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Emergency Push Notification Mobile Application

A Study on Personal Safety Using Mobile Phone and Prototype Design

by

Mior Suffian Thuri Bin Mior Khir

16458

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY (HONS)

(INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY)

May 2015

Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

32610 Bandar Seri Iskandar,

Perak Darul Ridzuan

 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL

Emergency Push Notification Mobile Application

A Study on Personal Safety Using Mobile Phone and Prototype Design

By

Mior Suffian Thuri Bin Mior Khir

16458

A project dissertation submitted to the

Information and Communication Technology Programme
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY (Hons)
(INFORMATION and COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY)

Approved by,

(YEW KWANG HOOI)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

BANDAR SERI ISKANDAR, PERAK

May 2015

i
 CETIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that I am responsible for the work submitted in this project, that the
original work in my own except as specified in the references and acknowledgements,
and that the original work contained herein have not been undertaken or done by
unspecified sources or persons.

MIOR SUFFIAN THURI BIN MIOR KHIR

ii
 ABSTRACT

Mobile application has become a mainstream and ideal way for everything. This

includes the implementation of mobile application in personal safety purpose. However,

the effectiveness of the existing personal safety mobile applications is still questionable.

This is because the help requestor still needs to undergo a series of step to request for

help even with the use of mobile application. This proves to be time- consuming and

inefficient in the kind of situation that involves the victim’s life in jeopardy. Requesting

for help in such desperate situation such as kidnapping supposed to be quick and

effective with most minimum procedure needed for the victim to request for help.

Therefore, this research is to solve all the above mentioned problems by eliminating the

series of procedure to request for help and in the same time addressing the issues

associated with it. To achieve the goal of this research, the author aims to develop a

prototype of a personal safety mobile application that addresses the mentioned concerns

above. A series of methodology which involves qualitative and quantitative

methodology will be executed in light of this research. Together with it, developmental

tools of the prototype will be used by the author including Android Software

Development Kit among others. The scope is fully focusing on the society of Malaysia

as the research methods are executed by survey and other existing issue regarding

personal safety among Malaysian citizen. Finally, the end product of this research is a

iii
mobile application prototype that sends help request by the victim to the pre-stored

contacts in the mobile application earlier will be developed as the evidence of concept.

iv
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my greatest appreciation and gratitude to ALLAH SWT and the
following people in helping me completing the whole final year project.
First of all, I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Yew
Kwang Hooi who has guided and assisted me throughout my final year project with
patience and knowledge whilst allowing me to work independently. Although with a
paked schedule, however he still offers his valuable time to assist me in completing the
project. It has been such a great opportunity and experience to be given the trust to
proceed with my project.
Besides that, I would like to thank all the parties and friends who willing to
assist me in completing the research survey and system evaluation. These responses
helped me to acquire as much data and information as much as possible. Besides that,
without their cooperation, I would not have been able to complete the project.
Other than that, I would like to thank my parents for giving me the moral support
along the completion of my final year project. Without their support, I would not make
it this far in completing the whole final year project.

v
 Table of Contents
Certification of Approval i

Certification of Originality ii

Abstract iii

Acknowledgement iv

List of Figures vi

List of Tables vii

1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Background Study 1

1.2 Problem Statement 2

1.3 Significant of Project 2

1.4 Objectives 3

1.5 Scope of Study 3

1.6 Relevancy of Study 4

1.7 Feasibility Study 4

2.0 Literature Review 5

2.1 Introduction to Safety 5

2.2 The Implementation of Mobile Application in Personal Safety 7

3.0 Methodology 11

3.1 Qualitative Research Methodology 11

3.2 Quantitative Research Methodology 11

vi
 3.3 Comparative Research Methodology 12

3.4 Development Methodology 15

3.4 System Architecture Design 17

3.5 Use Case Diagram 18

3.6 Activity Diagram 19

3.7 Requirement Analysis & Specification 21

3. 8 Gantt Chart 23

3.9 Key Milestones 25

3.10 Tools & Equipment 26

4.0 Result and Discussion 27

4.1 Results & Findings 27

4.2 System Interface Design 29

4.3 System Testing 33

4.4 User Testing 35

5.0 Conclusion & Recommendations 40

5.1 Conclusion 40

5.2 Future works and Recommendations 41

5.3 Limitations 41

6.0 References 42

7.0 Appendix 44

i
 List of Figures

Figure 1 7

Figure 2 15

Figure 3 17

Figure 4 18

Figure 5 19

Figure 6 29

Figure 7 29

Figure 8 30

Figure 9 30

Figure 10 31

Figure 11 31

Figure 12 32

Figure 13 32

Figure 14 36

Figure 15 37

Figure 16 38

Figure 17 39

Figure 18 48

Figure 19 49

Figure 20 50

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Figure 21 51

Figure 22 52

Figure 23 53

Figure 24 54

Figure 25 55

Figure 26 56

Figure 27 57

Figure 28 58

List of Tables

Table 1 13

Table 2 14

Table 3 21

Table 4 21

Table 5 21

Table 6 21

Table 7 22

Table 8 22

Table 9 22

Table 10 22

Table 11 23- 24

Table 12 25

Table 13 27

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Table 14 28

Table 15 33- 34

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Study

On May 27, 2012, the country is rocked by an incident involving a young girl
named Chin Xin- Ci. She was the survivor of a horror kidnapping attempt happened in
the parking lot of a famous shopping mall in Petaling Jaya, The Curve. She stated that “I
found out that the entire ordeal from the moment I left the parking ticket payment
machine, to my escape, happened in about four minutes. To me, it felt like one long
nightmare” .
The general public does not escape from a variety of security threats, both
internal and external. Such threat can cause physical harm, and also death. Among these
death causes are heart disease, traffic accident, up to criminal-caused death. Related to
this issue, various cautious incentives have been carried out in Malaysia. One of them is
the launch of the centre channel of emergency telephone number 999. The use of mobile
phone is one application of a good security system safety. By phone, relatives or
institution in charge can get more information about the victim, either the current
condition or even location.
However, if the victim had an accident while driving a vehicle, or sudden
fainting due to illness, or even experiencing a panic attack in the case of robbing or
kidnapping, obviously the victim will have difficulties to provide emergency news by
phone or SMS. When this process is delayed, the victim will be too late to be helped,
and the longer the response time of the help will worsen the condition of the victim.
Therefore, this project will develop a personal emergency situation triggering system on

1
mobile application, which will trigger the pre-registered number(s) in the application
about their location during when the emergency incident takes place.
As the technology advances, it offers alternative, and solution began to appear.
One of the suggested technologies is a personal emergency situation notification mobile
application. In any development of mobile application, user – friendliness and
effectiveness of the mobile application towards the user is the ultimate objective of any
mobile application. In this project, user- friendliness would mean the minimum
procedure for the user to activate the personal emergency situation triggering system on
his/her mobile phone/smartphone. Whereas, from the aspect of effectiveness, our
objective is to make sure that once the emergency request has been sent, it would very
useful information for the relatives or institution in charge to take action based on the
valuable information(s) collected by the mobile application.
With this application, then the public can send emergency messages easily to
family, friends, or any other institution in charge. Hence, the application will assist the
evacuation in knowing the position and shape of threat experienced by the sender. In the
end, this application is expected to contribute practically to the community, with a
means of rapid communication during critical situations. And this application is also
expected to contribute to the authorized agencies to support emergency assistance
services that already exist.

1.2 Problem Statement

When confronting a potential life- threatening situation such as kidnapping, mugging or
even robbery, the victim has very little time gap to think of the best way to escape from
the situation. However, requesting for help is the most instant procedure for the victim
to think of during the critical situation. In light of rapid concern of safety issue, mobile
apps implementation may be extended into personal safety procedures.

1.3 Significant of Project

This project is to bring positive implications to the society in the issue of requesting for
help during critical or emergency situations. Users will experience a more effective and

2
faster way of requesting for help by using this mobile application as it implements to
most minimum procedure for help requesting by using mobile devices.
1.4 Objectives of Study
The objectives of this research are:
- To study on the existing mobile- application for personal safety features.
-To propose the design of a personal safety mobile application as the result of this
research.
- To carry out the study on the effectiveness of smartphone towards the purpose of
personal safety.

1.5 Scope of Study

The focus of the research will be the:
1. Existing problem faced by mobile user to request help when in need.
As stated in the Introduction of the study, victims of a criminal situation have
problems of requesting help during these situations. Without the ability to think
fast, the victim would be unable to think of any relevant way of escaping the
potentially life threatening situation. Calling for help using the mobile devices
would be almost impossible if the victims were involved in a kidnapping
situation. Therefore, this study will be focusing on the solution for requesting
help during these critical situations.
2. Users’ perspective regarding the implementation of mobile application
towards personal safety.
With the significant rise in technological development of mobile application, the
author will take a closer look regarding the implementation of mobile devices in
the issue of personal safety. This initiative will make use of the data collected via
the literature review and other research methodology planned later for the
research process.
3. Review and analysis of the existing mobile application for personal safety
purpose.
The author will also focus on identifying the essential attributes for a personal
safety mobile application to be effective towards the user and compare the

3
 proposed idea of the study with other related studies of the implementation of
mobile application toward personal safety.
1.6 Relevancy of Study
The study is relevant from the aspect of:
1. The user
The most affected party by the implementation of the mobile app would be the
user. In other words, the help requestor. When the user activates the app, the
emergency message will directly be sent to the preferred contacts of the user.
This would enable the receiver of the message to take immediate action after
being notified by the message.
2. The message receiver.
Once the message is received, the receiver will immediately know that the victim
(user) is in danger. Therefore, the receiver can take relevant actions towards
helping or rescue the user from the danger of the critical situation.
3. Towards technology
The rapid development of mobile technology has triggered many useful
applications in humans’ life. Whether it is from the aspect of social networking,
e- commerce, and other areas. Therefore it is appropriate and necessary for
personal safety to be enhanced with the optimization of mobile application.
1.7 Feasibility Study
From the aspect of technical feasibility, the study would involve developing the mobile
application once thorough research procedures have been executed in order to identify
the crucial requirements of the proposed solution which is; mobile application.
Considering from the aspect of economic feasibility, the cost of developing the mobile
application would be subsidized by the university within the expense range of RM
500.00. Therefore, the author is confident it would be a sufficient amount for this study.
Whereas, from the aspect of time feasibility, FYP1 would only involve the research
aspect of the study and FYP2 would be the development phase of the mobile application
and testing phase of the software. Therefore, the author believes it would sufficient to
complete the study.

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 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction to Safety.

In London, UK, the Women’s Design Service, has created Making Safer Places
procedure in Bristol, Wolverhampton, London and Manchester, applying a protocol
named ‘fear-o-meter’ to explore what causes women terrified(Whitzman, Legacy et al.
2013). By applying highly participatory equipment, the women held a survey of their
domestic neighbourhood, estate and playground to identify the characteristics of the
physical environment that requires improvements. For example, locating and re-locating
vegetation, rerouting roads and building fences.
The existing environment of our society could be improved more in order to tackle
the problem of public safety as well as personal safety. We cannot deny that the
abandoned infrastructure that we have in our cities as well as the rural areas are the area
that should be focused on and be improved so that these locations would not be an
attraction for crime activities to happen.
Technological exploration have enable humans to explore the type of
technological security devices currently in exist that will enable a person or an
organization to effectively improve the capabilities of any security plan(Katz and Caspi
2003). Nowadays, there are devices of such specifications exist to the public market as
to near confirming that it will be impossible to have access to a secured facilities
without being detected and effectively intercepted before any crime occurs (Katz and
Caspi 2003).
The optimization of technology usage should be implemented and growing in the
aspect of public and personal security as we are moving towards in the era of
globalization. This is crucial as the risks of security in every aspects of our life are in
jeopardy as we move forward in the globalization timeline.

5
 Study on crime statistics has proved that crime occurrence is not simply an event
where criminals live but also reflects the focus of chances for crime to happen. Crime
tend to be happening more in some places or “hot spots”, theft is increasingly focused
on specific hot products, and some repeat victims are tend to be experiencing crime than
other people (Roberson and Birzer 2010). They also propose that assessing opportunities
that specific environment encourage for crimes to happen, can go a long path in
prevention efforts.
As the saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure”, the law enforcers should
really consider the implementation of technology in preventing crime. This could
benefit the law enforcers in terms of their duties as it would be potentially efficient and
effectively improve the result of crime prevention.
Disaster management is generally understood to consist of four phases: Mitigation,
Preparedness, Response and Recovery (Zlatanova and Li 2008). Mainly, preparedness
emphasizes on regular preparation within the law enforcers and rescue forces (e.g.,
police, ambulance, fire) for emergency situations. While all phases are inter connected
and crucial, the response and recovery phase phases are regularly seen as the most
critical from the aspect of saving lives.
Therefore, the law enforcers should really emphasize on responding the calls from
the crime victims as soon as they received the call. Critical times such as this should be
tread carefully and as fast as possible in order to reduce the after effect of a crime
towards the victim(s) who have made the call.
One widely used concept in emergency response is that of the event timeline. This
describes the sequence of incidents, emergency calls, responses, and actions etc. which
occur during an event(Sene 2008). Timelines are used in post event assessment of
response, and may also be available in real time to assist other responders in
understanding the situation.
One matter that we can all agree upon is regarding the emergency responses of our
law enforcers. Emergency response should always take the least time that they could so
that the victims of crimes could be save from further harm from the already happening
crime during the emergency situation. To keep Citizens safe, city police departments are

6
constantly looking for an edge to make themselves faster and more responsive in the
face of criminal activity(INFOHOWN 2012).

