An Indian origin scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a sticker that can detect and stop sexual assault in real-time. The wearable sticker can not only stop an assault by creating a loud noise to scare off the assailant but also send a quick alert to the family and friends of the victim.
The sensor is pretty simple to use as it can attach to any piece of clothing like a sticker and can be trained to learn if a person is undressing or is being attacked by an assailant. It is connected to a smartphone app via a Bluetooth connection. The app contains details of five pre-defined family members that receive a distress signal in case of an emergency.
The good thing about this gadget is that it can help anyone including bed-ridden elderly people, intoxicated people and even unconscious people.
The sensor works in two modes. In active mode, the victim is assumed to be unconscious. The sensor uses the external environment to detect if the attacker is trying to remove clothing off a victim’s body. The sensor sends a message to the victim’s phone to confirm if the act was done with consent. If the victim doesn’t respond in 30 seconds, the app creates a loud noise to alert the people nearby. If the victim doesn’t stop this alarm in 20 seconds, the sensor sends an alert signal to the pre defined family members along with the location of the victim. In passive mode, the victim is assumed to be conscious and can send distress messages by using the app.
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This wearable sensor has been developed by Manisha Mohan, who is a second-year master’s student at MIT. She received her bachelor’s degree in automobile engineering from SRM, Chennai, where she was one of five Presidential Fellows in 2014.
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