AU2018102062A4 - Accompanyme - Google Patents

Abstract

ACCOMPANYME is a smartphone application (app) designed to improve safety, in particular Women's' safety, in the public realm. It allows any person to be accompanied from where they are to any point they nominate, either by walking or any other authorised means including a motor vehicle, by a pre-verified authorised person via an electronically recorded agreement. The person offering the accompanied journey (the "Provider") will register to use the app. This registration would include the supply of standard identification details that allow them to be verified and located if necessary after any accompanied travel as described below. Upon registration, an ID number and photograph is searchable on the App. A person wanting to use the app as a user rather than a provider of accompanied transport can also register and supply relevant details.

Description

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT

ACCOMPANYME

The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:

JOHN JOYNER

MORNINGTON VIC 3931

AUSTRALIA

2018102062 31 Dec 2018

SMARTPHONE APPLICATION - ACCOMPANYME

ACCOMPANYME is a smartphone application (app) designed to improve safety, in particular Women's' safety, in the public realm.

It allows any person to be accompanied from where they are to any point they nominate, either by walking or any other authorised means including a motor vehicle, by a pre-verified authorised person via an electronically recorded agreement.

HOW TO JOIN

The person offering the accompanied journey (the Provider) will register to use the app. This registration would include the supply of standard identification details that allow them to be verified and located if necessary after any accompanied travel as described below. Upon registration, an ID number and photograph is searchable on the App.

A person wanting to use the app as a user rather than a provider of accompanied transport can also register and supply relevant details.

For the provider, this could (but need not) be supplemented with a working with children check as commonly issued by DOJ Victoria and the ID number could also be used to search the app' when a person makes a request for accompanied travel.

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

The person offering an accompanied journey can make this offer in any of the following ways:

• Immediate or prearranged encounter with another person or group - such as a party or conference gathering. You meet someone, they need an accompanied journey, each party follows the offer and acceptance” steps on the app as described below.

• This person can also log on at the start of their own journey such as a trip on public transport, and their availability, including intended destination, can be displayed on the app and can be coordinated with a person who they meet up with at a prearranged point such as a train station entry.

• Public buildings or other places can have a signed accompanyme meeting spot where travel to a spot such as a car park or public transport stop can be arranged.

• The ID number could also be included on existing dating apps. This can then be searched on the accompanyme app which will provide the person with the facial ID match and a rating (see ratings below). It will not give their name or other details but will confirm that they at least have a clean criminal history with no record of violence or harassment. Or additional criteria as deemed necessary to obtain a card. So the interested person can have at least have an initial assurance that the other is not an immediate safety risk.

OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE

Once contact is established, the process for securing an agreed accompanied trip are as follows (the person requesting (the user) is termed she” and the person offering (the provider) is termed he” simply for ease of discussion - but anyone can help anyone else regardless of gender):

A person in any situation they want safe passage from, can ask another person if they are registered. He could be wearing an ID pin with an A or other registered symbol or can be searched on the app

2018102062 31 Dec 2018 if they are logged on. If they offer their ID number, she can search it on the app through her phone and bring up his detail. Or if she enters a desired destination, the app will identity providers in proximity also travelling to that destination or part thereof.

Only ID number and ID photo are displayed through the app - although registered details are recorded for review by police should this be subsequently required.

The user can then request a range of assistance from this identified person through the app. This could include accompanied passage from starting Point A (origin) to point B (Destination) a specified distance from her car or other safe point). Origin and destination are recorded as part of the request. It can also include such parameters as:

• Ok to Talk / Do not talk • Keep minimum separation distance of X metres at all times (her choice) • Immediate stop and depart on request. (My car is in sight-you stop here. He would however be allowed to wait until he can see that she is in her car and safely departed).

Once these parameters are tapped into the app, the request passes and is recorded through the server and the provider is sent the request through his phone.

