Smart Phone apps to ensure women safety and security

Women’s safety has become one of the important issues in daily life. Indian Government has

prioritized this matter while considering the increasing cases of crime against women. Various

apps and software have been designed for the protection and security of women. The notion of

the apps is simple yet accessible with emergency contacts to alert and transmission of GPS of

determined location.

Here are 15 apps that ensure women’s security:

1. Raksha

The app is designed to secure women by sending alerts of your location to your specified contacts in a situation of distress. The app also works when it’s switched off; it sends alerts to your selected contacts by just pressing the volume key. It has also SOS
functionality and can send SMS in a non internet area.

2. Smart 24*7

This app helps to call the police by just pressing the panic button. Some pre designed contacts are within easy reach to call in during the difficult time. The GPRS acts as

an integral part, in case of non-functioning of it, the location is sent via SMS. This app not only tracks the location but also clicks photos and records the situation. The app is available on play store and iTunes.

3. BSafe

BSafe is equipped with varieties of functions for women’s safety. The alarm sends the location to the selected contacts by the user and also records the condition of the

situation.The feature ‘Follow me’ helps in virtual tracking of the user via GPS and ‘timer alarm’ helps to set an alarm to keep the selected contacts informed about the

whereabouts.This app is available on Play store and iTunes.

4. Trakie

Trakie facilitates to get all the information about the movement, location, battery percentage, signal strength and speed of the user. The user can also stay in contact by

chatting with their selected contacts. Registration of authentic numbers can be done through this app via OTP

5. Eyewatch SOS for Women

This app captures audio and video of the user’s surroundings and sends it to the selected contacts with the alert message. This app is praise worthy for high location accuracy, functioning without GPRS and Safety confirmation feature. After reaching the location the user can inform their near ones by pressing the “I am Safe” button.

6. My SafetyPin

My safetypin chooses the safest road for the user and guides accordingly. If there is any unsafe location, this app gives alerts and the user can send information to family or friends to track. Safety of an area is measured by the parameters like public transport, visibility, security etc.

7. CitizenCop

By using this particular app, any citizen can report criminal cases or illegal activity in their area anonymously. Lost or stolen things can also be reported by calling the

police. CitizenCop app creates a safety through a feature called eLakshmanRekha and provides features like live tracking, emergency calls and SOS alerts.

8. Chilla

As the name suggests, a woman can shout and activate the chilla app in a distress situation. While the activation is in process, this app sends an alert message to the woman’s contacts. Chilla app also sends alert texts to pre-designed contacts on pressing the power

button five times.

9. IGoSafely

iGoSafely sends alert messages, emails and GPS location to emergency contacts on activation. The app keeps on updating messages until and unless the alarm is turned off using the secret code. IGoSafely also has a feature that sends a thirty-second audio captured by the user’s microphone. The most important feature is that it can be activated by just shaking the phone.

10. Shake2Safety

This app sends an emergency SOS message quickly to the pre configured numbers by just shaking the phone. This application works without internet connection and

even with the locked screen. This app has a feature for reporting cases of robbery, accident or natural disaster.

11. SpotnSave Feel secure

This app has been marked as one of the most advanced safety

application as it sends an alert message along with the location to the pre-selected contact in

every two minutes. This app can also be used via wristband if the user has no access to the

device. Like the phone, the apps works via Bluetooth connection.

12. Himmat

Himmat is highly recommended for women living in Delhi. The Users have to register on the Delhi Police website. After the registration procedure an OTP is received that

is entered to configure the app on the device. When the user is in trouble, she has to send an SOS alert from the app, which instantly captures her live location and situation through audio visual technology and sends it to the Delhi Police Control Room. The nearest police station gets the alert and help is send accordingly.

13. VithU

This is a safety app developed by Channel V for promoting a show. VithU is activated by pressing the power button of a device twice. All emergency contacts on the

user’s device are alerted with the SOS message. This message is repeatedly sent every two minutes with the user’s location. VithU has a safety feature that comes with tips that provides safety tips in a distress situation.

