The Project
Network Rail has a group of employees, Lone Workers, who work away from their main offices, often at remote sites, on their own. These are mainly Field Engineers who when working alone have to dial into a department in Head Office and say how long they will be on the job, provide a contact number, and contact the department when they have finished the work, for safety reasons.
The department in Head Office in return have to call the Lone Worker every 30 minutes to ensure they are ok. If they get no response, they have to send someone out to check the Lone Worker's safety. Sometimes there are up to 100 people working alone in a day which can result in too many calls to manage. Sometimes calls get missed either by the department or the Field Engineer. Field Engineers also need to be warned if lightning or other adverse weather conditions is expected in the vicinity they are working in.
The idea behind the LoneWorker PoC is to develop an app on the Microsoft Band the senses in an innovative way to modernize the process and ensure the safety and wellbeing of the Field Worker. The app will gather health data such as heart rate, skin temperature, and GPS data and Lone Workers under emergency conditions can send a panic alarm that sends these information to the Head Office
Our Clients
Our Primary client is Microsoft, who are looking to build new applications for their wearable Microsoft Band platform. We will also be working on this project with our secondary clients, Network Rail. Network Rail is a state-owned company which is the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales.