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What is a Personal Alarm System?

A Personal Alarm (PA) is also known in the literature by many other names, some of which include ‘Personal Portable Alarm’, ‘Body Alarm’, ‘Panic Alarm’, and ‘Emergency Alarm’. A PA is a device carried by a person to signal for assistance in an emergency situation. Many methods of communicating an alarm to others are familiar to those in the alarm industry. Some devices create a loud sound to attract nearby persons and perhaps to scare off a potential attacker. Some emit chemicals such as pepper spray. In larger systems, PA’s transmit a signal, such as an infrared or an ultrasonic or a radio frequency or microwave signal or some combination of these signals, with or without an audible signal. The transmitted signals typically arrive at one or more receiving devices. The receiving devices and a communications are part of a system to notify others that the person needs assistance. The typical configuration of an alarm system is illustrated in the drawing below.
The methods of communicating the alarm from the receiving device to its final destination are many and varied, and most methods are familiar to the alarm industry. Some examples are telephone networks, wireless networks, satellite networks, commercial wired and/or wireless networks and proprietary wired and/or wireless networks.

The notification message from the PA might include sufficient information to determine the identification and/or the location of the person needing assistance. Personal Alarms may also provide a signal to the user that the device has been activated. This may include one or more of an audible sound (if a loud sound is not used as an alarm signaling method), a vibration of the device, and a light source of some form.

Who needs protection?

Personal Alarm systems might protect persons who are at risk of being assaulted. Prison guards and students and nurses walking to cars in dark parking lots at night are two examples of persons who might use such systems. Persons working alone in areas where they might become injured and persons with medical conditions are others who might use personal portable alarms to signal for assistance.
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