On receiving the request, he can review the above terms of the request. If acceptable - he can tap '7 accept. This includes acceptance of the journey as a non-consensual event as described below. If she thinks the picture on the ID is a bit old or otherwise not quite right, she can take photo of him on the spot and add it in to the request.

Once he taps '7 accept His acceptance is then sent back to the user who then finalises the request by tapping “good to go. This is logged with the server, and on her phone and also the phone of any designated person she nominates. The journey can then commence.

The journey ends when each party taps finished. Any picture she took is retained for 24 hours in the server and then deleted. Part of closing the request is the nomination of a rating of the journey by each party. As origin and destination are pre-recorded, the app does not necessarily have to record the journey in real time via GPS, although this option can be requested by the user.

This offer and acceptance process adds important value over and above simply taking someone's' picture and sending it to a friend. This process, including the terms and conditions of using the app, then make the journey a deemed non-consensual event.

This process allows ambiguity around consent to be legally removed for the duration of the journey. He cannot say we got to talking and one thing led to another. Her consent to any action on his part is legally removed prior to commencing the journey.

SCENARIOS FOR USE

Common scenarios for using the app could include the following:

• A pair of registered accompanyme students volunteer an hour a week at their university. On the half-hour, they will walk from the library to the car park / bus stop and can be accompanied by whoever wants to log on through the app and join in. This would be a registered event as described above. Additional safety is built in with better women to men ratio.

2018102062 31 Dec 2018 • Registration of the first date, or a blind date on the app. They both tap on to start and tap on to finish. Even if he offers her a drink at random, she can ask him to tap on.

• Ona train or bus, a woman could log in a request for a walk from the platform to the car park prior to her stop. A registered accompanyme user could either be waiting at a designated point with a sign on the platform, or he could be sent the request while he is on the train.

• Conversely, a woman can make a request before she gets on the train. A man who is going to the same stop (or most of the way at least) can arrange to sit two rows behind. If the woman is approached in an untoward way, the man can hit a similar code red button (see below) which tracks the spot and alerts PSO's.

• A venue / nightclub can have a designated accompanyme stop signed at the entry, with journeys commenced in view of the bouncers.

How do people get involved?

Once he has his ID issued, an accompanyme user or provider can log on or log off like an uber driver. This can be on immediate request, or he can log on in advance, such as when approaching a train station to start a journey. He could volunteer at public buildings and events.

As discussed, a woman can help a woman and a man can help a man. But the main initiative is intended to address the power imbalance against women in the public realm.

SAFETY FEATURES AND SAFEGUARDS

Mutual feedback / Rating

Mutual feedback can be provided like an uber trip. If he misbehaves or steps outside of the parameters (including any attempt to charge for his services), he can be given negative feedback which will show up on his next request. Depending on the circumstance, he can be removed from the app.

Conversely, he can build up a good rating with repeated exemplary behaviour. To become an authorised vehicular user, he will in fact have been required to be registered for at least 12 months and have maintained a high rating. This is what would be available when searched on the app headshot and rating. No other details.

Deemed non-consent

There would also be deemed non-consent as described above. Any trip on the app is a legally deemed non-consensual event. He can't say oh we got to talking and one thing led to another. He accepts when he taps on that she has already not consented to anything as a precondition of the trip. He accepts at the start that she wants safe passage and absolutely nothing else. At least you have the by tapping on I accept the terms and conditions including the absence of any consent to any action on my part”.

Safe word activation

At any point in the journey, she can hit (or voice-activate with her own chosen safe-word” ) a red alert” button on her phone at any time (Car or pedestrian) which then alerts the police who can immediately track both phones and/or call his phone.

2018102062 31 Dec 2018

Graduate to vehicular use

Initially, this concept is for walking and accompanied public transport only, but car trips could be involved if additional security layers are built in. The registered travel companion would have had to be on the app for at least a year and have maintained a certain minimum rating to be an authorised vehicular user.

