beacon
Overview
Inspired by Tony Stark's "phone home" system in Iron Man 3, beacon is a php-based twilio application which sends distress messages to a list of contacts. Call your personal beacon (a Twilio-provided phone number), enter your pin, and record your message. Contacts receive a call with your emergency recording as well as a download link via SMS.
Natural disasters, terrorist attacks and smaller emergencies could all be made more bearable with the help of something like beacon. Hell, it's an easily configurable way to get a message out to any large group of people.
Set-up
Setting up beacon is dead simple. Rename beacon.ini.temp to beacon.ini and fill out your config. Point your Twilio voice request URL to the intro.php file and you're all set.
beacon is entirely configurable via the beacon.ini file. It uses the Twilio and bit.ly API for link shortening. Set your API keys, messages and authcode and you're set to go.
Config file
[application]
dial_in_auth_code = "1111"
application_root = "http://www.peterk.co/beacon/"
call_text = "Peter left you a message. It will loop continuously until you hang up."
sms_text = "Listen to Peter's message. &url"
[twilio]
api_sid = "twilioSid"
api_token = "twilioToken"
authd_phone = "XXXXXXXXXX"
[emergency_contacts]
contacts[] = "XXXXXXXXXX"
contacts[] = "YYYYYYYYYY"
contacts[] = "ZZZZZZZZZZ"
[bitly]
; https://bitly.com/a/your_api_key
bitly_login = "bitlyLogin"
bitly_token = "bitlyToken"
Twilio Notes
This all of course depends on having a well-stocked Twilio account. AFAIK you can use a trial account which starts you with some credit anyway.
Usage
Movies are chock full of times when something like beacon would be useful. Giving it a few seconds of thought, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close comes to mind first. It's something I think many would find useful to have. I don't think I have to go in to too much detail here.
There are dozens and dozens of ways to extend this, have at it. I'm satisfied with this simple version of it.
##Disclaimer
I put this together in a day an hour. Syntax ain't pretty but she works. Do whatever you want with this.