Modify the function of the "Accept Alarm" button

[jbmalfilattre]

Currently the OSD interface in version 5.0.6 of the phone near the epileptic person shows three buttons:

Accept Alarm
Mute Alarms
Raise Alarm

The manual "Raise Alarm" option makes sense; in case of a problem the epileptic person can call for help, even if the problem is not an epileptic seizure.

The "Mute Alarms" should only mute the phone on which the button is pressed, even if the phones are latched (please correct me if I am mistaken here again...).

I suggest its functionality to be slightly different:
The "Mute Alarm" button only mutes the audible alarm on the current phone where that button is pressed. All visual alarms are still displayed on both phones, even if the 10 minutes of muted time are not yet finished. A diminished audible alarm on the carers phone is still triggered during the muted period of the phone (see point 3).

The text on the button "Accept Alarm" should be changed to "False Alarm" on the phone near the epileptic person.
On the carer's phone the text of the button should remain unchanged as "Accept Alarm" and its functionality should also remain unchanged.

Imagine the following scenarios:

1. The epileptic person accidentally triggers a false alarm. By pressing the "False Alarm" button within the time specified within the "Fault Timer Duration", no alarm is triggered on the carer's phone.

2. The epileptic person has set the "Mute Alarm" button, and runs a task (e. g. using a hammer or a drill) that could trigger a false alarm. All warnings are suppressed, but a false alarm triggers the alarm sound after the time specified in "Fault Timer Duration" plus "Alarm Timer Duration". Upon hearing that alarm sound, the epileptic person now has the same amount of time again ("Fault Timer Duration" plus "Alarm Timer Duration") to press the "False Alarm" button to prevent that false alarm being sent to the carer. Failure to do that will send the regular alarm to the carer, even within the 10 minutes muted period. This could help to detect real seizures during those 10 minutes as well.

3. The carer has activated the "Mute Alarm" button. The epileptic person triggers a real alarm during those 10 minutes. Instead of no sound at all, only a muted acoustic warning is sounded. So the carer can also keep the phone out of sight (i. e. during a conference or a phone call etc.) and would still be notified if the epileptic person has a seizure during that muted period.

The proposed changes would need no changes of any parameters, but are supposed to improve the button logic and reduce the possibility of not being notified during a muted period.

Apologies if those suggestions are already available in this version, but I have simply not found them or mis-configured the phones.

[jones139]

Thanks for reporting this - I need to update the documentation to clarify what these are for.

• With the default configuration (latch alarms is off), the Accept Alarm button should be hidden as it has no effect.
• The idea of the Mute Alarms button is to completely stop the system generating alarms - it is for if you are going to do something that you know will set it off (brush teeth etc.), you can press that button and it disables the system for a fixed period, but will not generate FAULT alarms (which would be the case if you just switched off the system altogether and someone was monitoring the system with Network Datasource.
• The idea of the Latch Alarms option is that by default the system only generates alarm sounds while there is continued shaking. If the seizure-like movement stops, the alarm will reset. If you enable Latch Alarms, then once the system alarms, it will continue to generate alarms sounds until you press the 'Accept Alarm' button on the screen (I think it works via network data source too). So the 'Accept Alarm' button is part of the 'Latch Alarms' function.
• The nearest we have to a 'False Alarm' button is the 'Mute' button which will stop further alarms being generated, and the 'Send False Alarm SMS' menu option, which is intended to make it easy to say that an alert was a false alarm when you are using SMS alarms.
  Does that make sense?
  Thanks
  Graham.

[jbmalfilattre]

Thank you for helping me to comprehend those functions. Here is my (layman-) understanding of your points:

• If a person has "Mute" activated, then for 10 minutes that person is "off limits", i. e. if a real seizure occurs during those 10 minutes, then the carer is not receiving an alarm?
  If the person needs emergency medication within e. g. 5 minutes, then this medication might not be given within that period of time?

• If the "Latch Alarms" option is enabled, the carer and people in e. g. neighbouring rooms will continuously hear the alarm (even if the shaking has stopped after e. g. 30 seconds) and could apply the emergency medication? And pressing the "Accept Alarm" button will stop the alarm on both phones?

• If the epileptic person has triggered an alarm on an un-latched phone (i. e. no "Accept Alarm" button) by accident, pressing the "Mute" button will stop the alarm on both phones and so inform the carer that no help is required, because it was a false alarm?