Figure 1: Statistics of emergency response time in cities in U.S.A

(INFOHOWN 2012)

2.2 The Implementation of Mobile Application in Personal Safety

For a personal safety mobile application to be effective, it has to be user- friendly,
and the triggering time of the request for help has to take the least time,
(P.Kalyanchakravarthy, Lakshmi et al. 2014). They further discuss on the matter that
this particular feature has to be made as the crucial feature so that the emergency parties
could avoid arriving late at the crime spot and thus hindering emergency help.
Therefore, this specific aspect of the mobile ‘apps’ should be taken in
consideration and be made as the main goal of any personal safety mobile ‘apps’
because a crime or emergency requires help from people as fast as possible. Besides
that, to avoid further harm to the victim, the emergency response by the law enforcers
and other emergency institution could be improved with the existence of this mobile
‘app’.

7
 Research has proved that, the use of mobile devices have significant impact on the
duty of the law- enforcers, (Straus, Bikson et al. 2007). Moreover, the recent generations
of information & communication technologies will assist the spread of technological
implementation to fulfill the requirements of emergency responses and also other
professional fields than the law enforcers. Therefore it is required to learn about the
recent launch of technology in the field of safety to assist potential implementation and
usage.
In today’s world, technology has become the most significantly developed field
and it is normal for some of the industries including the security industry to implement
and optimize the usage of technology to become more efficient and effective in terms of
what they supply to the public, which is the tool for private (personal) security.
It is very important for the public to optimize the usage of the mobile devices in
emergency situations because it would help the law enforces to extract the necessary
information(s) needed for the necessary action to be taken, (Erickson, Weinert et al.).
According to (Columbia 2015), the essential information when one makes a phone call
to report a crime are contact number, location where the crime took place and the
description of people involved in that particular crime.
In order to ease the emergency help protocol, the law enforcers would need any
useful information(s) regarding the situation of the emergency, so that necessary help
could be delivered to be more effective. Moreover, with this information, the emergency
response could plan additional emergency help to be delivered to the incident scene so
that further harm and trauma towards the victim could be avoided.
When a victim of an emergency or criminal activity is struggling to request for
help in the situation, the process of requesting help is delayed, and the victim will be too
late to be helped, if it takes a long time and the longer the response time of the help will
worsen the condition of the victim,(Wijaya, Setiawan et al. 2013). Besides that, delayed
response from the law enforcers and emergency help could result in a more severe harm
to the victim of crime(Wijaya, Setiawan et al. 2013).
An instant response by the law enforcers towards delivering help during
emergency could be a major factor avoiding potential harm towards the victims. For an

8
effective emergency help to occur, emergency institutions have to be prepared all the
time in the case of any call from a potential victim.
In a research by (Westmarland, Hardey et al. 2013), they explore the significance
of smartphone usage in relation to domestic and sexual violence behaviour. Their
findings concluded that, most of the existing personal safety mobile ‘apps’ has a quite
similar main functionality which was built on system architecture with a form of ‘panic
button’ in their respective ‘apps’. Moreover, based on their tests, they found the benefits
of information and proof gathering capabilities and their value towards the law enforcers
once the law enforcers have received them.
With the significant advancement of smartphone technology nowadays, ‘apps’
developers should consider exploring more potential of smartphones towards the
personal safety aspect. Besides that, ‘apps’ developer should make use and optimize the
existing functionalities in the smartphones or mobile phones such as the GPS function,
camera, audio recorder, and etc. and implementing these functionalities towards the
objective of personal safety.
While women regularly become the victim(s) in criminal situation, (Mandapati,
Pamidi et al. 2015), gender shouldn’t be the argument in the case of personal safety.
Crime and disaster happens to everyone without considering which gender they are.
Besides that, not only women and men are affected with personal safety issues,
children and golden ages society are too affected by this issue. Therefore, we should
always consider every level of the society when discussing the matter such as this.
As stated by (Ramalingam, Dorairaj et al.), security threat can occur anywhere at
any time. Therefore, it is important for people to be prepared in case of anything bad
should happen to them. In terms of preparedness, pepper spray and stun gun is a good
example of self- defense tools that have been implemented for quite some time, but the
usage of mobile phones in terms of personal safety is not very regularly heard of.
These statements are pivotal in ensuring that the aspect of personal safety should
be taken in consideration heavily by everyone for them to realize the importance aspect
of preparedness towards crime and the potential of mobile phone usage in the terms of
ensuring personal safety in the modern era.

9
 The objective for each location based information system is: “To assist with the
exact information, at right place in real time with personalized setup and location
sensitiveness” (Kushwaha and Kushwaha 2011). The research regarding location based
services emphasizes on the need of accessing the essential information of potential
threats such as seeing a suspicious car that has been reported missing and the ability to
check the legitimacy of the car in a trusted public database.
Further application of location based services can be potentially implemented in
the case of personal safety issue. Law enforcers could benefit the information of the
exact location which the is sent by the victims and plan ahead on which emergency help
could be used can effective to response to the emergency requests.
Another in built functionality of most smartphones in the market is the
accelerometer. Android proved to be a versatile processing system which allow us to
manipulate various in built feature of an Android mobile which can be developed into
various applications in life (Nirbhavane and Prabha 2014). The growing displays and
internet connectivity also makes these phones excellent sinks of just-in-time
information, including information from other sensors deployed in the infrastructure
(Yu, Bamis et al.).
As mentioned in earlier paragraph of this section, manipulation of in built
functionalities in smartphones should be a major development effort for any ‘apps’
developer. This is because, it would be a waste if these in built features are not being
enhance further as it would bring so many benefits to the society including in the aspect
of personal safety.

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 CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

3.1 Qualitative Research Methodology

The qualitative research methodology is chosen and implemented by the author for the
purpose of this study:
1. Review existing study by other researchers
Several journal articles, newspaper articles, and books were referred in this study
to get a clear and more in depth knowledge regarding the subject mattered. This
approach is necessary for the author to determine whether the chosen topic of
study is feasible or not.
3.2 Quantitative Research Methodology
Besides that, quantitative research methodology is also implemented by the author for
data gathering purpose for this study:
1. Surveys
A set of questionnaires were made to collect the necessary data on the opinions
of the public towards the matter regarding the use of mobile application (‘apps’)
towards the personal safety. This approach is a logical step to identify the
opinion of the public (selected respondents) regarding the subject mattered. The
approach is also an effective way for the author to come out with a conclusion
towards the completion of the study.

