Design and Development of an Incident Reporting Mobile Application

Abstract

Reporting actual incidents through short messaging systems and telephone calls are tedious,prone to errors and misinterpretations. Developing a mobile application that can be utilized totransmit incident type, location, and images among other details can provide assistance inemergency situations. The software development method followed in this study was theprototyping model, where initial versions of the software were shown to the end users for it tobe refined to their needs. The target users of the mobile application are a group of 38Adventist motorcycle riders from Silang, Cavite, Philippines who are trained to be firstresponders. Interviews with end users and benchmarking on related systems were conductedto meet results. The end users’ feedback on the developed application can be summarized ashaving high accuracy, less prone to errors, and ease-of-use. Through Global PositioningSystems available on modern smart phones, reporting a specific incident location can be asaccurate as within five meters. The report receiver can view the location in a map.Minimizing text entry and utilizing control elements not only improve reporting time but alsoreduce chances of committing errors. Further, the application can provide map location andcontact information of the emergency facilities near the incident site. Reported information isalso centrally stored for references to improve response processes. Once substantial data isgathered from this system, it can be data-mined to predict possible hotspots, peak times andother information on the occurrences of incidents. To implement the system to a largergeographical territory, the proponents suggest employing artificial intelligence which canautomatically identify and request help from the nearest possible medical facilities.