safe.me – vibrotactile navigation for self-defence

What it does

The gadget deals with the possibilities of running away in case of an attack. To get the victim as fast as possible away from the attacker he is guided trough vibrations. This alternative navigation method also works if the adrenaline is running high.

Your inspiration

Current self-defence tools are often risky for the person who is using them or some pretraining is needed to use them. Even if they work they make the attacker more aggressive. So I thought about the possibilies of non-violent but effective self-defence. Through user studies I found out that the victim in stressfull situations does not want whether auditive nor visual navigation to a safer place because it was too destructing from the actual way he was running. Another aspect was to make a self-defence tool that works without training.

How it works

The user uses either one bracelet or to rings (placed one of them on each hand). Inside the bracelet there are two vibration actuators that must be worn on the sides of the wrist. One is on the side of the thumb, the other one on the opposite site. The rings has one vibration actuator each. That implicates that on each Hand one of the rings should be worn (left hand for turning left, right hand for turning right). Before usage the device must be connected to the belonging app on your mobile via bluetooth. First the attacked person turns a 2-way-switch to activate the allert. In the first few seconds a loud shrill allert is hearable while a red light is blinking. This happens to catch the attention of passersby. After that gps information is sent to the local police department. So the Police is after activation always on track where the victim is. Then the attacked person is guided through vibrations to the next "safe house" - a public space - nearby.

Design process

First I had the question, if we really need a physical product that could be used as a weapon? Or could we also use a nonviolent method of selfdefence. After analising the market I came to the question if a fast but effective fligth could be a posibillity. So i built a mockup modell to ask some guests from design companies what they where thinking about this possibility. It was obvious after that I had to make some user tests. So I wrote a code for two actuators to simulate navigation and invited to test them on different parts of their bodies. Through this tests the actual placement of the actuators in my products was set and also the two products of thefFamily. After making storyboards to find out about possible Features, I tried to find the form (after the form follows function principle) in clay. Then I went into CAD with making to exact tecnique fit into the product. Last but not least i printed it in 3 D, and made a modell to test at the exhebition.

How it is different

Currently there are no self-defense tools on the market that have their Focus on "flight as a better self-defense". A lot of people don't want to use this tools because they have fear to hurt themself or provoke the attacker. safe.me tries to minimize to danger of provoking and to maximize the possibility to run away from the dangerous situation.

Future plans

After finishing the project as a terms' project. I continued working and thinking on it. I try to make it more accessible to more people in ist design solution. And I'm trying to put more time in the developpment of the app.

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