14. 112

The 112 App is a Government of India initiative to protect women. The app is activated by pressing a button. After activation the app will send emergency alerts with the user’s details and location along with a generated call to ‘112’ – to the State Emergency Control

Room and the person’s emergency contacts. The emergency alert is notified with an audio visual feature on the volunteer smart phone.

15. Family locator

Family Locator is a safety app that can be used by the user’s entire family to connect them. The user can further create private groups called circles, and view the location of Circle Members. There are constant alerts on the whereabouts of the members. The app is helpful as the entire family stays connected and feels safe.

— Swagata Chongdar

Detect Covid-19 spreading via smart phone apps

As the Covid-19 rages across the world, technologists pondered upon the building of apps, services, and systems to identify and implicate solutions. Some apps rely on fewer complications while others suck up more data on the systems. Again some of the services are government initiatives while others are global operations. Apple and Google mobilized huge teams and avalanche of services and involved to aware people through prompt action. The questions arise when these applications are doubted of their performance but none the less these apps do well out of this condition.

Here are 10 most used apps that track Covid-19.

1. Aarogya Setu

This mobile application is launched by Government of India to generate
awareness and to connect the health services to fight against Covid 19. The application provides the user status that is whether the user is safe in his environment and self assess by identifying the symptoms of the virus. This application further gives COVID 19 updates and tells the number of cases in a radius of up to 10kms. It is built on a platform of API which makes the computer programs and web services available. The application is launched in 12 languages and the size is 4.0MB. A great response was attained from
the users as it reached over 100 million installs in just 40 days

2. Corona Virus testing app developed by Drs. Arni Rao and Jose Vasquez

A corona Virus App combined with AI will provide an individual to get at-home risk assessment based on how they feel and their travel history. Generally, the application provides with local and public health officials with information about emerging demographics of those who risk for Covid and help expedite their screening to medical care. The application would get individual’s location and other demographics like gender, age, race and about recent contact with an individual known to have the symptoms or has travelled in the last 14 days. Also, the application will query about common symptoms of infection and their duration. The AI will then use an algorithm and asses the individual’s information and send them the final risk assessment report instantly.

3. Coughvid App

EFPL researchers have developed an application that detects Covid 19
through listening to cough. The cough is recorded and the results can be found immediately. The application is user friendly and reliable which is deployed for large
scale testing. The application is also anonymous and free which gives 70% accuracy rate. The use of AI to detect different types of coughs has proved the advancement of
technology through this application.

4. Datamine’s elarm

A New Zealand company has created an application to detect Covid-19 before a persons feels sick. The wearable device picks up the signs like the person’s heart beat, body temperature and breathing rate and detects the symptoms instantly. The application is made for the well being of the healthcare workers and for the betterment of the community. Besides tracking Covid symptoms, the application alerts with warnings and proffer advice for the same.

5. Nepal COVID-19 Surveillance

Nepal COVID-19 Surveillance system is a collective effort of NREN, ICT4D, PHECT-Nepal and IDS to detect community spread of the disease. The mobile app suggests an individual to self assess being self-quarantine and update one’s health status continuously for 14 days. Tye system also has a dashboard for medical doctors to monitor an individual’s health status.

6. Mobile Detect

This smart phone testing kit combines laboratory grade diagnostics with smart phone autimated technology with instant result reporting potentially. The Covid-19 detection works when an individual use swabs to sample interior of nasal cavity and apply the same into buffer solution. The sample is applied into MD-Bio cuvette which test assay samples for reaction. The heating of the reaction is done with MD-Bio Heater and later the sample is put into MD-Bio holder. Scanning is done via QR code on MD-Bio Holder and results are observed instantly via email, images or GPS information. The application is designed for general use and is available on Google Play and App store.

7. Corowarner App

This application is developed by Turkish entrepreneurs to detect
Covid 19 through contact tracing. This application alerts an individual anonymously if one is in close contact with an individual who tested positive for the virus. The app then provides with timely guidance by observing their current symptoms based on age and chronic diseases. The app has been also designed for those who don’t have smart phones. 0They could send messages through their location and get results via operator services.