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3.3 Comparative Research Methodology
The comparative study is executed and defined by two categories:
1. Comparative study between existing researches.
Three journal articles regarding the study of personal safety and mobile
application have been selected for further analysis. These journals are carefully
read and analyzed by the author to gain information regarding the subject matter.
In the end, the author came up with a table to display the different attributes
form these selected journals.
2. Comparative study between existing personal safety mobile application.
Three existing mobile applications for the purpose of personal safety have been
selected for the comparative study procedures. Since the study focuses on
Android mobile application, these three existing mobile application is selected
from among the highest counts of download by the users that have downloaded
it from the Google PlayStore and use it in their mobile devices and also from the
aspect of relevancy towards personal safety.

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Author/Title A Mobile Based Women Safety Android Based Safety Triggering Personal Safety Triggering System
Application- I Safe Apps Application (P.Kalyanchakravarthy, On Android
(Mandapati, Pamidi et al. 2015) Lakshmi et al. 2014) Mobile Platform (Ramalingam,
Dorairaj et al.)
Operating System Android Android Android
Safety features In proposed system, with the push of The user can directly press the power When the emergency button is
one button, people can alert selected button and thereby, popping up an pressed, the application senses that
contacts that the person is in danger alert screen and user can directly user is under security risk and waits
and share location. click the safety triggering button to for the user to press the send button.
trigger the application, sending the If the user is not interactive to press
location (latitude & longitude) to all the button after pressing the
pre- registered phone numbers in the emergency button, the system
application. automatically counts down for 14
seconds and then starts to get the
location information which contains
the latitude and longitude
coordinates. Subsequently, the
latitude and longitude coordinates are
converted into city and country
location information, this is sent via
SMS, email
Unique suggestion(s) First- aid measure/ guide during Once the user click on the alert The emergency message will also be
emergency situation. button, it continuously send updated posted on Facebook wall of the
locations messages to all authorized registered user
persons and the user can stop it using
password.

Table 1: Comparative study of selected journal articles

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Mobile Application

Name bSafe - Personal Safety App Family Locator Personal Safety|Family Locator
Main feature -Alert button will directly alert your friends & -View the real-time location of Circle Members on a private family -Family real-time Location tracking (Family
family that you need help. map that’s only visible on Family Locator Locator)
Runs in Background No No -No
System Requirement(s) -Global Positioning System (GPS), -Global Positioning System (GPS), -Global Positioning System (GPS)
-Instant Messaging -Instant Messaging
-E-mail of message receiver -E-mail of message receiver
-Alert message receiver must install the same
application in their devices.

Procedure to activate -Unlock mobile phone -Unlock mobile phone -Unlock mobile phone
application -Activate GPS -Activate GPS -Activate GPS
-Touch application icon to activate application -Touch application icon -Tap application icon
-Tap “Alert Friend” button to send emergency -Tap “Panic ” alert button to trigger the application to send -Push the alert button to send emergency
alert. emergency message. alert to pre-stored contacts

Table 2: Comparative study of existing personal safety mobile applications and proposed mobile application

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3.4 Development Methodology
The development methodology that is going to be implemented for this study is the
Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology. RAD is one of the alternative
methodologies under the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The RAD
methodology enables the project to enhance, altering as newer project requirements are
to be added. The RAD methodology is believed to be more flexible than the traditional
waterfall methodology, thus becoming the standard of today’s software engineering
development process (TDAXP 2007). There are four level of development in this
methodology which is Planning, Analysis, Design and Implementation. The
development model is further illustrated in the figure below;

Figure 2: Rapid Application Development (TDAXP 2007).

1. Planning phase
On week 2, the author has submitted the proposed project title together with the
brief description of the project title. Afterwards, the author is being assigned to
be under the supervision of the selected supervisor for the rest of FYP 1 and
FYP2. Proceeding with the successful project title, the author has engaged with
the assigned supervisor to further discuss the potential development procedures
to be done, background study, objective, etc. to get a clearer understanding as a
result of discussion with the more experienced supervisor. Besides that, in this
phase the author has to collect the relevant information to fulfill the requirements
by the user of the project. Studies and research regarding the subject mattered to

15
the project is executed by referring to the journals, libraries, and other sources of
information available. Literature review should be conducted and written with
the correct citation so that the author could determine whether the project is
feasible or not. If the feasibility level of the project is unachievable, the scope of
the project should be reviewed by the author with the help of the supervisor.
2. Analysis Phase
In this phase, the author is going to collect the information regarding the problem
statement that has been determined in the planning phase, from the perspective
of the public (potential user). This step is crucial to identify the requirements of
the system. This is done by distributing a set of questionnaire to the public which
consist of questions with regards to the project’s objective and solution. Besides
that, interview session with the necessary party involved in the field of safety/
security is to be conducted during this phase. Then, the author is required to
analyze all the collected information and data to extract the requirements of the
system for further reference in the design and implementation phases.
3. Design Phase
Analysis of the data that have been collected during the previous phase are
classified and further analyzed to come up with suitable system architecture. The
system architecture will be supported by other tools of system architecture (use-
case diagram, activity diagram, etc.) that will help to portray the system. The
design will be shown and reviewed by the supervisor and further discussed to
carefully decide on the final architecture so that it will positively affect the
stakeholders. Towards the end of this phase, the author is required to submit the
analysis and design phase of the project development as the requirement for FYP
1.
4. Implementation Phase
For this phase, it is required to build the mobile app based on the designs that
have been determined in the design phase. Key deliverables in this phase is the
functionalities of the mobile app. When the mobile app development is
completed, the deployment of the mobile app should be executed to the user. In
the same time, usability testing will undergo during this procedure. At this stage,

16
 any flaw (bugs) in the mobile app is to be detected and fixed. With the
implementation of RAD methodology, the author should focus on the analysis or
design phase to fix the bugs.

3.5 System Architecture Design

Send emergency message

Emergency message
User
receiver

GPS satellite

Figure 3: System architecture design

Figure above displays the system architecture of the mobile app. For the user to use the
app, it must be downloaded and installed in his/her respective smartphone. Initially, the
user needs to register their personal information and will be stored in the app’s cloud
storage. When the app is activated, the GPS feature of the smartphone will track the
current location of the smartphone. Then, the location data is embedded in the
emergency message before it is sent to the pre stored safety contacts. Simultaneously, all
of the data recorded by the GPS, video recorder and camera will be stored in the app’s
cloud storage.

17
 3.6 Use Case Diagram

Login using Google account

Add safety contacts

Edit profile

Emergency
requestor Choose sensitivity level

Access to the Google Drive for

evidence.

Activate GPS

Receive emergency message

Receive emergency e-mail

Emergency message
receiver

Access the Google Map to track the

location of emergency requestor.

Track GPS location of the phone

Controller (mobile Video record the scene

phone)

Capture snapshots of the scene

Figure 4: Use Case

Send emergency message & e-
mail. Diagram

18
 3.7 Activity Diagram

Yes
User anxious about their safety?

