A controller for a personal safety device

Abstract

There is disclosed herein a controller for a personal safety device, the controller configured to: a) receive a trigger signal from a user trigger device indicative that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation; b) obtain, from a GPS-enabled user device, a geographical location of the threatened user; c) generate an alarm signal indicative that the threatened user is encountering the threatening situation and further indicative of the geographical location of the threatened user, wherein: the alarm signal is configured to cause an alert to be displayed to a remote user of a remote device that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation; and upon receiving authentication of the remote user via the remote device, the alarm signal is configured to provide the geographical location of the threatened user to the remote user; and d) transmit the alarm signal to at least one remote device.

Description

[0001]A CONTROLLER FOR A PERSONAL SAFETY DEVICE The present disclosure relates to a controller for a personal safety device and a personal safety system comprising the controller, a user trigger device and a GPS-enabled user device. Traditionally, personal safety devices, also known as personal attack alarms are used to sound an audible alarm designed to alert those nearby that an attack is taking place and also to disorientate an attacker. The earliest versions of these products consisted of a small handheld audio alarm that could be activated by a user to produce a loud, piercing sounds that was intended to attract attention and scare off an attacker. Summary According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a controller for a personal safety device, the controller configured to: a) receive a trigger signal from a user trigger device indicative that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation; b) obtain, from a GPS-enabled user device, a geographical location of the threatened user; c) generate an alarm signal indicative that the threatened user is encountering the threatening situation and further indicative of the geographical location of the threatened user, wherein: the alarm signal is configured to cause an alert to be displayed to a remote user of a remote device that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation; and upon receiving authentication of the remote user via the remote device, the alarm signal is configured to provide the geographical location of the threatened user to the remote user via the remote device; and d) transmit the alarm signal to at least one remote device. In one or more embodiments, the controller may be configured to determine, based on the trigger signal, whether an audible alarm should be emitted from a user audio device and, if the trigger signal is indicative that an audible alarm should be emitted by the user audio device, the controller is configured to provide signalling to the user audio device to provide for the emission of the audible alarm. In one or more embodiments, the controller may be configured to determine, based on the geographical location of the user, whether an audible alarm should be emitted from a user audio device and, if the user is in a first geographical location, the controller is configured to provide signalling to the user audio device to provide for the emission of the audible alarm in response to receipt of the trigger signal. In one or more embodiments, in response to receiving the trigger signal, the controller may be configured to provide signalling configured to cause an audio recording device of the threatened user to initiate audio recording. In one or more embodiments, the signalling maybe configured to cause the audio recording device of the threatened user to initiate audio recording is further configured to cause the audio recording device to transmit the audio recording to a remote memory location during the audio recording. In one or more embodiments, the remote memory location may be an edge server or cloud server. In one or more embodiments, in response to receiving the trigger signal, the controller may be configured to cause user personal safety device to provide an indication that the alarm signal is being transmitted and wherein the controller is configured to receive a fake deactivation signal wherein, upon receipt of the fake deactivation signal, the controller is configured to cease the provision of the indication that the alarm signal is being transmitted while maintaining the transmission of the alarm signal. According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a personal safety system comprising a personal safety device of a user comprising the controller of any preceding claim, the system further comprising the user trigger device and the GPS-enabled user device. In one or more embodiments, the personal safety system may further comprise the remote user device. In one or more embodiments, the remote user device may be configured to, upon receiving the alarm signal, prompt the remote user to authenticate themselves and, upon receiving the authentication, provide the geographical location to the remote user. In one or more embodiments, upon authentication of the remote user, the remote user device may be configured to provide authentication details associated with the authentication to one or both of a remote memory location and the personal safety device. In one or more embodiments, the authentication implemented by the remote user device may be an electronic identification, e-ID, verification service. In one or more embodiments, the personal safety system may further comprise an audio device configured to output an audio signal in response to receiving signalling from the controller indicative than an audio signal should be emitted. In one or more embodiments, the personal safety system may further comprise the audio recording device configured to initiate audio recording in response to receiving signalling from the controller indicative that audio recording should begin. In one or more embodiments, the user trigger device may be a fashion article. Brief Description of the Drawings One or more embodiments will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 shows an example personal safety system according to the present disclosure which comprises a personal safety device and further devices. Detailed Description While modern wearable technology provides many functionalities that can mimic the functionalities of traditional personal attack alarms, such devices have several disadvantages. Traditional wearable technology generally does not have sufficiently powerful speakers to emit useful alarms for emergency situations. Similarly, it may be difficult to incorporate other functionalities that is desirable into a discrete wearable device. Modern wearable technology products tend to be easily recognisable and a threatened person, the threatened user, may be prevented by their assailant from activating an alarm built into such a device. Finally, neither traditional personal safety alarms nor currently available wearable technology products are subtle enough for people in domestic abuse environments where a more obvious device may be taken away by an abuser. The present disclosure provides for a personal safety device which can be implemented in a discrete wearable device or via a personal mobile device such as a mobile phone. Figure 1 shows an example personal safety system 100 which comprises a controller (not shown) for a personal safety device 101, a trigger device 102 and a GPS-enabled user device 103. The personal safety system may further comprise one or more remote user devices 104, a user audio device 105 and a user audio recording device 106. It will be appreciated that any of the devices 102, 103, 105, 106 of the personal safety system 100 (apart from the remote devices 104) may form part of the personal safety device 101 or they may be physically separate devices such that the system is a distributed system. Including all of the devices 102, 103, 105, 106 and the controller in a single personal safety device 101 may be beneficial for ensuring a cohesive package, however, including one or more of the devices as separate devices may make the personal safety system 100 as a whole more robust to interference by an attacker, as damaging or destroying a single device may now prevent the operation of the personal safety system 100 as a whole. The controller may comprise part of a personal safety device 101 such that the controller is able to control one or more aspects of the personal safety device 101. For example, the controller may be built into the mobile (cell) phone of a user where the mobile phone itself is the personal safety device 101. In other embodiments, however, the controller may be built into a different electronic device such as a jewellery item, a so-called smart wearable device (be it a smart watch, smart ring or other device). The controller and, by extension, the personal safety device 101, may act as a hub of communication and provides for the generation of an alarm signal which is transmitted to one or more remote devices 104. The controller may be a microcontroller, a processor or any other suitable electronic device suitable for providing the functionality described and claimed herein. The controller is configured to receive a trigger signal from a user trigger device 102 indicative that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation. The trigger signal may be a wireless or electronic signal comprising data indicative that the user is encountering a threatening situation. The trigger device 102 itself may be a device which the threatened user is able to activate by way of a gesture, push of a button, a vocal command or in some other way. In one or more embodiments, the trigger device 102 may be a device which is configured to masquerade as a fashion accessory. It will be appreciated that, in this context, the trigger device 102 masquerading as a fashion accessory or fashion article may be a portion of a larger fashion accessory that comprises additional components. For example, the trigger device 102 may masquerade as part of a bracelet where the bracelet further comprises a strap for wrapping around the wrist of the user. In another example, where the trigger device 102 is masquerading as part of an earring, the earring may further comprise at least a hook for attaching to the ear of the user. In one or more embodiments, the fashion accessory that the trigger device 102 may masquerade as may be a jewellery item, or part of a jewellery item, such as a bracelet, an anklet, a necklace, a tiara, or another jewellery item suitably sized to incorporate the trigger device 102 such that the trigger device 102 can masquerade as the jewellery item or part of that item. In one or more alternative embodiments, the fashion accessory may be a cosmetic accessory or part of a cosmetic accessory. For example, the cosmetic accessory may be a lipstick, a powder mirror, a bottle of nail varnish, a bottle of perfume or another cosmetic accessory suitably sized to form the housing. In alternative embodiments, the trigger device 102 may be a mobile phone and, in particular, the trigger device may be part of, or the same device as, the user’s personal safety device 101. That is, the trigger device 102 and the user’s personal safety device 101 may be the same device, such as the user’s mobile phone. Be it incorporated into the user’s personal safety device 101 or a separate device, the trigger device 102 may be caused to generate the trigger signal in response to an input from the user. In embodiments in which the trigger signal is provided by way of manual manipulation of the device, such as by pressing a button or shaking the device or some other physical interaction as opposed to voice or another activation, the trigger signal may only be generated in response to a particular combination or pattern of inputs. For example, where the trigger signal is generated in response to a button press, it may be generated in response to a simple single button press but in other embodiments, the trigger signal may only be generated in response to a predetermined pattern of interactions. The pattern of interactions may comprise a plurality of button presses either provided simultaneously across multiple buttons or at one or more buttons in a predetermined pattern or rhythm one after the other. By way of a further example, the trigger signal may be generated in response to one or more simultaneous or time-spaced button presses following, preceding or arranged around one or more predetermined gestures. Gesture-based interactions, such as by shaking the trigger device 102, may be particularly natural where the trigger device is a jewellery item which is easily and subtly moved by a user wearing the item without arousing suspicion of a potential attacker. The personal safety system 100 further comprises a GPS-enabled user device 103 configured to track the geographical location of the user based on the location of the GPS-enabled user device 103 which is expected to be in the same geographical location as the threatened user. The controller may be configured to obtain a geographical location of the threatened user. Obtaining the geographical location of the threatened user may comprise the controller periodically or continuously receiving geographical location data from the GPS-enabled user device 103. In other embodiments, it may comprise the controller sending a request to the GPS-enabled user device 103 in response to receiving the trigger signal from the user trigger device 102. Thus, obtaining the geographical location data indicative of the position of the threatened user may be passively or actively obtained. As was the case for the trigger device 102, the GPS-enabled user device may, in some embodiments, be part of the overall personal safety device 101. For example, where the personal safety device 101 is a mobile phone or other smart device such as a tablet computer, laptop or smart- wearable, the personal safety device 101 may have an in-built GPS-system which is capable of determining the geographical location of the threatened user. In other examples, the GPS-enabled user device 103 may be separate device to the personal safety device 101. For example, the personal safety device 101 which operates as a communication hub for the personal safety system 100 may be in communication with a separate