At least the same safety toolbox could be provided as for example Uber with trip details sent to prenominated third party. Tapping in the Registration of the car as part of request, and GPS tracking through the app can make this procedure at least as safe, or far safer, than Uber, Airbnb or Tinder. We go into stranger's cars and houses and have random sexual encounters on the strength of, in safety terms, far less.

Limited Liability

For the person offering an accompanied journey, the converse protection offered to the deeming of non-consent is that he would have an effective waiver of liability. It is acknowledged that there would be only so much he could do if confronted by a larger group of men.

Claims (1)

1. The claims defining the invention are as follows:

   • That it is a smartphone application providing facial identification via a photograph and an Identification number of a provider to a user, for the purpose of securing safe accompanied travel, by pedestrian or other means from any starting point to any other point.

   • That it establishes recorded and verifiable details of the provider and the user, should any travel encounter require subsequent review by relevant authorities. These details are otherwise not known to the user or provider, who can only access a photograph, an identification number, and via this number, a rating of the provider.

   • That it establishes a process of offer, acceptance and joint agreement to commence a journey, with identified terms and parameters of travel that separate it from simply meeting someone, sending a picture of them to a friend via a phone and hoping for the best. In particular, it removes ambiguity regarding consent via the terms of the offer and acceptance process which remove consent from the transaction.

   Innovation Patent - Variations to current technology

   ACCOMPANYME is lodged as an Innovation Patent as it is similar in format, while at the same time providing important variations in purpose, process, functionality and outcome, to both current applications known as Uber and Tinder. These are discussed in the claims as outlined below.

   Uber.

   Uber uses GPS location to connect a person offering vehicular transportation to a person seeking such transportation. An Accompanyme provider can log on and log off in similar fashion to an Uber Driver. By variation however, an Accompanyme provider can be identified through wearing a lapel pin and can agree to a request for accompanied travel with by a user who they have met in any social situation prior to logging on, although the offer and acceptance process as previously described must then be completed.

   While private vehicular transportation can eventually be offered via ACCOMPANYME, with a similar safety toolbox function to protect the user, it is firstly and primarily for pedestrian travel (walking not driving) and accompanied travel on public transport, as opposed to Uber which is only for private vehicular use.

   To this end, unlike an Uber driver who is offering transport to any destination when they log on , an ACCOMPANYME provider will provide their current intended destination (such as a train station stop) as part of their log-on process. This then can be used to link with a user travelling to the same destination or relevant segment of that journey.

   Unlike Uber, ACCOMPANYME is a volunteer service and any attempt to charge for service will be deemed contrary to the terms of use. The offer and acceptance process will include an agreement to make no attempt to charge for service before the provider can tap I accept

   2018102062 31 Dec 2018

   Unlike Uber, a registered ACCOMPANYME journey does not have to be recorded by GPS - as origin and destination are pre-recorded details this may be deemed sufficient for safety purposes and additional GPS recording is at the option of the user.

   Tinder

   Tinder also uses GPS location to identify through facial identification two users in functional proximity who wish to meet. ACCOMPANYME also provides facial ID to the user and connects two parties in functional proximity, but also provides the following variations to this format:

   • A verifiable ID number and rating which can in fact be offered to and used within Tinder and other dating Apps' to verify the standing of the person one is looking at, confirming by their ACCOMPANYME rating that they are not an initial safety risk.

   • A variation in purpose - the intent of the contact is solely for safe accompanied travel, not for a date or other encounter.

   • A more detailed offer and acceptance process which allows the user to set the terms and parameters of the encounter - which in this case is travel from a starting point to an end point. ACCOMPANYME also has a defined starting and ending time set by the users.

   • ACCOMPANYME also includes the establishment of legal non-consent by the user as an important safety feature that distinguishes it from simply taking a photo of someone and sending it to a friend - which still leaves the issue of consent open to interpretation. ACCOMPANYME removes this ambiguity.