8. Covid Tracing Tracker

This application keeps a record of database and captures details of every contact tracing effort around the world. A list is being compiled, the data is collected which lasts nearly about 30 days. The application identifies a person’s location and look for other devices that were active in the same location. The “proximity tracking” is done via Bluetooth. It considers better privacy than location tracking. The joint API system that is connecting Apple and Google helps in contact tracing application that is further benefitted in building in operating systems. The DP-3T technology is an open source protocol that helps in tracking the person’s contact and stored locally without being exposed. The application works on an account of data visualization service as the public version of the data is kept in spreadsheet form.

9. Corona watch

This application is for tracking of Covid Patients in India. The app
provides with the location of Covid affected patients and their travel history. This app is made to aware the general public and helpline numbers are provided to facilitate citizens to identify the nearest covid treating hospitals. The app is user friendly and is readily available on Google play.

10. My Trace

This app is developed by Government of Malaysia to trace Covid outbreaks
via Bluetooth. The application is available on play store and it adopts a community
driven approach where active devices exchange information whenever the app detects
another nearby device with My Trace installed. This enables identification of individuals
who have been close proximity to a contaminated person.

All about UI/UX design.

In the world of web and app designing, the UI and UX design are often misunderstood as two of the most confused and conflated terms. They’re usually placed together in a single term, UI/UX design, and viewed from the surface they seem to be describing the same thing. It’s often hard to find solid descriptions of the two that don’t descend too far into jargon. But fear not!

By the end of this article, you’ll have a good understanding of what is UI and UX design and how they relate to each other. So let’s dive in!

What is UI Design?

The “UI” in UI design stands for “user interface.” User-Interface or UI is the interface between the end-user of an application and the software behind it. In a smartphone, the user screen of a mobile application through which the user provides input to the application and gets a response, is the user interface. Website designers, mobile apps creators and e-commerce businesses take immense care to understand the requirements of their users – such as how they would navigate, what is the menu required — before designing the user interface of their applications. The entire process of gathering user requirements, putting together the different software elements and creating an effective user-interface is called user interface design or UI design.

Components of UI Design:

•Layout : The layout specifies what elements you’ll have on the page, and where and how they’ll be placed. This is the decisive factor. The Layout should be simple, making it easy for users to find what they’re looking for, and more importantly to draw them in to your call to action.

•Color: The colors you use have a major impact on the UI design. They must reflect the brand of your company, and also resonate with the users persona. Using dull grey colors for a a CrossFit training website isn’t really going to motivate or engage your users.

•Typography: The correct typography can make or break your UI design. Though it may seem to be just text, the text has a subconscious visual appeal.

•Graphics: It’s become easier than ever before to create your own graphics. Graphics are about conveying the message you want with just an image. This too has to be done right so that it draws in your target audience.
•UI Deliverables: Style tiles, layout mockups
•UI Tools: Colour swatches, typography, photography, graphic editing software.

What is UX design?

“UX” stands for “user experience.”UX design brings critical analysis and logic to the design process: designing systems, structure, and flows that a user will take. This user-centric design considers what the user wants and needs, and how they will best get there. Website navigation — how a user reads through a page, where they click to navigate between pages, how they find and access the information they want — is part of the user experience.
UX design specifically for the web also takes into consideration search engine optimization (SEO), browser restrictions, and other web-specific requirements.
UX Deliverables: Site map, wireframes and prototyping
UX Tools: Research, analytics, diagrams.

Components of UX Design:

•Information Architecture (IA):
Information Architecture is about connecting people to content in a way that is most understandable to them. It creates a hierarchy of content on a page and uses different elements such as navigation to add structure. It takes the different types of information into context and organises it in a manner to make it easy to find content.

•Interaction Design:
Interaction Design deals with the specific interactions between users and a screen. Visual Design responds to the user goals supported in Interaction Design to communicate the brand using graphics, images, fonts, color, icons, and so on.

Interaction design also uses prototyping to define specific behaviours and functions for different components.

•Usability:
Usability deals with leveraging data to determine the validity of design decisions. While in any given company there are people from different backgrounds speaking to the goals of the business or specific engineering constraints, it is the role of the UX designer to champion for the needs of a user and communicate any frustrations/pain points felt during the use of a product.

