GB2536041A

GB2536041A - SnapMail emergency app

Info

Publication number: GB2536041A
Application number: GB1503745.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Foley Michael
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2015-03-05
Filing date: 2015-03-05
Publication date: 2016-09-07
Also published as: GB201503745D0

Abstract

A personal safety application for a mobile phone that allows a subscriber to take a photograph when they feel that they are in a vulnerable situation, the photograph includes geo location details of the subscriber where available and is sent to the provider of the mobile application and to the subscribers e-mail. The e-mail to the subscriber also includes a check-up message. If the subscriber fails to respond to the message within a predetermined time period, a distress message including the picture and geo location details, if they are available, are sent by e-mail and by SMS text to a pre-set list of third parties previously selected by the subscriber. The subscriber may indicate that they are ok by clicking on a hyperlink within the check-up e-mail within the predetermined time period.

Description

Patent Application -Description Document

Page 1 SnapMail Emergency Mobile Phone App This invention relates to a device which sends a message to a person's friends if the person is in a vulnerable situation.

When a person finds themselves in a vulnerable situation, such as a woman walking home alone at night or an old man living alone in an isolated area, that person is exposed to a wide range of crimes, such as robbery, attack, sexual assault, abduction or murder.

In such circumstances, the exposed person has a limited number ways of protecting themselves against a crime being committed against them. They typically wouldn't have sufficient time to telephone the Police but, even if they did, it could take some time for the Police to arrive and stop the crime.

The SnapMail Mobile Phone App has been designed to act, in the first instance, as a deterrent to a crime being committed. Once downloaded onto a mobile phone, the SnapMail App allows the User to take a photo of someone and have this photo both e-mailed to the User and uploaded to the User's SnapMail website account with just one click. Learning that their photo has been e-mailed and uploaded to the secure SnapMail website server may act as a crime deterrent by causing the criminal to stop and question if it is worth the risk of committing the crime.

A premium version of the SnapMail Mobile Phone App, called SnapMail Emergency, contains an additional security feature and it is the process surrounding this security feature in SnapMail Emergency that we are seeking to protect with this Patent Application.

This is a process whereby if a person finds themselves in a vulnerable situation an SOS text message and an SOS e-mail is automatically sent to up to 5 of the person's friends if the person fails to respond within a short time frame (e.g. 5 minutes) to a 'check-up' e-mail message (containing an attached photo they have just taken and) sent to themselves using the SnapMail app. Only by responding to the 'check-up' email message within a specified short time frame will the person prevent the SOS warning message being sent to their friends.

The invention will now be described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows the process by which the basic SnapMail App operates.

Figure 2 shows the process by which SnapMail Emergency, the premium version of the SnapMail App, operates, notably the key additional element it contains, over and above the standard features contained in the basic SnapMail App.

Figure 1 shows how the basic SnapMail App operates. Imagine that a woman is walking home alone at night and notices a suspicious looking man following 30 metres behind her. She takes her mobile phone from her pocket and puts the SnapMail App (which she had previously downloaded) on standby. If the man approaches her in a threatening manner, she would point the mobile phone at him and click a large 'Take SnapMail Photo' button in the middle of phone's screen. With that single Page 2 click the photo is taken and uploaded to her private account on the SnapMail website and simultaneously e-mailed to her own e-mail address. The man may be less likely to commit a crime against her, knowing that his photo has been captured, but, in the event that he does commit a crime, it should be easier for the Police to find and convict him by using the photo as evidence. This is how the basic SnapMail App operates, and the steps demonstrating this are set out in Figure 1.

Figure 2 shows how SnapMail Emergency operates. It should be noted that SnapMail Emergency contains all of the features contained in the basic version of the SnapMail app, but it is specifically the process surrounding the additional feature contained in the SnapMail Emergency App that we are seeking to protect with this Patent Application. For the avoidance of doubt, we are not seeking to protect the features inherent in the basic SnapMail App and we are solely interested in seeking to protect the additional process (or method, or use) contained in the SnapMail Emergency App.

SnapMail Emergency App The SnapMail Emergency App is an enhanced version of the basic SnapMail App. The user of this enhanced version is referred to as a Subscriber, as a differentiator to the term 'User which describes someone who uses just the basic SnapMail App.

As with the basic SnapMail app, the Subscriber takes a photo with the camera phone using the SnapMail app and this photo is instantly uploaded to the Subscriber's SnapMail website account and also e-mailed to the Subscriber. But where the e-mail to the User of the basic SnapMail app was just a 'confirmation of photo taken' e-mail with the photo attached, the e-mail that the Subscriber to SnapMail Emergency receives is designed to check that the Subscriber is not in difficulty, in addition to containing an attachment with the photo just taken.

The method by which this 'check-up' e-mail checks to see if the Subscriber is ok is by presenting the Subscriber with a hyperlink message ("I'm ok. There is no problem") in the body of the e-mail which must be clicked by the Subscriber within a short time frame (typically 5 minutes). Only by clicking this hyperlink within the designated timeframe will the Subscriber be able to demonstrate that s/he is in fact ok.

However, if the Subscriber fails to click the hyperlink message within the designated short time frame, an SOS e-mail and an SOS text message will be sent to up to 5 friends of the Subscriber. This SOS e-mail and SOS text message will contain the photograph that the Subscriber has just taken, as well as the geo-location of where the photo was taken (assuming the Subscriber has activated the geo-location service on his/her mobile phone).

It is this method or process or use contained in the SnapMail Emergency App that we would like to protect with this Patent Application. The precise components of this process are as follows: 1. A Subscriber receives an e-mail when s/he takes a photo using the mobile phone App.

2. This e-mail contains a hyperlink which must be clicked within a given time frame.

3. The Subscriber either clicks this hyperlink or fails to click this hyperlink within the given time frame.

4. If the Subscriber clicks the hyperlink within the given time frame then nothing further happens.

5. If the Subscriber fails to click the hyperlink within the given time frame an e-mail and a SMS text message, containing the photo and the geo-location of where the photo was taken, are sent to designated friends of the Subscriber.