Design of Low-Cost Smart Safety Vest for the Prevention of Physical Abuse and Sexual Harassment

Abstract

Physical abuse and sexual harassment are serious issues all over the world. In Bangladesh, India, and other south Asian countries, crimes of these natures have risen to a substantial number during the past decade. We have designed an Arduino-based simple safety-vest device by using E-Textiles as pressure sensing fabric and incorporated a mobile application for women. This paper explains the details of the proposed smart device, which is cost-effective and re-usable as an undergarment, and the smartphone application with which the device is incorporated. The aim of this idea is to provide a device as a sense of protection for women at an affordable range. This smart vest has been designed by conducting various real-life experiments to make the device efficient and accurate. It has been designed with the target of commercial use. The device has also been beta-tested to get some insights from the people who will be using this cost-effective device as a sense of protection. It has eventually helped to make the vest more reliable and user-friendly for future commercialization.