•Prototyping:
A prototype can be defined as a preliminary version from which other forms are developed. It is a way to set design priorities, cheaply test out options, then figure out logistical constraints and conflicts regarding implementation. Ultimately, prototyping is important because it brings you closer to the final functionality of the product before investing time, resources and money into development.

•Visual Design:
Visual design is about using the visual aspect of a product to improve the user’s experience. While visual design is not all there is to design, it is a crucial part of a well-thought-out product. It communicates a lot about a company’s brand and can be influential in how desirable and engaging a product is.

Visual design informs us how a product works via color, visual hierarchy, typography and thus is a crucial part of the overall user experience.

UI vs. UX: Two Very Different Disciplines that Work in Harmony.

UX and UI work together to create the most beautiful, modern and user-friendly websites that you have ever experienced. A UX designer decides how the user interface works while the UI designer decides how the user interface looks. This is a very collaborative process, and the two design teams tend to work closely together. The UX team will be working out the flow of the app, how all of the buttons navigate you through your tasks, and how the interface efficiently serves up the information user’s need, the UI team will be working on how all of these interface elements will appear on screen.
UI design and UX design involve very different skill sets, but they are integral to each other’s success. Both UI and UX designs need to be flawlessly executed and perfectly aligned with pre-existing user expectations to create an excellent user interface/experience. And when those stars align the results can be astounding.

-Blog by Aditi Debnath

WEB DEVELOPMENT VS MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT

In the world full of softwares for almost everything, there was a new wave of apps (or applications). Although a few inventions were made in the 1990s but the concept got a wider perspective in the last 15 years.
Web was a major development and has evolved a lot in terms of innovation, technology and the easy access. Webpages and websites are built by javascript and HTML which are simpler and complex in its own way.
Web was first a simple way to convey the relevant information to the person, but now it gives information in innovative and interesting way, like pictures, videos and attachments to different pages. Earlier it used to be single page, but now websites are developed as multiple pages.

HISTORY

Web development was an invention of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web in 1989. Being the child of computer scientists he had this in him. But no one had ever imagined that it would be such a big achievement until it turned out the major source of work and one of the finest inventions in the tech industry. Web development is the process of making websites or web pages on the internet. The websites we scroll through nowdays are the complex, interactive and attracting form of persuading people. This form of advertisement helps businesses a lot. The main function of websites is to convey a specific information or detail to the learner.
As far as mobile app development is concerned, using apps is a much easier, appealing and evolved form of sending information to the targeted audience. Apps are easier to operate and more convenient to access. App development includes all the procedures which enable us to access the information which will be available to the customer on their phones (other wireless connecting devices). The R&D department of IBM firstly came up with this idea in 1993 but it became accessible roughly 20 years later.

TODAY: THE WORLD FULL OF PROSPECTS

As we all know, the major work nowdays is done through internet and the latest technology. The most powerful invention ‘microsoft’ has a new version now as google sheets, docs which are a bit more convenient than the earlier form as the information gets updated automatically, which was a drawback earlier and we all have gone through that phase where we worked the whole day and end up not saving the document and regretting it that mistake the rest of the life. Apps are the future as they are more convenient, easily accessible and just a click away.
Mobile app development itself is a big task and it generated around 529,000 direct jobs in 2013 as per an analyst report.
As per the current situation, there were around 4.5 billion installs in the first quarter of 2019. The sales of smartphones are expected to double up to around 900 million units by 2022. This creates a huge room for apps to flourish and create room for the app developers by raising the demand for their skill set.
We know web development is the concrete foundation for all the development related to internet, but for the next few decades, apps are the future for prosperity and more money.

Features of web development

It is not an easy task to build a website from scratch, it involves a long procedure, complex coding, and the creativity to present it in an effective way. A web developer has to be a game player, problem solver and a team leader too. A perfect website includes proper documentation, concrete layout, catchy graphics and the most important: relevant and correct information.

Features of app development

It seems like an easier task, but mobile app development is a hectic task. A mobile app developer has to be creative, intelligent and smart at the same time. Making an app includes a lot of challenges like creating it as per varying sizes, providing it to all platforms and then market the app to reach a wide user base.
An app developer has to make sure that the app looks catchy, trendy and new in its own way, should provide crisp information and the most important security.

