There have been quite a number of devices invented to help women report sexual assault and to fend of attackers. This has come in the form of whistles, panic buttons, smartphone apps, and so on. However for the most part, it also involves the user having to manually activate it themselves, which sometimes isn’t always possible.
This is clearly something that needs to be addressed, which is what MIT researcher Manisha Mohan has done in which she has created a device called Intrepid that the user can wear on their person. It comes in the form of a sticker which pairs with an app for the user’s smartphone that can alert up to five contacts should it be triggered.
So how does Intrepid get triggered? It detects how your clothes are being taken off, so when it detects that maybe it is being removed awkwardly (like if you were passed out and someone is trying to take advantage of you) or forcibly, it will activate and send messages to your emergency contacts unless you were to confirm that everything is in fact okay.
Users will be able to place the sticker to different pieces of clothing, depending on preference. It can also reportedly survive a wash cycle should you forget to remove it. According to Mohan, she has tested it out with about 70 people to see if they were comfortable using it, and so far it seems that most people have found the sticker to be non-invasive.
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