I'm still not entirely sure I have fully understood what exactly an epileptic person should do on the phone (latched or un-latched) to stop the (false) alarm and at the same time let the carer know that this was indeed a false alarm?
I am thinking of the problem described in issue #243; so only the "Accept Alarm" option on a latched phone would do that - and if the carer has already pressed that "Accept Alarm" button before the epileptic person, then there is no way to mark that as a false alarm, except via SMS? Sorry if I am a bit daft here...

Regarding the SMS function; I am currently testing an option to make the OSD emit an emergency message to bystanders (.mp3 file) and at the same time sending an SMS to the carer. The carer calls the phone of the (unconscious) epileptic person, the phone automatically accepts the incoming call and switches to speakerphone at 100% volume. The carer then instructs the bystanders that the epileptic person carries the emergency medication around the neck - and how to apply it. The idea is to allow the epileptic person to be occasionally in public, without the need of a carer to be permanently present at all time.

[jones139]

Very nearly correct:

• If Mute is active there should be no alarms generated (Except Alarm thrown in mute mode when HR fault detected or watch disabled #247, which I'll fix!) (you are correct)
• If Latch Alarms is enabled, the alarm will sound indefinitely* until Accept Alarm is pressed on either phone (* I think there might be a selectable timeout, so it might not be indefinite...but a long time) (so you are correct)
• If an alarm is triggered on an un-latched phone by accident, the easiest way to stop it is to stop moving and it will reset in about 5 seconds. The function of pressing 'Mute' after an alarm is triggered is more to stop it sending SMS messages - the alarm will already have sounded, and presumably reset before you can press the 'Mute' button.

We do not have a 'false alarm' notification option - the nearest there is is the 'False Alarm' SMS menu option I don't really think of 'Accept Alarm' as being about telling someone it is a false alarm - for me it is about silencing the alarm irrespective of whether it was real or false alarm.

I'm not sure how you are planning on answering the phone automatically? I think it is technically possible to do this in an app, but it is regarded as a 'Dangerous' permission to grant by Google because of the potential privacy issues - I managed to persuade them that sending SMS messages without user intervention was necessary, and that was difficult - answering a call automatically is a more serious privacy concern, so I expect that would be more of an issue (See https://www.openseizuredetector.org.uk/phone-call-alerts/)

That is how it is intended to work now - please can you clarify what you think needs to be changed?

[jbmalfilattre]

Thank you for your additional information. Here is what I have set up now with the currently available functionality:

• Epileptic persons phone: Latched, and set up to trigger an alarm after 10 seconds of "Warning" beeps. The alarm will automatically stop after 60 seconds using the "Latch Alarm Timer Duration" parameter. After 60 seconds everyone in the vicinity should know about the emergency, and provide assistance if possible.
  If this was a false alarm, then the epileptic person can stop the alarm on both phones during this period at any time by pressing the "Accept Alarm" button.

• Carers phone: no warnings will be audible, only the alarms will sound. The normal process would be that the carer stops the alarm with the "Accept Alarm" button on both phones, and proceeds to assist the epileptic person.
  The alarm on the carers phone will stop automatically after 240 seconds; if the "Accept Alarm" button has not been used to stop the alarm within 4 minutes (i. e. no assistance has been provided) it is too late, and the only remaining task after that period is to call 999.

Let me know if you see any possible improvements of that setup, otherwise feel free to close the issue - and thanks again for your relentless work.

The "Automatic answering" works like this:

• Epileptic person has a seizure outside of the WiFi range
• SMS is sent to the carer
• Instead of the usual alarm sound, an .mp3 file is played from the phone of the epileptic person; a calm voice informs the bystanders about what is going on, what to do to assist, and that a medical person will ring this smartphone immediately
• The carer receives the SMS and calls the smartphone of the epileptic person
• That smartphone automatically accepts that call (if the number of the caller is on a pre-defined list), switches to speaker-mode and turns the speaker volume up to 100%
• The carer can now advise the bystanders on how to apply the emergency medication, which the (unconscious) epileptic person carries around the neck.

The app we are currently testing for this process is called "MacroDroid". The required permissions are "Phone", "Notifications" and "Call Logs" and it is available in the PlayStore.
We have carried out some preliminary tests, and it works surprisingly well. Below is a screenshot of it, with our testing setup visible: