Case presentation

Mike Demele, who hails from the U.S.A wanted to come out with a practical solution for reducing distracted driving among teens in order to reduce road accidents. He wanted to create an application which would mould a driver into a safety-driven person in a positive way by limiting the usage of mobile phones while driving only to emergency situations.

challenge

The challenge for Contus was to bring this idea that would ensure undistracted driving and induce a sense of responsibility among drivers, into reality.

How we made it? The key requirements for developing an application to resolve this issue were a mobile Lock/Unlock system, detection tool for finding whether the car is in motion and GPS to keep in track of the driver's current location. With these base requirements, Contus started developing an Android application which was further more customized according to the client's requirements.

Solution First of all a detection tool was set up to track the car's motion. Based on inputs from the detection system, the locking system responds accordingly to lock or unlock the mobile phone when the application is left on.

Notifications on proper usage of Life Saver app by the driver will reach their family members or friends, which helps them to monitor the driver's sense of responsibility. Based on their responsible driving, drivers will be rewarded with gifts.

Driving detection tool The key requirements for developing an application to resolve this issue were a mobile Lock/Unlock system, detection tool for finding whether the car is in motion and GPS to keep in track of the driver's current location. With these base requirements, Contus started developing an Android application which was further more customized according to the client's requirements.

Lock and unlock system This system was designed in such a way that it responds sensitively to the feeds given by the accelerometer based motion detection tool. Once the motion is initiated a signal from the motion detection tool triggers the lock system and once the driver stops the phone is unlocked.

The locking system is so responsive that the phone will be locked within 3-4 seconds once the motion begins and unlocked as quickly when a driver stops driving. The time period of unlocking during halts can be extended up to 60 seconds to prevent drivers from using the phone at traffic signals.

Monitoring aspects of lifesaver The concept of 'Notifications for Loved Ones' is one of the key features which distinguishes this app from other applications developed for safe driving. In other 'Safe Driving' apps, the effective usage of the features lies only with the driver, but in case of 'Life Saver', a third party (generally your family members, friends or spouse) can monitor the driver on their distracted driving.

Emergency unlock Life Saver comes up with a tool that can be made use to unlock the mobile during emergency situations even if the vehicle is in motion. This can be done through the application settings panel through which any family member or friend of the driver can enable the driver to have an 'Emergency Unlock' feature, which when used will send a text notification to the person who has enabled it.

Moreover, a person can also use the Life Saver protected phone as a passenger by configuring the settings in the app settings panel to 60 seconds.

Rewarding system for safe drivers Rewarding a driver for his/her safe and undistracted driving is something which will help them continue the habit and improve focus on driving. For this, Life Saver app has come up with the interesting rewarding system. Those who use this app effectively will be rewarded with free gifts without demanding the parents (Loved Ones) to spend for it.

Outcome Contus came up with an innovative mobile application for Mike Demele which could inculcate the benefits and need of safe driving.

How was mike benefitted? Mike's dream of creating an application for safe driving came into reality and he was able to inject a sense of awareness and need for responsible driving among various social circles, especially teens.

The idea of rewarding safe drivers turned out to be a successful one in pulling (encouraging) more people to take up this app which eventually resulted in its branding and popularity.