Inspiration
Let’s say that there was a person in an emergency, like if there was a robbery in their house and the robber was armed with weapons. The person is hiding and hasn't been spotted by the robber yet. What could they do? They could call 911, but this might give away their hiding spot to the robber, leading to possible danger. They could also text 911, but that would take a lot of time to text their whole address and other important information, and they might be found or already robbed by the time they finish texting 911. This possible situation inspired us to create a web app that would provide a safer, easier, and quieter option for people in emergencies.
What it does
Code Red offers a method of contacting emergency responders in a way that is quick and silent. It can be used by those who might find themselves in a dangerous situation that prevents them from speaking or making noise, or if they are physically unable to speak in an emergency.
The main feature of the web app is the form to contact 911. The form will let the user select their type of emergency instead of typing it out, and also automatically record your location by hitting submit, saving as much time as possible and allowing emergency responders to get to the user faster.
After the essential information is submitted, they can then provide additional information such as how many other people are with them that are in danger. This is optional as the user might not have enough time to offer more information, although it is highly encouraged so that the first responders can have a better understanding of the user’s situation.
The web app also includes a page with resources where users can learn about how to prepare for different types of emergencies. After learning the material, users can take a quiz to measure how prepared they would be.
How we built it
We used HTML and CSS to create the structure and layout of Code Red. The form that records the user’s type of emergency and location is made with Javascript, and we also used Firebase as our database to store the information.
Challenges we ran into
One of the challenges that we faced was implementing the location autofill feature on the form where the user contacts 911. We asked a mentor for help on this, and were able to solve our problem. Another challenge we ran into was implementing real time chat on our web app. We realized that this would take more time than we had, and decided to do it if we had time later because the form was our top priority. Unfortunately, we didn’t find enough time to execute the chat, but we would definitely include it if we did this project again and had more time.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Honestly, we’re amazed at how much we accomplished in such a short time. One weekend didn’t seem nearly enough time to create a functional web app. It was with the help of everyone on our team and the mentors at TTNY that we finished with an app that is both meaningful and functional.
What we learned
This was a great experience for us-- through creating a web app, we were able to expand our knowledge and gain confidence in our skills, all within 48 hours. We learned how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript more effectively to bring our visions to reality. We learned persistence, trying different pieces of code to get our web app to look its best. And most importantly, we learned how to learn as we kept an open mind to trying new things.
What's next for Code Red
In the future, we’d like to implement a feature that allows the user to chat with an emergency responder in real time. This would allow the responder to communicate easily with the user and get more details on their current situation, and the first responder can guide the user out of danger as they communicate. Another thing we’d add to Code Red is changing it so that the information on the form won’t just be sent to the database, but sent to at least someone else as we know it can’t actually be sent to 911 unless they decided to use our app. Lastly, we’d like to make a mobile app version of this since that makes more sense if the user can access Code Red on their phone or other mobile device during an emergency.
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