What are Personal Safety Devices?
One of the biggest things to come out of the twenty-tens (2010-2019) was personal safety devices. As much buzz
as was generated by the companies creating these devices (sheepishly grinning, full disclosure we are one of those companies) things like this have been around since people have been around. What makes this so interesting now, is that with the invention of the internet we now come to a time called the Internet of Things. This is where devices start to become aware, be connected to the internet, and can display some level of intelligence. This is the infrastructure that is needed to give people a device that when activated will be able to do everything from contact the police and say “I need help here” to sending a text message to a loved one.
The history of Personal Safety Devices
As always, it is best to start at the beginning when learning about something new. In the beginning, the first thing
that was used for Personal Safety in early humans was a good old-fashioned scream. The kind that you can find in any standard horror film. Then as humans progressed in our speech abilities we advanced to cupping our hands together while placing them on both sides of their mouths and yelling “HELP”. As time went on and working conditions got worse and worse public outcry against rising injury and death rates on the job came to a level where something had to be done. The United States then passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Before then there was very little required for the safety of employees. An entire industry was born helping industries protect their employees and to comply with OSHA requirements. Personal safety products outside of the workplace originally started when Allan Lee Litman had a family friend’s wife get robbed and wanted to create a product that would have helped her. Mace became such a popular product that just about anything that came out of an aerosol could be used for safety and was called Mace by the general public. Then in the 2000s, you began to see these things called Personal Safety Alarms being sold on sites like Amazon. They were usually small fob-sized devices that when pressed would emit a really loud noise causing people to pay you attention. An even fancier way to yell “HELP”. This type of device works great when you are around others but they don’t do such a good job when you are in an alone typesetting.
Recent history of Personal Safety Devices
This is where device manufacturers started to get smart and realize that if we use software and in addition to the
software we can use hardware devices to notify others when help is needed. Many of these devices notify law enforcement and others notify loved ones. The best do both. Apple joined in on the bandwagon and in December of 2016 by releasing Emergency SOS on their IOS platforms. Now anyone with an iPhone can quickly and easily raise an SOS from their device. Along that time and just after many companies started to make devices that look more like jewelry so that fashion-minded individuals could have something convenient and discreet to use in times of need.
Why choose TeamAlert?
Here at TeamAlert, we have focused on giving alerting solutions to businesses for the usage of their staff 
while working. This includes personal safety devices. Staff at the companies that use our software began asking their employers for something easy to use, discreet, and able to move around like their current mobile devices. We listened and quickly went to work with our engineering team and soon released our Two Button Android/IOS Bluetooth device. This small device easily fits in a pocket, purse, or on your waist to give you a quick and easy way to alert others that you need assistance and to be able to raise more than one type of alert. The best part about this is that the team members get a small device that moves around with them, the company that uses TeamAlert can now when a team member needs help and get it to them. This is when technology is at its best!
If you are interested in learning more about TeamAlert please contact us today and we would be happy to show you a demo or you can sign up for a free trial and see for yourself what everyone is talking about.