Although the working, operation and target audience is different, but the premises for both the cases are quite similar. Both require analysis, strategy, development and monitoring at its best. In both the cases, regulating the process is required and monitoring in a major task.

Difference between web development and mobile app development

Each coin has two sides, let us look at both and then come to a conclusion.
App development is the latest way to build businesses and it helps reach people all over the globe. By the simplified way of presentation, offline surfing facility and a wide platform to work with, it is a very challenging and mindboggling task for a developer to regulate what the result comes out to be.
The process looks so innovative and fresh, that we neglect the sweat and tears of a developer behind it. There are challenges like drain of investment, high risk and updates being not made that hinder the amount of time and labour put in an app.

Webpages we surf all the time are always full of information, which web developers aim the most at because the websites give deep knowledge, and the upgradations are easy to make, there just need to be a single version to be run in all the platforms
It is always an extensive work to code and make a webpage or website from scratch and includes a lot of patience and overcoming the fact that it is a traditional concept and here are easier ways to get the results.

Although these two ways are quite apart from each other but there certainly is a relation between the two. The business models nowadays work on all possible ways to get the best return. The businesses usually have both websites and apps for all users to have access to the information.
The new world has made many changes and accepted all the means to make a better world. Technology is key to the future and is obviously upgrading on a daily basis. People used normal phones and now have switched to smartphones. The computers have now updated to laptops and pads. But both the ways are perfect in their own ways and give desired results and making it work is an actual accomplishment.
In order to end this difference, there are new concepts like native apps and mobile web apps that help join the dots and are linking both the worlds.

• W

We are standing up for Black Lives Matter!

On May 5, the death of 46-year-old African American George Floyd choking under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis triggered waves of protests that continue to wash over the U.S. Floyd was pinned down for eight minutes and 46 seconds. In the footage, he said “I can’t breathe,” several times and called out for his mother before falling silent.

This incident made the last few weeks incredibly tough, bringing untold devastation, pain, and anger across the US and especially in the Black community. The so many deaths of unarmed African Americans at the hands of the police have pushed people to their breaking point.

Soven Developer condemns the systemic racism and police brutality against Black Americans and mourns the tragic murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others. But we know words aren’t enough. The Soven Developer community is taking to stand together against racial injustice.

As a community, Soven Developer stands for human rights and equality of opportunity. We’re proud to support human rights through the Soven Developer article, which will help people to understand the situation and suggest how one can help organizations combatting abuses around the world. We not only encourage all Americans but all people to engage with this moment, come together in support of equality, and let your voices be highly heard.

As a company, Soven Developer taken a public stand against racial injustice and police brutality. But what’s even more important is how we shift ingrained thoughts and behaviors to create a more just society, not only for all Soven Developer but for the world around us.

Soven Developer will continue investing our time, energy, and resources in our Black communities, who have been historically marginalized. We will keep finding out ways to create more equity and opportunity. We will work very hard to achieve policy changes that address systemic injustices and hold people of color back. And we will continue to stand, showing up and speaking out in defense of the intrinsic value of Black lives, until we are all treated with equal dignity and respect.

These terrific crimes should end—we have to do better as a nation. Humankind should be enraged. Everyone should be amplifying the message that Black Lives Matter. Everyone should be doing what they can to support these protests. We will suggest some actionable ways we can all be a part of the solution, even if you can't be a part in a person, whether it be in your social circles, at work, or in our local communities.

• The easiest way you can support it by donating to the Black Lives Matter Foundation, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the National Urban League.
• There are several protests scheduled around the world. For anyone who can join, we encourage you to show up.
• If your home is located near a protest site, you can help them by giving food, water, medical supplies, etc. You can create a shady spot outdoors.
• Since it’s happening during this pandemic, try to make masks for protestors.
• Many black-owned businesses are shut due to this, support black-owned businesses.
• Spread awareness through mobile phones, gather more people to help the protestors.

By doing even one of these solutions, your contribution will still be counted as a great help.

The Soven Developer is supporting #blacklivesmatter and standing for justice. Hope together we will be able to end racism and will get justice for the innocents.