CUFF Personal Security Device

As the Executive Director of Personal Defense Network, obviously, I try to keep up with all of the latest security gadgets or safety tools that are available to the public. But I'm also a consumer of these products. I'm very interested in anything that'll help me keep myself or family members safe, and one of the coolest new devices I've come across is this Cuff personal security device. Now, this is advertised as something that lets you know where your loved ones are, lets you contact them in an emergency, and most importantly, lets you call for help when you may need it. Now, this is a two-step process. This isn't one of those, you know, if you call down and can't get up, you push it, and, immediately, the emergency response personnel are notified. This is a communication device that will communicate with those that you put on a trusted contact list and let them know that you need their attention, maybe that you need help. It works in a couple of different ways. One of the things that it can do is transmit your location, but it also can open up all of the audio capabilities, the microphone, on your smartphone. So imagine for a second that you get grabbed, you get abducted, or you get caught in a situation where there's an armed robbery going on or a hostage situation, well, you can surreptitiously push in on this device, and when you hold it for two to three seconds, it's going to vibrate, let you know that it's been activated and send out a signal to everyone you've programmed into your contact list. It's also gonna open up the microphone on your smartphone. So, if your smartphone is in your pocket, on the floor, it may be just in your hand, while you're pushing this bracelet device, while you're pushing a keychain device, now, the microphone is open, and someone's gonna be able to figure out whether or not you need help, and they can even call 911 right from the app that shows up on their smartphone or they can dial 911 if they receive a text message. Now, that sounds like a lot of steps, but if you think about it, if you're isolated and you're alone, this is a better option than just screaming for help or hoping that you can fight your way out of a situation, and while you may be able to fight your way out of a situation, if you're like me, you have people you're concerned about, including kids, that may not be as capable in terms of self-defense, personal defense, making that counter-ambush decision happen in the heat of the moment, and you're gonna wanna be able to help them if you can, and that's what this device is all about. So, I got in on the ground floor, this is one of those Internet deals, like, you know, invest in this company, and, a few months later, you might hear from us, and I just got these in, we just started experimenting with them. The Cuff device itself is incredibly lightweight, it's very small. It can be slipped into a variety of different pieces of jewelry, obviously, most of the target market for this kind of device are doing to be female, it's gonna be the men buying this for the women. If I were to give this to my wife, if I were to give this to my daughters, I'd put it inside of this bracelet, I could put it inside of a pendant, we could put it inside of this kind of sport-band-looking thing that looks like one of the fitness bands that tracks your movement throughout the day, relatively simple to do. You put this little kind of decorative cover on it, and you slip it into place inside of the bracelet, and you're pretty much ready to go. Now, at that point, you open up the app, and you're gonna program in your contacts. Once you program in your contacts and you pair the device with the Cuff and your smartphone, now you can see, I've got a couple of contacts here. Now, who do I have, I have our producer, and I have my wife programmed in here. Relatively new device, so we don't have a lot of contacts programmed in there. Now, I've got my producer's phone sitting here, and what you're gonna see is exactly what happens when this is activated. Now, chances of me wearing this bracelet around, pretty slim and none, right, and most of us aren't gonna wanna do that, most of us guys aren't gonna be wearing a flashy bracelet or maybe even a fitness band or the pendant, but there's also other ways to attach this. I can put this on a keychain, I can leave it black, I can just slip it in there and pretty innocuous, nobody's gonna have any idea, really, what this is. If I put that in place here and I think about having this in my pocket, I get into a situation where, for whatever reason, maybe I'm traveling, maybe on an airplane for whatever reason, I don't have a firearm, or I'm in a situation where I can't take action without potentially making things worse, well, if I can surreptitiously activate this device, hold it down for two to three seconds, I'm gonna feel the vibration, I can release it, obviously, the app is open, so it would tell me I'm sending an alert now, wherever that is. The sound is coming from Layne's phone, there's no sound on my device at this point. He would go through whatever process, he'd see Alert, Rob Pincus needs your help, he goes through his process to open this up, and when he gets to the Alert, what he's gonna see is, immediately, the screen opens up, takes him to a map of my location, little red light shows up, tells him exactly where I am, and this is our studio location, this is where we're taping today, he can call me, he can call 911, he can get directions, and right away, I'm gonna get an alert over here, let's say that I get out of the situation or whatever it may be, and I find out that, if I look at this alert, I can cancel it, I had an audio stream going, Layne gets another notification, he now knows that everything's fine, I've canceled the alert. So, this can be a great way to communicate. One of the other things that you can see here is a buzz was sent out. So, a buzz was sent out to my wife earlier when we were taking the device. A buzz is simply my way with the app of letting the person wearing the Cuff know that, hey, I'm worried about you, I want you to check in, maybe you're late for an appointment, maybe I just haven't seen where you were for a while, I'm worried about you. Now, this can be great for your kids, right? You don't know where your kids are, you send them one of these buzzes, this vibrates, all they have do to is hold it back down, and boom, the alert's gonna open up, and it's gonna show them the map. Now, this, of course, is gonna require some communication between you and them. Maybe it's better that they never send an alert unless it's a true emergency, and when they get the vibration, they're simply gonna check the app, realize you asked them to check in, pick up their phone, or send you a text message, let you know everything's all right. The Cuff device is new, and it's something that I'm experimenting with and trying to figure out how it really fits into our family's security plan. It may fit into your family's security plan as well. Prior to using the Cuff, I also experimented with a device called a Tile that we were trying to use for tracking as well, put it in the kids' backpack, put it in a vehicle, and the proximity to the app is really important with that one. The nice thing about the Cuff is that it acts independently from the app, you don't need to have the smartphone around, of course, it's more versatile if you do have it, but in an emergency situation, you get separated from everything else, you hit this button, it sends an alert, lets people know that you might needs some help. The Cuff device and devices like it are new technology, it's not something you wanna depend on 100%, but it's definitely something worth considering. I suggest that you keep an eye on the advances that technology's bringing to help us keep ourselves and those we care about safer and more secure at all times, even if we're not around.