No
Activates the phone’s GPS

App runs in background

Yes
No
User is facing
critical/emergency
situation?

User shake device

GPS detect the current location

Video recorder records the scene for 7 seconds

Captured location & video uploaded into cloud storage

The system embed the location coordinate into the SMS

Yes User pushes the ‘cancel alert’ button within

App does not send emergency message the 7 second video recording timeframe to
stop emergency message delivery

No

App send emergency message embedded with GPS data

Figure 5: Activity
Diagram

19
Figure 6 shows the process when the user is in the situation of emergency. The app is
already run in background, meaning it does not need to be activated by the user via
pressing the app’s icon. If the user is anxious about his/her safety before travelling
somewhere, they just need to activate the GPS of their smartphone. Therefore, if the
user is really in danger or an emergency/crime victim situation, the user has to simply
shake the mobile phone.
Simultaneously, the video recorder and camera are in ready mode and ready to execute.
These data collected by the GPS and camera will be stored in the user’s Google Drive
once the data collection is completed. Next, the user would have the choice to send the
emergency message embedded with the GPS information to the receiver, or to cancel the
emergency message delivery in case the user is no longer in danger. The application will
always be running in background once the GPS feature of the mobile phone is activated.

Why Google Drive?

Google Drive is a free service from Google that allows users to store files online and
access them anywhere using the cloud. Google Drive also gives us access to free web-
based applications for creating documents, spreadsheets, and more.
Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud storage services available today, offering
15 gigabytes (15GB) of free storage space. Because files can be accessed from any
computer with an Internet connection, Drive eliminates the need to email or save a file
to a USB drive.
Therefore, in the case of any emergency, the informations (coordinate and video that has
been collected by the phone via the usage of the mobile application will be
automatically uploaded into the site. Allowing the user (victim) of the emergency to
make use of these informations in the future to help them improve their personal safety
aspect. Hence, the collected informations, or as we call it evidence, could become a
useful element for the victims and also the law enforcers to investigate further the
emergency event.
Finally, the most essential justification of implementing cloud based storage is to make
sure that the informations collected by the smartphone can be accessible and viewed by
the user even if their smartphone is stolen/ damaged during the emergency.

20
3.8 Requirements Analysis and Specifications.

After the analysis of data has been done, the author has identified the prototype’s
requirements which are divided into functional and non- functional requirements as
shown in the Table below:

Table 3: Functional Requirement #1

Function Storing the user’s profile

Area Functional (User)
Description Upon registration, the mobile application
should be able to store all the details of the
user that has been inserted by the user.

Table 4: Functional Requirement #2

Function Ability to login as first time user using the

user’s existing Google account.
Area Functional (User)
Description The user is automatically logged in as a
first timer using their own Google account

Table 5: Functional Requirement #3

Function Ability to add preferred contacts

Area Functional (User)
Description The application should be able to store the
preferred contacts of the user to up to 10
contacts.

Table 6: Functional Requirement #4

Function Ability to store the chosen level of shake

sensitivity of mobile phone
Area Functional (User)
Description The application should be able to
remember the cosen level of sensitivity
chosen by the user to trigger the aplicaion.

21
 Table 7: Non- Functional Requirement #5

Function Operates in Android-based platform

Area Non- functional (User)
Description Android is chosen as the development
platform because it is more significant
compared to other OS

Table 8: Functional Requirement #6

Function Ability to backup data

Area Functional –Security (user)
Description The database is design to store the details
inserted by the user and should be able to
provide data backup with the
implementation of cloud storage.

Table 9: Functional Requirement #7

Function Ability to run in background

Area Functional (User)
Description The application should run in background
once the configuration of it has been
completed by the user.

Table 10: Funtional Requirement #8

Function Ability to automatically activate the video

recorder.
Area Functional (User)
Description The application should automatically
trigger the video recorder and record the
scene for 7 seconds.

22
3.9 Gantt Chart
Weeks
Task 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Planning phase
Identify problem

Study feasibility
Study the
background
Approval of
project title
Literature review
Extended
Proposal
Submission
Analysis phase
Distribution of
questionnaires
Data tabulation
Analysis collected
data
Design phase
Process modeling
Design & sketch
the interface
System
Architecture
Design
Interim Report

23
Submission
Proposal Defence
Implementation phase
App Development
App Deployment
Usability Testing
Submission of
Progress Report
Feedback by
Tester
Prototype
Improvement
Pre-Sedex
Viva
Submission of
Project
Dissertation

Table 11: Gantt chart for planned activities of this study

24
3.10 Key Milestones

Table below shows the milestones of this study:

No Deliverables/Activities Schedule
1 Title Selection and Proposal Week 2
2 Project Approval Week 4
3 Problem Identification and Feasibility Study Week 5
4 Extended Proposal Week 6
5 Requirements Gathering Week 8
6 Process and System Modelling Week 10
7 Interface Design Week 12
8 Interim Report Week 12
9 Proposal Defence Week 14
10 Architecture and System Design Week 15
11 System Complete Week17
12 Progress Report Week 20
13 Usability Testing Week 21
14 Pre- Sedex Week 24
15 Viva Week 27
16 Final Dissertation Week 28

Table 12: Key milestones

25
3.11 Tool and Equipment
Hardware
ASUS laptop for software IDE installation platform
artphone (OnePlus One) for mobile application testing.
Software
Android Studio that support Java, web-application development language and other
programming language.
Programming Language
mobile application for the user.

26
 CHAPTER 4
RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results and Findings

Based on the research methodology that has been conducted, the author has set the goal
to achieve the following output for the research execution:
Author/Title Emergency Push Notification Mobile Application- A Study
on Personal Safety Using Mobile Phone and Prototype Design
(Mior 2015)
Operating System Android
Safety Features The application will run in background. Once the user triggers
the application by shaking the device, the application will
activate the GPS and tracks the location of the phone.
Simultaneously, video recorder and camera will be in ready
mode to record and snap pictures during the critical event.
During the process of data collection by the GPS and camera,
the data will immediately be stored into the cloud storage and
not into the phone memory.
Unique suggestions -Application will run in background.
-All recorded data will be stored in cloud database and could
be used as evidences.
-Video recording.

Table 13: Output of the research

27
Whereas, for the proposed prototype development, the author aims to achieve the
following goals:

Mobile Application

Name SaveMe
Main feature Once triggered when the
user shake the device, the
app will immediately alert
your friends & family that
you need help with location
data.
Runs in Background Yes.
System Requirement(s) -Global Positioning System
(GPS),
-Instant Messaging
-E-mail address of message
receiver
Procedure to activate -Shake the device to the
application level of shaking sensitivity
that has been determined by
the user.

