I get lots of press releases about how something can saves lives and normally, its a borderline case, but I think this app really could.  And as a motorcyclist, I may install this and keep it running in the background 24/7.

UPDATE:  the app is now $0.99 in the store and there are two new features.

* Includes walking/jogging mode

* A Visual alert

The app is called Mayday Light developed by Meidad Pariente. The basic premise of this app is to monitor the phone GPS and accelerometers to detect non standard moment. For example, if you are doing 30mph, then suddenly drop to near 0 mph in a non linear manner, it would alert you for 1 min and if you do not respond, it will send out 5 emails with your position.  You can check out the video at the end of this post for a demo.

If the algorithms are set up correctly on this app the odds of a false alarm are pretty unlikely, however for a motorcycle rider, it may be a bit harder to detect.  If you are riding, and say slide out from a turn or wet payment, 1 of two things will happen; you will slide to a stop, or you will tumble to a stop. If you tumble I’m guessing the app will detect this.  If you slide, then this could look like a quick stop as far as the phone is concerned.  Video at the end of post. I have no intentions of testing this.   More from the creator….

When “MayDay Light” is activated on the user’s iPhone, it samples the onboard GPS and accelerometers to monitor the velocity and acceleration of the vehicle it is driving in via a simple but effective algorithm, and which can detect the characteristic indications of an accident with little chance of a false alarm.

As soon as “Mayday Light” detects that that an event has occurred which could be an accident, it sets off an alarm which will operate for 1 minute, during which time the automatic reporting can be reset thus preventing unnecessary nuisance accident emails.  After the minute has elapsed, the email messages with the pre-prepared text will be sent to the email addresses which have been prepared in advance by the user