device, such as a GPS-enabled smart watch or other device. In response to receiving the geographical location of the threatened user, the controller is configured to generate an alarm signal indicative that the threatened user is encountering the threatening situation and further indicative of the geographical location of the threatened user. The alarm signal may take any appropriate data structure suitable for providing the necessary information a described herein. Further, the alarm signal is configured to cause an alert to be displayed to a remote user of a remote device 104 that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation. The configuration of the signal to cause for the display of the alert may be such that the alarm signal interacts with a software application on the remote user’s remote device and causes that remote device to provide the alert to be displayed. In other embodiments, the alarm signal may be generated as an automated telephone call, SMS message or in some other way. Importantly, the alarm signal is further configured to require authentication by the remote user prior to providing the geographical location of the threatened user to the remote user via the remote device 104. The alarm signal may be configured to do this in any of a plurality of ways. For example, where the alarm signal is configured to interact with an application of the remote device 104, the configuration of the alarm signal may be such as to instruct the remote device 104 to not provide the geographical location of the threatened user until the app has received the authentication of the remote user. In examples where the alarm signal is providing an automated phone call, SMS message or via another approach, the alarm signal may be configured to only unlock and provide the geographical location in response to the authentication. In other embodiments, the alarm signal may be split into two parts where a first part of the alarm signal provides the indication that the threatened user is under threat and the second part of the alarm signal provides the geographical location data. The second part of the alarm signal may not be transmitted at all to the remote device 104 of the remote user until the authentication is received at the controller of the personal safety device 101. In response to receiving the alarm signal, the remote device 104 may be configured to or caused to prompt the remote user for authentication. Authentication may be provided in one of a plurality of ways, however, some may be more secure than others. The benefit of requiring an authentication is that the identity of the remote user (who may be a hero to the threatened user) is that the remote user’s identity may be verified to ensure that the geographical location of the threatened user is only provided to those who are authorised to help the remote user. For example, the threatened user may have a list of authorised persons who can help them or they may require that a potential helper has a rating above a selectable or predetermined level where the rating is based on ratings of other users. The identity of the remote user who authenticates themselves may be stored one or more of by the controller, by the remote device 104 and by a remote authentication memory for retrieval later. This may provide benefits in being able to contact a remote user after a threatening situation has been resolved and may also deter those remote users who may be tempted to take advantage of a person in a threatening situation by the requirement that their identify has been authenticated and potentially recorded for later retrieval. The authentication may be implemented by any suitable method such as a 3rdparty electronic identification verification service (e-ID verification service). An advantage of using a 3rdparty e-ID service may be that the authentication is difficult to manipulate or falsify. Examples of such e-ID services include, but are not limited to, BankID in Sweden, Ekata by Mastercard and others. The e-ID service may preferably require strong factor authentication (SFA), thereby providing for robust authentication of a remote user. Once verification has been received from the remote user via the remote device 104, the alarm signal is configured to provide the geographical location of the threatened user to the remote user via the remote device 104. Finally, after generation of the alarm signal, the controller is configured to transmit the alarm signal to at least one remote device 104. The controller may provide for transmission of the alarm signal by providing the generated alarm signal to an antenna array or other external communications system of the personal safety device 101. For example, where the personal safety device 101 is a mobile phone, the controller may be configured to transmit the alarm signal via an internet communication as an SMS message. It will be understood that any suitable signal transmission approach may be used. The threatening situation may be any situation in which the user feels uncomfortable and like having more people in the local vicinity would increase their security. As non- limiting examples, this may be one in which the user is being physically or verbally attacked or one in which the user feels like they may be under threat but not yet attacked. Depending on the nature of a threat, an audible alarm may or may not be desirable. For example, an audible alarm may be beneficial for attracting local support and surprising or scaring an attacker. In other situations, for example, such as those of domestic abuse, it may be better for a user to not alert an attacker or threatening person to the fact that they are seeking assistance. Instead, being able to attract subtle assistance and, optionally, initiate audio and / or video recordings of an attacker without their knowledge may put the user in the best position for dealing with an abuser. To further the end of being able to selectively control whether an audible or non-audible alert is generated, the user may be able to provide a first input method to trigger an audible alarm and a second input method to trigger a non-audible alarm. Each different input method may generate a different trigger signal such as a first trigger signal indicative that an audible alarm should be triggered or a second trigger signal indicative that an audible alarm should not be triggered. Thus, the controller may be configured to determine, based on the trigger signal whether an audible alarm should be emitted from a user audio device 105 and, if the trigger signal is indicative that an audible alarm should be emitted by the user audio device 105, the controller may be configured to provide signalling to the user audio device 105 to provide for the emission of the audible alarm. Any of the input methods discussed with respect to inputs which can be used to generate cause the generation of the trigger signal may be used for the different input methods described herein. In addition to or separately from the pattern-based audible alarm selection, the controller may be configured to determine whether an audible alarm should be emitted from a user audio device 105 based on the geographical location of the user provided by the GPS-enabled user device 