Guess Who's Calling?
Feb. 28th, 2011 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerI can't quite decide whether this is a good idea or not. There's a lot of advertising going on about it, at least. See, one of the cell phone companies came up with the idea of offering a small yellow box, with a ring for fastening it, and a tab for pulling. It's intended for children -- fasten it to your school bookbag, and if you think you are in danger, yank the tab!
Apparently it comes with GPS, and basically it makes an automatic emergency call reporting the location. But...
See, the cell phone company has a deal with SECOM, one of the biggest private security companies in Japan, to handle the calls. So when a kid yanks the tab, the first response is going to be from the private security company, not police, fire, or some other emergency response. Which probably makes sense, given that most of the time, kids really aren't being kidnapped, attacked by random criminals, etc. So a private security guard probably can handle the call without getting officials involved. And can certainly handle the inevitable "the tag got caught and yanked by accident" calls which I suspect may be the most common.
It still feels slightly odd to think that the first response is going to be a private security guard. I just hope they really respond quickly, and that they know how to recognize a situation where they need to call in the real emergency response.
Still, it is an interesting service. Heck, I think they should also be offering it to elderly, especially those who chose to live alone -- imagine being able to yank that tab when you fall down at home, or something else happens? Even single adults might very well find having an emergency button useful at times. Sure, the cell phone can provide some backup, but... what if you can't talk? That's the nice thing about these boxes, is that all you have to do is yank the tab.
Apparently it comes with GPS, and basically it makes an automatic emergency call reporting the location. But...
See, the cell phone company has a deal with SECOM, one of the biggest private security companies in Japan, to handle the calls. So when a kid yanks the tab, the first response is going to be from the private security company, not police, fire, or some other emergency response. Which probably makes sense, given that most of the time, kids really aren't being kidnapped, attacked by random criminals, etc. So a private security guard probably can handle the call without getting officials involved. And can certainly handle the inevitable "the tag got caught and yanked by accident" calls which I suspect may be the most common.
It still feels slightly odd to think that the first response is going to be a private security guard. I just hope they really respond quickly, and that they know how to recognize a situation where they need to call in the real emergency response.
Still, it is an interesting service. Heck, I think they should also be offering it to elderly, especially those who chose to live alone -- imagine being able to yank that tab when you fall down at home, or something else happens? Even single adults might very well find having an emergency button useful at times. Sure, the cell phone can provide some backup, but... what if you can't talk? That's the nice thing about these boxes, is that all you have to do is yank the tab.
