A group of young
Indian entrepreneurs have won a $1 million dollar prize by developing a
wearable smart device that women can use to send out emergency alerts if
threatened or assaulted.
New Delhi-based
Leaf Wearables was among the five finalists selected from 85 teams hailing from
18 countries for the ‘Women’s Safety XPRIZE’ instituted by Indian-American
philanthropists Anu and Naveen Jain.
The technology
start-up, founded by students of IIT Delhi and Delhi Technological University,
won the prize for their project ‘Safer Pro’, an enhanced version of their
earlier safety devices.
“Women safety is
a global problem, it’s a global epidemic. A safe environment for women is a
fundamental human right, it should not be considered a luxury and yet in
today’s world, with so much advancement in technology and innovation, we still
haven not been able to solve this problem,” Anu Jain said at the award ceremony
organised in the United Nations on Wednesday.
Teams
participating in the challenge had to create a device, costing no more than $40
and able to work without Internet, that can inconspicuously trigger an
emergency alert if a woman is facing a threat and transmit information to a
network of community responders, all within 90 seconds.
Leaf Wearables’
Manik Mehta, Niharika Rajiv and Avinash Bansal collected the prize for their
innovation. “It was in 2012 that the Nirbhaya rape took place in Delhi,” Mr.
Mehta said, adding that it was then that they decided: “Enough is enough. Delhi
is unsafe and things are not changing at all. We have got to solve this
problem.”
The start-up has
previously launched two wearable devices. “We are not saying we have made the
perfect device. We are saying we are working on the problem and we are going to
make one billion families safe and connected,” Mr. Mehta said. Ms. Rajiv said
the prize money would help jump-start all their efforts.
Audio recordings
The smart device
by Leaf Wearables will also be able to make audio recordings, which could be
used as evidence.
Naveen Jain,
founder of several technological companies including Moon Express, Viome and
Bluedot said that none of the solutions and projects required cell phones or
wifi, so even if a person’s phone was taken away, the devices could help track
the person’s exact location. All solutions were tested live in front of the
judging panel and in simulated testing environments in April 2018 — including
on public transportation in Mumbai — taking routes unknown to the teams to test
the mobility and advanced functionality of their devices.
The finalists
were Artemis from Switzerland, led by Nicee Srivastava and Katerina Zisaki, who
developed data analytics for wearables and IoT devices, which provide a way to
improve women’s safety via the ability to trigger an alert through gestures and
physiological signals.
Globally, one
out of every three women and girls experiences physical or sexual violence — or
both — from an intimate partner, or sexual violence by a non-partner, the
United Nations estimates. The figure is twice as high in some countries.
The first round
of competition had 85 teams, including app developers, technology researchers,
schools and start-ups.
One team of
finalists developed a device that could “detect a user’s panic, fear and
stress” by monitoring speech and physiological changes.
Finalists also
included a device “camouflaged as a fashion accessory” that could send
hands-free alerts. Another drew on global positioning services, cellular data
and Bluetooth to connect women to emergency services.
A team from
Switzerland, led by Nicee Srivastava and Katerina Zisaki, developed data
analytics for wearables.
The finalists
other than the winning team received prizes of $50,000 each from contributions
by two other donors who each gave $100,000.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/indian-entrepreneurs-win-1-mn-prize-for-safety-device/article24108282.ece