103. For example, if the user is within a first geographical location, the controller may be configured to provide signalling to the user audio device 105 to provide for the emission of an audible alarm in response to receipt of the trigger signal. The first geographical location may be, for example, a location predetermined or preselected by the user as one in which an audible alarm may be desirable because they expect threatening situations or because they know that it will be safe to provide an audible alarm. In one or more examples, the first geographical location may be a small and specific location. In other examples, the first geographical location may be all locations except for a second geographical location wherein the second geographical location is a location where the user may believe that an audible alarm would be dangerous for them. This may be particularly beneficial for users who endure domestic abuse. The first geographical location where audible alarms are permissible may allow them to be protected in public to protect them from threatening situations whereas the second geographical location in which they may expect domestic abuse or other types of abuse and an audible alarm may be dangerous for them. Pattern-based and geographic location-based alarm audibility embodiments may be combined in one or more embodiments such that the controller is configured to cause the provision of an audible alarm when a particular input pattern is utilised at the trigger device 102 when in a first location. In a second location, the audible alarm may be suppressed or otherwise restricted regardless of the input pattern which is used. This may provide for a safety net in scenarios where a person is in an environment where an audible alarm would be dangerous – they would not need to think carefully about the sort of alarm pattern they were utilising, and thereby risk hesitating in activating their alarm. In addition to generating and transmitting the alarm signal, the controller may further be configured to provide signalling configured to cause an audio recording device 106 of the threatened user to initiate audio recording in response to receiving the trigger signal. An audio recording may be a valuable tool in ensuring proper evidence is available in the case that evidence is required in order to support the victim of an attack, harassment or other threat or action. Being able to initiate this audio recording subtly and in conjunction with the transmission of an alarm signal may be particularly beneficial in ensuring that there is no delay in either seeking help or initiating an audio recording. The audio recording device 106 may be any suitable device capable of performing an audio recording. In the case where the personal safety device 101 is a mobile phone or another device with a bult-in microphone, the audio recording device 106 may be the same device as, or another part of the same device which comprises, the personal safety device 101. In other embodiments, the audio recording device 106 may be a separate device which the user may keep on their person. In order to further enhance the reliability and integrity of the audio recording, the signalling generated by the controller which causes the audio recording device of the threatened user to initiate the audio recording may be further configured to cause the audio recording device 106 to transmit the audio recording to a remote memory location during the audio recording. By providing the audio recording to a remote memory location, such as an edge-server or cloud server, for example, the audio recording may be protected in the scenario where an attacker damages or destroys the audio recording device. In one or more embodiments, the controller may be configured to cause the personal safety device 101 to provide an indication that the alarm signal is being transmitted. By way of example, such an indication may be a blinking light, an audible indication, an indication provided on a display screen of the personal safety device or in some other way. If, however, an attacker or otherwise threatening person becomes aware of the indication that the alarm signal is being generated, they may force the user to deactivate the transmission of the alarm signal, thereby reducing the threatened user’s safety. In order to provide further safety to the user, the controller may be configured to receive a fake deactivation signal from one of the user trigger device and an input from the user personal safety device 101. In yet other examples, the fake deactivation signal may be receivable from one or more different devices. For example, there may be provided a separate or combined deactivation device which the user can either generate a real deactivation signal or a fake deactivation signal. Receipt of a real deactivation signal by the controller may cause the controller to cease the transmission of the alarm signal. Receipt of the fake deactivation signal may cause the controller to cease the provision of the indication that the alarm signal is being transmitted while maintaining the transmission of the alarm signal. This may be particularly useful in making an attacker believe that the alarm signal has been deactivated, thereby encouraging them to reduce potential agitation or aggression at having discovered the indication that the alarm signal is being transmitted while still allowing remote users to be able to locate the threatened user. It will be appreciated that the features and embodiments disclosed herein above may be combined together in any manner except for where to do so would be explicitly against the teachings of the present disclosure. By way of non-limiting example, the implementation of a geographic-based audible alarm is combinable with the implementation of audio recordings, fake deactivation signals or any other discussed embodiment. Every possible combination or permutation of features has not been described for brevity and so as to avoid obfuscating the benefits of each of the features disclosed here. Further, while some features are listed in seemingly separate embodiments, this does not imply that some features may not be advantageously synergistically combined in order to provide for a contribution which is greater than the sum of its parts.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A controller for a personal safety device, the controller configured to: a) receive a trigger signal from a user trigger device indicative that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation; b) obtain, from a GPS-enabled user device, a geographical location of the threatened user; c) generate an alarm signal indicative that the threatened user is encountering the threatening situation and further indicative of the geographical location of the threatened user, wherein: the alarm signal is configured to cause an alert to be displayed to a remote user of a remote device that the threatened user is encountering a threatening situation; and upon receiving authentication of the remote user via the remote device, the alarm signal is configured to provide the geographical location of the threatened user to the remote user via the remote device; and d) transmit the alarm signal to at least one remote device.

