Mobile alert technology company Rave Wireless introduced Rave Guardian, a personal safety tool that lets students use their mobile phone to instantly share location and critical safety information with campus security.

Rave Guardian will be available later this spring to all students at participating universities on any mobile phone or service provider of a student's choice. The new Rave Guardian is an extension of Rave Alert, the company's existing mobile phone safety service, which lets campus administrators send multi-modal broadcast text, email and recorded voice alerts to the entire campus or select groups.

"Our solution has two pieces," said Raju Rishi, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Rave Wireless, New York. "Outbound communication is through the Rave Alerts system, where the school can notify parents and students in case of an emergency.

"The Rave Guardian allows university students to communicate with campus security, allowing for a sense of safety," he said. "Also, it's open to any carrier as opposed to being restricted to the dominant carriers."

Rave Guardian is a tool for both students and campus security.

For example, a student walking across campus late at night can activate the Rave Guardian timer directly from a mobile phone when feeling uncomfortable or unsafe. When the student reaches the planned destination safely, he or she deactivates the Guardian timer and campus police will not be alerted.

If a student hits the Rave Guardian panic button or the timer expires prior to deactivation, however, campus police are immediately notified.

If the student uses a carrier that provides GPS data access, Rave Guardian will automatically display the student's location on a big-screen console in the campus safety center or on Windows Mobile devices for officers in the field. This lets campus police know when a student needs help and to respond to the situation quickly and with better data.

The University of Colorado at Boulder used Rave Alert this school year to protect students immediately following a campus stabbing. After seeing the value of the university's emergency notification system, 8,000 additional students voluntarily signed up for broadcast alerts in just a few days.

"The mobile phone has become like a pair of keys -- you never leave home without it," Mr. Rishi said. "It's always charged and always on at any given moment. Having this type of device in pocket is instrumental for increasing the security of campuses and students."