Meet our Virtual Family

Soon, we will launch our Kickstarter campaign. All efforts that I and my colleagues have spent towards Virtual Halo come down to the support we will be asking for, from our friends, family, and people near and far that have an interest in personal security, have concerns for loved ones - whether they are elderly or young - or want a subtle presence available as they live their daily lives, in case something goes wrong. Kind of like a halo circling what's most important to you.

Our Virtual Family

Meet Jon, his wife Lynn, their daughter Hazel, and Gramps; they are all on board. In fact, they can't wait for Virtual Halo to come to fruition. They lead busy and independent lives and Virtual Halo gives them the freedom to know that they can get assistance if they need it, while collectively having peace of mind knowing that each other are fine.

Jon - Businessman, Professional, Avid Traveler and International Jet-Setter, Father of the Year and Son of the Millennium. You never know where Jon is going to be from one week to the next, and that works great with his family. When he's around, they are as "Brady Bunch" as a family can be, but they all know that times have changed, and they live broad, multi-dimensional lives.

Lynn - Professional, Philanthropic, Kind and Caring, Backwoods Adventure Seeker, Everyone's favorite Mom, Compassionate Daughter-In-Law. Lynn enjoys a lot of things, but nothing more than her family. Her husband Jon and daughter Hazel mean the most to her of anything in the world, which is why she wants to know they're safe. And if they should get into a situation, she wants to do everything in her power to help them, whenever or wherever they are.

Gramps - Fiercely Independent, Retired, Widowed, Lives on his own, Suffers from Vertigo, Grandfather, Father and Father-In-Law Extraordinaire. While Gramps insists on living alone, his vertigo has gotten the best of him from time to time, which is why Jon and Lynn keep such a close eye on him (it's also the reason he has so many railings in his house). Until Virtual Halo, they called him each morning to check in, and Gramps got really annoyed by those calls. He wished they'd call to chat and be social instead of the obligatory call to make sure he was mobile. Now, with Virtual Halo's "I'm OK" feature, Gramps looks forward to the calls from his son and daughter-in-law; they're more meaningful.

Hazel - Rebellious Teen, Rockstar, Foodie, Novice Hacker, Lover of Board Games, Fluent in German, and loves Krankenwagens. Hazel hates to check in, never tells her parents when she gets home from school (or where she's going when she goes out), but she's a good kid. She's still a Daddy's Girl, she doesn't get into much trouble, but her parents worry about her. The world is a changing place and they want to give her the freedom she needs to be the person she is, but they both want to make sure she's ok.

When our Kickstarter goes live, you will learn how our Virtual Family have integrated Virtual Halo into their lives. Not as a burden, but as a seamless piece of technology that provides a greater peace of mind.

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Freedom vs. Personal Safety - Can We Have Both?

"Those who sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither." - Ben Franklin

Even before we started putting a single piece of code to the screen, personal privacty was important to us and this entire project. It's hard to go places and not be seen. There are surveylance cameras everywhere - on the streets, in stores, and at the entrances of most buildings. Over the years, we as global citizens, have incrementally given up our personal freedoms in an effort to be safe. The question is, do you feel safer?

Terrorism, abductions, kidnappings for ransome, natural disasters and emergencies, one thing after another has eroded our perception of how life should be versus how life is. And this is our new reality. Social media has continued to exasperate the problem, as billions of people globally now have the opportunity to "check in" and post their whereabouts online for everyone they know to see. And their friends, and their friends of friends, and the bad guys, and the government. Where does it stop? When will it stop? Probably never.

What we can do, and have set out to do since the beginning of our project was to put privacy controls in the hands of our users. We will not rent, sell, or give out personally identifiable information unless legally obligated to do so. People will not know where you are on an ongoing basis, unless you give them permission. As a company, we do not make assumptions on your behalf; the default settings are always set to "private" so your location is not broadcast. We believe in giving people the option, because that's what we would want.