2. The controller of claim 1 wherein the controller is configured to determine, based on the trigger signal, whether an audible alarm should be emitted from a user audio device and, if the trigger signal is indicative that an audible alarm should be emitted by the user audio device, the controller is configured to provide signalling to the user audio device to provide for the emission of the audible alarm.

3. The controller of claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the controller is configured to determine, based on the geographical location of the user, whether an audible alarm should be emitted from a user audio device and, if the user is in a first geographical location, the controller is configured to provide signalling to the user audio device to provide for the emission of the audible alarm in response to receipt of the trigger signal.

4. The controller of any preceding claim wherein, in response to receiving the trigger signal, the controller is configured to provide signalling configured to cause an audio recording device of the threatened user to initiate audio recording.

5. The controller of claim 4 wherein the signalling configured to cause the audio recording device of the threatened user to initiate audio recording is further configured to cause the audio recording device to transmit the audio recording to a remote memory location during the audio recording.

6. The controller of claim 5 wherein the remote memory location is an edge server or cloud server.

7. The controller of any preceding claim wherein, in response to receiving the trigger signal, the controller is configured to cause user personal safety device to provide an indication that the alarm signal is being transmitted and wherein the controller is configured to receive a fake deactivation signal wherein, upon receipt of the fake deactivation signal, the controller is configured to cease the provision of the indication that the alarm signal is being transmitted while maintaining the transmission of the alarm signal.

8. A personal safety system comprising a personal safety device of a user comprising the controller of any preceding claim, the system further comprising the user trigger device and the GPS-enabled user device.

9. The personal safety system of claim 8 further comprising the remote user device.

10. The personal safety system of any of claim 9 wherein the remote user device is configured to, upon receiving the alarm signal, prompt the remote user to authenticate themselves and, upon receiving the authentication, provide the geographical location to the remote user.

11. The personal safety system of claim 10 wherein, upon authentication of the remote user, the remote user device is configured to provide authentication details associated with the authentication to one or both of a remote memory location and the personal safety device.

12. The personal safety system of any of claims 10 – 11 wherein the authentication implemented by the remote user device is an electronic identification, e-ID, verification service.

13. The personal safety system of any of claims 8 – 12 when dependent at least on claims 2 – 3 further comprising the audio device configured to output an audio signal in response to receiving signalling from the controller indicative than an audio signal should be emitted.

14. The personal safety system of any of claims 8 – 13 when dependent at least on claims 4 – 6 further comprising the audio recording device configured to initiate audio recording in response to receiving signalling from the controller indicative that audio recording should begin.

15. The personal safety system of any of claims 8 – 14 wherein the user trigger device is a fashion article.

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