Table 14: Expected features of prototype

28
4.2 System Interface Design for Prototype of the Proposed Mobile Application

Figure 6: Main page Figure 7: Menu Tray

The figure shows the interface After successful login, the app will
of the app once user has configure itself to integrate with the
downloaded it and activates it user’s Google Account, thus sync
for the first time. The user will itself to the Google Drive.
be logged in using their
existing Gmail account.

29
 Figure 8: Add Contacts Figure 9: Setting Page

The user then is required to save The figure shows the interface
their emergency contacts to up of the app for the configuration
to 10 contacts. These contact(s) of the app. In this section, the
will be notified simultaneously user is required to choose the
when the user triggered the sensitivity level of device
emergency request. shaking. This is a crucial part
because it determines between
the shaking level of a genuine
emergency request and an
unintentional request.

30
 Figure 11: Cancel Emergency Message Delivery

Once the user’s current location is detected, the

app then automatically trigger the video
recorder of the phone and records the scene for
Figure 10: GPS detect location
7 seconds. Within the 7 seconds of video
When the GPS feature of the recording, the user will be given the option to
phone is activated by the user, cancel the delivery of emergency message to
the app will be running in pre- stored contact in case of a ‘false alarm’
background. Therefore when the situation.
phone is shaking, it will trigger
the app to automatically detect After the process of location detection by the
the user’s current location. GPS feature and video recording by the camera,
this collected information will be uploaded into
The coordinate of the GPS will the user’s Google Drive site.
be embedded in the emergency
message later on.

31
 Figure 12: Notification Figure 13: Notification

Once the user has cancelled the delivery of the After successfully delivering the emergency
emergency message, the app will notify them. message, the app also will notify the user.
Embedded in the emergency message is the
coordinates of the user’s current location.
Therefore, the message receiver will react to the
request by arriving at the emergency scene to
help the victim.

32
4.3 System Testing
The purpose of the system testing is to check the functionalities system. Table 11 shows
the functional testing of the mobile application.
Component Expected Testing Testing Results Remark
Function Frequency Success Failure
Side tray for Slide according to 20 20 0
menu user’s desire
Save Me Navigate to home 20 20 0
‘button’ page of the
application
Contacts Navigates to the 25 20 0
‘button’ Add Contact page
and list existing
contacs saved.
Places Detects the current 20 18 2 First failure due to
‘button’ location of user. lost of Mobile Data
connection
Second failure due
to GPS inability to
detect location
Video Records video for 20 19 1 Failure due to
‘button’ 7 seconds overload processing
task
Save Contact Saves the contact 19 19 19
‘button’ that has been filled
by the user
Save & Add Saves the contact 20 19 19
Another and prompts user
‘button’ to add another
contact.
Light ‘button’ Update the shake 25 25 0

33
 sensitivity to
‘light’ and
navigates to
homepage
Medium Update the shake 25 25 0
‘button’ sensitivity to
‘medium’ and
navigates to
homepage
Hard ‘button’ Update the shake 25 25 0
sensitivity to
‘hard’ and
navigates to
homepage
Shaking The app is 20 18 2 First failure due to
mechanism triggered and other app is also
proceed with its running
intended function Second failure due
to excessive
shaking.
Cancel alert Cancels the 20 19 1 Failure due to slow
‘button’ delivery of the touch reaction of
emergency the phone screen.
message.

Table 15: System Functional Testing for Mobile Application

34
4.4 User Testing
The user testing is done mainly for the evaluation of the mobile apllication (prototype)
effectiveness towards personal safety. The main features that is being tested for the
mobile application is:
- The time taken reduced for emergency request.
- Procedures reduced for emergency request using the mobile application.
- Usefulness of informations collected by the mobile/smart phone as evidences.
- Ease of executing the mobile application.
30 civilians which owns an Android smartphone has been selected to perform the
testing, mainly the people in Seri Iskandar area. Targeted user are provided with the
application setup on their mobile phone and required to connect to the provided WiFi
connection or mobile data. After the testing, users are required to fill in the
questionnaire as shown in the Appendix.

The first part of testing is to test the time taken reduced on the registration process.
Users are expected to log in using their existing Google Account. Then they will fill in
the Add Contacts page with their preferred contacts to call during emergency. Finally,
they will be required to activate their smartphone’s GPS feature to execute the mobile
application.

35
 Time taken reduced for emergency help
request.
18
16
14
12
10
Time taken reduced for
8 emergency help request.
6
4
2
0
No 30% - 50% 51% - 80 % 81%-100%

Figure 14: Evaluation Results for time taken reduced for emergency help request
There are more than half of the user believe that this application have help them to
reduce the time taken for requesting help during emergency. In Figure , 16 user says that
it save more than 81% of their time to perform the process of emergency request using
their mobile phone, while the rest also believe that the time taken have been reduced at
least by 50%. This is because the application only requires the user to activate their GPS
feature of the mobile phone and shake the device when they are in danger. Instead of
raching the phone and press the number pad to call someone for help. The process of
emergency request can be done with one simple gesture which is by shaking the device..
It prove that the use of the mobile application can reduce the time for emergency request
without performing the conventional way of requesting help using mobile phone which
is by dialing someone.

36
 Procedures reduced for emergency request
using the mobile application
30

25

20

Procedures reduced for

15
emergency request using the
mobile application
10

0
Agree Disagree

Figure 15: Evaluation Results for Procedures Reduced for emergency request
using the mobile application

In Figure , the evaluation result shows that majority of the user agrees the number of
procedures to request for emergency helpusing their mobile phone is reduced when
using the mobile application. A minority of user disagree that with the execution of the
mobile application, the procedures is reduced in requesting for help during emergency.
This is because the minority of the user expects that the GPS feature of their mobile
phone is activated automatically by the mobile application without even the user have to
do it themselves. This aspect could be considered in future improvement of the mobile
application..

37
 Usefulness of informations collected by the
mobile/smart phone as evidences.
35

30

25

20

15

10 Usefulness of informations
collected by the mobile/smart
5
phone as evidences.
0
Agree Disagree

Figure 16: Evaluation results for Usefulness of informations collected by the

mobile/ smart phone as evidences.

Figure shows that 100% of the user agrees that the informations collected by the mobile
phone, through the usage of the mobile application is useful in terms of personal safety.
This could be justified because the information of location of the victim is the most
important data for anyone who would want to respond to the emergency request.
Therefore, this make the users feel that it is the most important element to be included
automatically in the emergency request.

38
 Ease of executing the mobile application
30

25

20

15
Ease of executing the mobile
10
application
5

Figure 17: Evaluation results for Ease of exceuting the mobile application

Figure shows the majority of the user agrees that the mobile application is easier and
user-friendly to execute for requesting emergency help rather than dialing to request for
help. A minority of users still approves the ease of executing the mobile application
although they believe it is only easier than dialing for help during emergency. Therefore,
the mobile application proves to be a more convinient and efficient way of requesting
for help using a mobile/ smart phone.