A couple weeks ago, a wife of one of our collaborators got home from work early and she decided to go on a job. She didn't think to call or text her husband to let him know where she'd be, nor did she leave a note on the kitchen counter. She wanted to get a way for a few moments and unwind, simple as that. Twenty minutes later, and three miles from her home, she was laying in a culvert, 8 feet down an incline from the road because a car had ran her off the road. She was lucky; she hadn't hit her head and she was conscious. Her cell phone worked, but she couldn't gain solid footing, so she called her husband to come pick her up. Things could have been much different had she been unconscious and had her cell phone been thrown in a direction where she couldn't find it.

Luckily, it was just a sprained ankle. Had she used Virtual Halo, it would have alerted her husband when she wasn't back by the preset time that his wife had gone on a job, and from there, he could have started looking for her.

The premise for our technology is simple. We do not stream video or audio of events; we do not require you to constantly push and hold buttons. We let you live your life. Engage the app when you're doing an activity on your own and disengage it when you're secure. Get into trouble? Push the SOS button and help will be notified. Want more of an active presence in the case of emergencies? Subscribe to our monitoring service. We believe in security, but instead of securing tangible objects such as your house and things, secure what's priceless - you and your loved ones. After all, it's what freedom is about, living your life as you see fit, on your terms without being bound by restrictive measures.

For those of you interested in what Ben Franklin actually said, read this.

Crafting the Perfect Logo

Over the past several weeks our graphics design team has been working on our logo and other graphical elements of our app. Below, you can see some of the early riff's and the direction we're going down.  

When Time Matters, Convenience Is Key

I was reading the USA Today on Wednesday and came across an article that proves the point that Virtual Halo is a necessity. The news article was about a Tennessee woman that had been kidnapped by an ex-con with history of domestic violence; he smuggled the victim across state lines to a hotel near New Orleans and then raped, strangled and abused her. It was through her shear determination to survive that she's still alive - by texting her sister from the abuser's phone while he briefly stepped out of the room.

When in a compromising situation, time matters. You can't always pull out a cell phone to make a call or send a text; it's obvious and if you're in a bad situation, the perpetrator is not going to let the communication go through. By integrating notifications and location data into a subtle app that resides on a person's wearable device, such as an Apple Watch, had the victim described above been wearing one, two taps of the watch could have sent out a distress SOS to loved ones, letting them know that she was in trouble and where her last known location was.

The victim in this case was able to summon help. She was determined and that determination probably saved her life. She's lucky. 

To stay up to date on Virtual Halo and to have an opportunity to be a beta tester, give us your info here. Don't worry, we won't spam you.

Active vs. Passive Safety Tech

I believe that good tech should blend into the background. We shouldn't have to remember to do something, or bring something with us; that's unnatural and cumbersome. Heck, I'm lucky if I can get from the parking lot to my desk at the office without dropping something that I'm carrying - and usually, it's only a Starbucks iced coffee, a binder and my mobile phone!

People are great. When they hear about a new technology, they start to share with you about what's already out there in the marketplace. Some take the role of devils advocate, whereas most are trying to understand what you're trying to do with your new tech, and by doing this, they compare and contrast existing software and hardware devices to yours, hoping to gain a better understanding of what you're developing. That's exactly what I'm experiencing now with Virtual Halo. Just about everyone I discuss our app with has something to say about it. The vast majority has been really good feedback; and some sound like the animatronic man in Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland "It'll never work" he claims. Luckily, the science is sound, and Virtual Halo will work. And like Walt Disney, I have the determination to make it work.

I love when people tell me their thoughts on what I'm working on; it helps me be more creative and do a better job. Everyone needs a devils advocate; it keeps you on your toes. The adventure thus far has been amazing. And, the info passed on by my friends, family and colleagues has helped me get a broad view of the personal protection industry from a tech standpoint. The great news is that my invention, and the foundation on which Virtual Halo is being developed is unique. Sure, there are elements of tech that have been around a while, but we're looking to harness the capabilities of wearable and mobile technology in a way that makes notifying a users trusted network easy and convenient. In some cases, the user will need to initiate the communication, whereas in other instances, the technology is completely passive and will send notifications based on a series of events. Either way, its goal is to live in the background while protecting personal privacy and not tracking the individual so they can feel free and comfortable living their life.