Rave Guardian: A phone tracker to keep pupils safe

A system that tracks students through their mobile phones is among the new technologies being developed to help improve security at America's universities - something increasingly of concern since the tragic events at Virginia Tech in April. 2007 Webby Award winner and favorite BBC reports.

"College officials are increasingly looking to technology, from automated building lockdowns to campus-wide text messaging, to respond to campus emergencies.

One of the applications that is being pioneered to help is Rave Guardian - invented after research found that phones are one of the primary tools students use to keep safe.

Rave Guardian allows the student to set a timer - for perhaps half a hour, when they leave their friends' dorm room to go back to theirs. If they return safe they can simply turn off the alarm.

"If something did happen, it would transmit their location every three minutes - including their profile - to campus safety," Rodger Desai, president and CEO of the New York based company Rave Wireless, told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.

"So the user pops up on a Google map, wherever they are in the country, and campus safety knows that something may be wrong."

emily | 4:00 PM | SMS and Students |
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