39
 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusion
From the perspective of potential users, the author expects that the mobile application
will bring positive implications towards the way of requesting help during critical
situations. From the analysis, the author has identified the most important aspect of
applying the usage of mobile application in personal safety which is, the procedure of
requesting help must be at the most minimum. In this study, the author focuses on
optimizing the “shaking device” feature in the smartphone towards the process of
requesting help. Therefore, the author expects that the user will be satisfied and realize
on the ease of use and effectiveness of the mobile application during the situations
of crime.

40
5.2 Recommendations
Among the recommendation for this project is,

1. Send/ call the nearest law- enforcers (e.g. police stations) during critical
situations.
This feature could be developed into the mobile application as one of the core or main
ability for the future works. During the time of this study, the author initially considered
to include this feature into the development of the mobile application, but it seems
infeasible during the time of study due to prrivacy and confidential issue between the
law- enforcers and the author’s intention towards the study.

2. Alert nearest person who also has the same application in their mobile devices.
The extent of help request could be enhance more with this feature. The same user of
this app could deliver help to the requestor nearby them by notifications in their mobile
devices. By using the same mobile application, other user could be alert about other user
who is in dangerous situation and offer help to them.

5.3 Limitations
Along the process of completing this research, the author has faced difficulty such as:
-Manipulating the existing features of a mobile phone fully towards
personal safety, where the included features such as GPS, accelerometer, and
video recorder has to be integrated into one purpose which is to address the
aspect of personal safety.

-Making sure that the design of the application is effective towards saving
people’s lives during critical situations, where the design phase of the mobile
application is totally critical. The author has to thouroughly make sure that the
design ensures the effectiveness of ensuring the emergency request is easily
delivered while ensuring the least count of procedures implemented.

41
 CHAPTER 6
REFERENCES

Ci, C. X.-. (2012). How I escaped an attempted kidnapping. The Malaysian Insider.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/howiescapedanattemptedkidnapp
ingchinxinci.

Columbia, B. (2015). "Making a Police Statement." from

http://www.justicebc.ca/en/cjis/you/witness/coming_forward/making_a_statement.html.

Erickson, P., et al. "Designing Public Safety Mobile Applications for Disconnected,
Interupted, and Low Bandwidth Communication Environments." 7.

INFOHOWN (2012). "Emergency Response Time." from

http://www.infohow.org/statistics/emergency-response-time/.

Katz, D. S. and I. Caspi (2003). Executive's Guide to Personal Security.

Kushwaha, A. and V. Kushwaha (2011). "LOcation Based Services Using Android

Mobile Operating System." International Journal of Advance in Engineering &
Technology: 7.

Mandapati, D. S., et al. (2015). "A Mobile Based Women Safety Application (I Safe
Apps)." IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) 17(1): 6.

Nirbhavane, M. and S. Prabha (2014). "Accident Monitoring System using Wireless

Application." 3(4): 4.

P.Kalyanchakravarthy, et al. (2014). "Android Based Safety Triggering Application."

International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies 5(1): 2.

Ramalingam, A., et al. "Personal Safety Triggering System on Android Mobile

Platform." 19.

Roberson, C. and L. M. Birzer (2010). Introduction To Private Security Theory Meets

Practice, Prentice Hall.

Sene, K. (2008). Flood Warning, Forecasting and Emergency Response, Springer.

42
Straus, S. G., et al. (2007). "Mobile Technology and Action Teams: Assessing
BlackBerry Use in Law Enforcement Units." RAND: 10.

TDAXP (2007). "DREAMING 5GW, PART III: LESSONS FROM SOFTWARE

DEVELOPMENT." from http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2007/07/28/dreaming-5gw-
part-iii-lessons-from-software-development.html.

Westmarland, N., et al. (2013). "Protecting Women's Safety? The use of smartphone
'apps' in relation to domestic and sexual violence." 6.

Whitzman, C., et al. (2013). Building Inclusive Cities

Women's safety and the right to the city, Routledge.

Wijaya, W., et al. (2013). "Pengembangan Sistem Notifikasi Situasi Darurat Personal
Berbasis Android dengan Global Positioning System sebagai Solusi Alternatif
Penanganan Keselamatan bagi Masyarakat." JURNAL TEKNIK POMITS 2(1): 6.

Yu, A., et al. "Personalized Awareness and Safety with Mobile Phones as Sources and
Sinks." 5.

Zlatanova, S. and J. Li (2008). Geospatial Information Technology for Emergency

Response.

43
 CHAPTER 7
APPENDIX

7.1 Questionnaire for public survey

What kind of mobile devices do you own? *

Smartphone

Mobile phone

Tablet

Other:
What is the operating system in your smartphone? *

Android

Apple iOS

Windows Mobile

Other:
Which types of apps are most useful to you? (you may choose more than one) *

Game apps (puzzles, charades, etc.)

Search tool apps (directions, phone numbers, recipes, etc.)

Personal safety apps (panic button, emergency calls, etc.)

Social networking apps (location check-ins, friend status updates, etc.)

Other:

44
Is your mobile data activated 24/7 ? *

Yes

No
Do you have a mobile app for personal safety?

Yes

No
Have you experienced a crime activity (mugging, robbery, kidnapping, etc.) as
a victim?

Yes

No
Which party would you prefer to notify first when experiencing an emergency
or crime?

Police

Family

Friends

Nearest person around you

Other:
Do you feel safe when travelling alone to isolated or even familiar places
without your mobile phone?

Yes

No
Do you agree that requesting for help using mobile phone during critical
situation (kidnapping, robbery,mugging, etc.) is difficult due to the panic
situation?

Yes

No

45
If there's an app that will send emergency message to your selected contacts
during emergency/crime situation,without you having to type in the message,
will you download and use it?

Yes

No
What are the main features that you think are compulsory in the app? (you
may choose more than one)

GPS tracking of the smartphone

Push notification to selected contact numbers consisting the emergency

message

Video recording capability

(Siren or loud noises, etc.) audio to notify nearest people

Direct call to the nearest authority offices (e.g police station, fire station,
paramedic, etc.)

Other:

46
7.2 Questionnaires for User Testing

1. How much do you think the application help reduce the time taken for you to request
for help during emergency?
a) No b) 30 – 50% c) 51% - 80% d) 81% and above

2. Does this application reduce the number of procedures to request for help in an
emergency?
a) Agree b) Disagree
3. Do you agree that the informations collected by the mobile phone is useful as
eveidences in the future?
- Yes
- No

4. How do you rate the ease of this application towards the aspect of personal safety?
a) Complicated b) Difficult c) Moderate d) Easy e) User Friendly

47
7.3 Results for Data Collection & Analysis.
The author has executed a survey by producing the questionnaires that is related to the
study. The objective of this execution is to collect the data regarding the usage of mobile
apps in pesonal safety, the public’s opinion towards personal safety and to identify the
existing phenomena that is implemented in our society in terms of personal safety issue.
From the survey, a total of 52 respondents have been surveyed by answering the
questionnaires. The range of society invovled in this survey is undetermined. They are
random people and not specifically targeted to be involved in this survey. This aspect is
crucial because as stated earlier, while women regularly become the victim(s) in
criminal situation, (Mandapati, Pamidi et al. 2015), gender shouldn’t be the argument in
the case of personal safety.

