Safelet: The issue of sexual violence regularly resurfaces in international news – and the technology world is responding, developing or promoting safety devices with functions such as notifying authorities or relatives of potential victims.
The Safelet is a creation of the Dutch company Everfind. It is a bracelet that allows its owner to raise an alarm/send a distress signal when they feel threatened. Its main advantage is that it is activated much faster and easier than a mobile phone, while the signal provides useful information to those who are called to rush to the victim's aid.
The bracelet comes with an iOS or Android app that connects the accessory to the phone via Bluetooth. The owner then selects a “security level,” which can include relatives and friends, the wider Safelet community (one of the advantages of the device is that it creates a “guardian network”) or the police, and invites “guardians” who will be notified in case of danger.
If the owner is threatened, he/she activates the device by pressing the buttons on the bracelet and sending a signal with his/her exact location to the "guards" via the mobile phone. Also, the microphone built into the Safelet begins recording surrounding sounds, which can be forwarded to the police.
Although the device is mainly promoted to women, nothing precludes its use by men who may want a means of informing the authorities or their friends in the event that they fall victim to a criminal act.
"With a simple click, you notify a wide network of people. We like to call these people your 'guardians'. You can make your network as large as you want. First of all, by inviting all your friends and loved ones to your guardian network. But if you want an even larger network, Safelet can send your alarm to all members of the Safelet community in your area. It also provides the police with your exact location, which, in many countries, they cannot know otherwise. Safelet creates a platform that enables us to make safety something we build together. Hence our slogan, 'safety is what we do for each other'," states the creators' Indiegogo page, where they turned to finance the device (so far, over $7,000 of the $40,000 goal has been raised, with 39 days left to complete the process).
Source: naftemporiki.gr
