High Alert | Devpost

App Login/Sign Up Screen
Finding the Real Time Location
Automated Message for Sending Real Time Location
Sign Up Screen with Account Details

Inspiration

From personal accounts and different witnesses, we know that many students on campus are worried about their safety when walking home from work or classes at night. For this reason, we wanted to create an app that would ensure the safety of these students on campus.

What it does

Our app creates an individualized account for the user to store emergency contacts and when the user feels that they are in danger, a message will be sent to these specified contacts with minute-by-minute location details (a message with a google maps link is sent to show their live location).

How we built it

Using Android Studios and Java Programming, we developed the app and using Google Firebase, we were able to store the account information (name, address, phone number, emergency contacts, and location using the Google Maps API) in a realtime database.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into problems involving the authentication process with Google Firebase and giving permissions for the app to use Location Services and SMS Messaging. Furthermore, we had originally planned to have the TransitIQ API find the nearest bus stop to the user so they are able to make their way home faster; however, because the API was down, we were unable to perform this aspect of our project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

While there are many extensions and improvements that can be done to our app, we managed to successfully create an account for the user and access a real time database. Furthermore, we were successful in finding the real time location of the user and sending this location to the emergency contacts the user has given.

What we learned

As we were relatively new to mobile app development, we learnt how to effectively use Google Firebase and create a realtime database; furthermore, we learnt how to use the Google Maps API and SMS Manager in finding the live location of the user and sending this location to the user’s emergency contacts.

What's next for High Alert

In the upcoming future, we hope to apply the TransitIQ API and implement the aspect of finding the closest bus stop to the user. We hope to link the Uber API so the user is able to find the nearest cab to take to their home address. We also plan to create a “panic mode” where you can tell the app to send messages repeatedly (about every minute) that updates their location with every new message.