Skyguard has announced it will showcase the UK’s smallest personal safety and tracking device at the 2011 Safety and Health Expo, held at Birmingham’s NEC between 17th and 19th May.

The "MySOS” key-fob sized device developed by Skyguard, weighs just 40 grams and is small enough to be conveniently and discretely worn as a pendant, or attached to a bunch of keys.

Certified to the code of practice for the provision of lone worker device services (BS 8484), the MySOS uses GPS and GPRS technologies to transmit it’s location to Skyguard’s Incident Management Centre (IMC) - the first single purpose Alarm Receiving Centre in the UK to be certified to the highest industry standards; BS 8484, BS 5979 (Cat II), and ISO 9001.

To initiate an alarm the user simply presses the SOS button, and within seconds the device will connect to Skyguard’s IMC. Here, trained controllers will have all the relevant details of the user; who they are, where they are, and what action to take in an emergency. This could be contacting the Emergency Services, individuals within their organisation, or summoning Skyguard’s 1,000 vehicle strong National Response service, and directing them to your location. The MySOS also features two way audio, allowing the controller to listen-in to the device’s surroundings and talk to the user, if it’s safe to do so.

All the user’s personal details which the Skyguard controllers see during an alarm, can be managed and updated in real-time, 24/7, via Skyguard’s secure online customer portal. There is also a full suite of reports available, include mapping software which shows where devices are and the location of alarms that have been activated. The system is so flexible devices can be shared between multiple users and allocated to employees at just the click of a button within the online customer portal.

For organisations wishing to manage alarm activations themselves, the device can be configured to send it’s location via a text message containing a web link to a map, to a nominated contact’s mobile phone, followed by a 2 way voice call.

Irrespective to whether the alarm is connected to Skyguard’s service or managed by a nominated contact, an innovative tracking feature unique to the MySOS can also be enabled. Called On-demand Position Request, the feature allows nominated mobile phones to request the device’s location on a map by simply sending it a text message.

The MySOS can also be used as a mobile phone by pressing one of the two speed dial buttons which will call the pre-programmed emergency contact numbers.

Will Murray, Skyguard’s Marketing Director commented, "Our MySOS product is the smallest and lightest personal safety device available in the UK, providing lone workers and vulnerable individuals highly-effective protection in an easy to use, discrete package. The feedback we’ve had from customers using the product has been very encouraging, with its compact size making it ideal for a huge range of applications.”

Prices start from just £8 per month, with the device and SIM card included free as part of the Skyguard service subscription.

Visit Skyguard on stand T62 in Hall 2 of the Safety & Health Expo, to see demonstrations of the MySOS device and a number of special offers.

Click here to register for free tickets to the Safety & Health expo.