What kind of mobile device do you own?

2% 6% 0%

Smartphone
Mobile phone
Tablet
Other

92%

Figure 18: Type of mobile device

Figure above shows the portion of respondents who owns a mobile device. It shows that
the majority (92 %) of the respondents owns a smartphone in their possession. However,
another 8% of the respondents own either the conventional mobile phone or tablets.
Hence, we can conclude that Malaysians do have at least a mobile device as their means
of communication nowadays.

48
 What is the operationg system in your
smartphone?
0% 2%

23%

Android
Apple iOS
Windows Mobile
75% Other

Figure 19: Mobile operating system

In the figure above, 76% of the respondents’ mobile devices operate Android operating
system in their devices. Another 23% of the respondent’s mobile device operates the
Apple iOS operating system in their mobile devices. Finally another 1% operates an
operating system in their mobile device other than Android and the Apple iOS. It can be
concluded that Android is the preferred operating system (OS) for Malaysians to use in
their mobile devices. One of the reason for this matter is Android devices is cheaper in
term of price compared to other operating devices that implements other operating
system.

49
 Which type off apps are most useful to you

1%
23%
35%
Game apps
Search tool apps
Personal safety apps
Social networking apps
Other
27%

14%

Figure 20: Types of mobile application

Figure above emphasize on the important apps for the perspective of users. 35% of the
respondents agree that social network apps are the most important apps to them.
Another 27% of the respondents agree that search tool apps are the most important apps
to have in their mobile devices. For a portion of 23% of the respondents also agreed that
game apps are the most crucial to be downloaded and used in their mobile devices.
Whereas, only 14% of the respondents agree that personal safety apps are crucial to
have in their mobile devices. It can be concluded that personal safety issues are not
heavily emphasize in our society.

50
 Is your mobile data activated 24/7

37%

Yes
No

63%

Figure 21: Mobile data activation

Figure above shows that 63% of the respondents activate their mobile data 24 hours a
day without deactivating it. Another 37% of the respondents do not activate their mobile
data 24 hours a day. The factor behind this matter is the energy consuming by the
mobile data communication once it is activated. The longer the mobile data is activated,
the more energy it consumes from the battery life of the mobile device.

51
 Do you have a mobile apps for personal
safety?

19%

Yes
No

81%

Figure 22: Personal safety mobile app

Figure above displays the portion of respondents (19%) that does have at least a
personal safety app in their mobile devices. Another 81% of them do not own any
personal safety apps in their mobile devices. A factor for this matter is probably because
the app store is highly saturated with entertainment apps rather than other apps for other
purposes (e.g. personal safety).

52
 Have you experienced a crime activity
(mugging, robbery, kidnapping, etc.) as a
victim?
8%

Yes
No

92%

Figure 23: Crime activity experience

Figure above shows the statistics of the respondents who are actually have experienced a
crime activity in their life such as mugging, robbery, kidnapping, etc. as a victim. 8% of
them have actually been a victim to a crime in their life. Whereas, 92% of the
respondents did not actually experienced a crime activity as victim. This statistics
actually encourages the implementation of mobile devices apps to take control of the
personal safety issue.

53
 Which party would you prefer to notify first
when experiencing an emergency or crime?
0%
20%

37%
Police
Family & Friends
Nearest person around you
Other

43%

Figure 24: Contact preference

Figure above shows the statistic from the respondent on which party should they notify
first when experiencing an emergency situation or crime situation. A majority of 43% of
the respondents agree that they should notify their family or friends first during the
critical situations. Another 37% of them agree that they should notify the police when
confronting a critical situation. Whereas a portion of 20% of the respondents is prefer to
notify the police or law enforcers when dealing with critical situations. The reason
behind this statistic is probably because the response time for a call or message is faster
when it is executed between family and friends when it is made.

54
 Do you feel safe when travelling alone to
isolated or even familiar places without your
mobile phone?

21%

Yes
No

79%

Figure 25: Travelling alone

Figure above shows the statistic which respondent agrees whether they feel safe
travelling with their mobile devices to isolated or familiar place. 79% of them feel safe
travelling with mobile phone with them. Instead, another 21% of the respondents do not
feel safe travelling without their mobile devices. This matter is probably because the
respondents are more concern about their safety when travelling, specifically alone.
Therefore, with the presence of mobile phone, they feel safer because with it, they could
notify their contacts regarding an emergency matters when they are faced with one.

55
 Do you agree that requesting for help using
mobile phone during critical situation
(kidnapping, robbery,mugging, etc.) is
difficult due to the panic situation?
12%

Yes
No

88%

Figure 26: Difficulty during panic situation

The figure above portrays the public opinions regarding the difficulty of requesting help
using mobile phone during critical situation. A majority of 88% of the respondents agree
to the fact that requesting for help during critical situations does gets difficult due to the
panic situation. Another 12% of the respondents disagree with the opposed question. We
can conclude that the public is concerned with the ability to request help during
emergency/ critical situation.

56
 If there's an app that will send emergency
message to your selected contacts during
emergency/crime situation,without you
having to type in the message, will you
download and use it?
13%

Yes
No

87%

Figure 27: Personal safety mobile app download

Statistic above shows that 87% of the respondents would download and use the
proposed mobile application due to its ability to send emergency message to pre-stored
contacts. Another 13% of the respondents were not very confident of the ability of the
proposed mobile application. Therefore, we can conclude that the public is strongly
concern of notifying their family and friends when they are in a dangerous situation.
This statistic strengthens the public view on how important it is to notify their family
and friends during dangerous situation as stated in the previous question above.

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 Direct call to the nearest
authority offices (e.g police
station, fire station,…

(Siren or loud noises, etc.)

audio to notify nearest people

What are the main features that

Video recording capability you think are compulsory in the
app? (you may choose more
than one)
Push notification to selected
contact numbers consisting
the emergency message

GPS tracking of the

smartphone

0 10 20 30 40 50

Figure 28: Main features of a personal safety mobile app

Figure above shows the statistic of compulsory features that the public feels compulsory
to have in the proposed mobile application. A majority of 43 respondents agrees that
GPS feature should be implemented in the mobile application to track the location of the
mobile device once the mobile application is activated. We can conclude that the public
is really concern about notifying their family and friends about their location if they feel
they are in dangerous situation.

58