Show HN: Emergency Wallet Cards
w.hutson.gy
w.hutson.gy
I also do innovative high tech things like tape a piece of paper with my email on it to the back of my kindle. That came in handy when I left it on the airplane, and the airline staff emailed me so I could get it back.
I suppose credit should go to my mom who'd sew a name tag into my clothes before dispatching me off to camp.
[1] https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2021-10/family-com...
It's scope creep for sure, but I'd love have a version of this for international travel that populates local consulate/embassy offices, visa numbers, airline, hotel numbers, and personal emergency medical info in the local language. I had a coworker that would make international travel wallet cards for folks traveling abroad - it was pretty cool.
How many people…
a.) Have a personal lawyer?
b.) Need to have said lawyer on speed dial?
c.) Also need to have the lawyer’s phone number memorized in case they don’t have some way to look up the number?
get an app or on the site, enter in some info..
an easy to remember 800 number that is answered 24/7..
the person who answers can unlock the info you saved via the app or web site - and call numbers for your X or your Y and even do it three-way / conference call.. and even call your Z or V after you hang up - to notify you've been detained or whatever.
I think people would pay for this, and it would be easy to freemium - as you could pre-roll a local bail bonds ad when called if freemium user..
I have some other ways to make this work even better with some added tech things.
could even have a set of info that is made available to paramedics / hospitals should they find your emergency card in wallet and such.
now I want to build this more, I'm guessing a premium phone number is not cheap these days, so keeping this in the ideas phase.
I too will often not answer the phone if it's an unfamiliar number, but I do answer if it's the local area code which is not the area code of my wife's and my phone numbers since I figure it's more likely to be something legitimate like a call from a school or a local business where maybe I've forgotten I had placed an order or left dry cleaning and my stuff is now ready. If she had this policy, I would have spent less time waiting to get the combination.
1 call: very likely spam; let it go to voicemail.
2 calls: Someone genuine is trying to reach me; let it go to voicemail. Listen to voicemail as soon as it arrives.
3 calls: emergency, pick up right away.
Exception: PagerDuty calls; pick up on first ring.
My wife is aware of this policy of mine. And I store kids’ school numbers in contacts.
A couple numbers I don't put in speed dial so I will remember them.
$dayjob gives us a mobile app from International SOS, although certainly I think there's room to make the app prettier / faster / more tolerant of spotty internet.
And this is a great idea (please consider adding an issue on GH); I think many will benefit from EWC using them in unfamiliar conditions such as traveling. I wonder what would be a good way to remind users to print an updated EWC before traveling.
- I suggest that you offer people the option to use long dates; 7th June 1980. When reading in a hurry a little redundancy can be helpful.
- abbreviations like DOB, ZIP, etc., are not necessarily universally understood.
- the address should be a free text multiline field to allow addresses to be written in the customary form in different countries. Not everyone has a house number or postal code.
As all the information is optional it would probably be useful to include a field for things like national ID numbers, social security numbers, etc. The point is that this number give emergency medical facilities a way to quickly access a person's medical records in some countries.
In fact, one of the reasons I chose to build an app around the PDF, instead of simply using PDF form fields, was to open up the possibility of rich customization. Maybe something like detecting locality preferences of the browser to customize the EWC form might be interesting.
(Also these are great suggestions, please feel free to open GH issues for them!)
So long as the user can override them. My browser language preference is en-gb but that does not mean that I want to use dd/mm/yyyy date formats. Also someone with a non-English browser preference might nonetheless prefer to use English as the language of the form if they travel outside their home country.
> feel free to open GH issues for them! Curses, now I have to do some work! :-)
I feel many people do not understand what stays in your browser does not equal the cloud.. especially since chromebooks became a thing.
Not sure they pay for sales - but a link to have it sent to a printer at the local office max.. not having a printer easily accessible p it's actually convenient to send-rmail-to-print.. I stop by there after picking up coffee and print a few sheets once in a while.. I guess some people would email it to another person for them to print for them..
This is functionality that could have been done simply by adding form fields to the PDF.
Use a "paper" made of flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers for extra credit! :-)
Cool idea though. At work (back in the day) we had little laminated pieces of paper crammed with important numbers, a new one every year. Came in quite handy. Having the access to the scarily high res Xerox printer I'd print out a little black book of friends phone numbers to always have around.
https://superuser.com/questions/1420058/how-does-a-dynamic-q...
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11065415/how-much-data-i...
Someone had to do it :)
I think Microsoft Publisher used to be the go-to tool for this type of document. Is there an online alternative that might be usable to make my own? Basically looking for formatting tools that can be used inside a series of rectangles of a constant height and width.
Tape or p-touch your name to the back of your phone (esp handy for people like me who always have to spell it) and somebody else's phone number (the number of someone who can help if something happens to you).
I include my email address too. Then if someone finds my phone, or me prostrate with my phone, they can get in touch with help.
Road ID is a good, more expensive option that exists too [1]. It is limited space, but they had (and May still have a URL service or phone where you enter your info online and first responders can get the full picture.
Marketing seems to have anniversary gifts in mind, but you can specify any text you want, obviously.
If that's not fulfilling 'nice', it's a pretty simple job for someone that can laser engrave, I wonder what Shapeways or similar would charge for a credit card sized sheet of something, engraved with the info for example.