If you already own a smartwatch, what would make you carry a second device for hiking safety?
Hi everyone,
I’m a college student currently building TrailGuard, a wearable safety and health-monitoring system designed specifically for hikers, trekkers, and outdoor adventurers.
The idea is to combine wearable sensors, location data, and a web/mobile system to help monitor safety during outdoor activities and provide alerts when something potentially dangerous happens.
But I’m questioning something important:
Apple Watch, Garmin, Samsung Galaxy Watch and other devices already provide GPS, health monitoring, fall detection, SOS and outdoor features.
So my question is:
Why would someone actually need TrailGuard?
I’m not looking for compliments—I want to find out whether this idea solves a real problem.
For people who hike/trek regularly:
* What safety problems have you personally experienced?
* What does your current smartwatch/phone fail to handle?
* Would you carry a dedicated safety device in addition to your phone/watch?
* What feature would make it genuinely worth carrying?
* What would make you not use it?
I’m still at the prototype stage, so your criticism could directly influence what I build next.
If you were designing this from scratch, what would you change?
Thanks in advance for any honest feedback.