories and confidently explore the vibrant streets, bustling markets, and beautiful nature that Hong Kong has to offer, without fear and with a sense of peace.