Wearables
Wearable technology, women safety and empowerment
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Wearable technology, women safety and empowerment
Last updated
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By Nidhi Mittal and Avik Dhupar
DIGITALLY SPEAKING
A smart underwear for the Safety of Women
On the eve of December 2012, the Capital of India, New Delhi, was wrapped in a sheet of pain, sorrow, anger, tears, shame and disgust when a rather shocking news of a girl being gang raped in a moving bus was broken out. Protests were held, prayers were offered, tears were shared and after fighting vigorously for a couple of days, the brave soul passed on. Something changed inside the young 18 year old me that day but nothing changed in the society.
Security is a major issue for women in India and across the globe. Every single day young girls, mothers and women from all walks of life are being assaulted, molested and violated. According to the statistics, 92 women on an average are raped in India every day and around 60 % of the women get raped worldwide. Every single woman in this world has felt unsafe just walking down the streets. Infact, rape has got so serious that it is being called a 'culture' now. I am not exaggerating, the data speaks for itself.
The sad reality is that we live in an increasingly violent society in which the fear of crime is ever present. Personal safety has become an issue of importance for everyone, but especially for women.
Concerned about this state of affair, we started working on this wearable tech project for the safety of Women to mitigate this issue.
The initial designs had a bold and sharp structure. The garments were embedded with camera, screen, GPS tracker and other safety features. The designs were made to spark a conversation/debate and ask the male chauvinist society that we live in- Is that how you want us to live, breathe and walk on the streets now?
The above designs created awareness amid people. Moving on from there, we started working on a smart underwear which is equipped with safety technologies.
The user under distress can do a specific muscle movement which will trigger an emergency alarm and send distress message along with the users GPS location to 5 saved numbers of family and friends and also to police helpline number. Once the information is shared with the saved numbers, they can track the user down based on the location shared. The underwear can also raise a loud alarm to make the people near the user aware and record the sounds that is happening in the surrounding which can later on act as a proof.
To avoid false alarm, the user can press a button located on the waistband within 15 seconds which will cancel the whole process and won't trigger the emergency alert.
The idea is to make it as unobtrusive as possible and make it a part of somebody's life. To put it on and off shouldn't be complicated, it really should be as simple as putting on an underwear.
We strongly believe that safety is a fundamental right and shouldn’t be considered a luxury.
LINK- HTTPS://WWW.BEHANCE.NET/GALLERY/18644639/DIGITALLY-SPEAKING
