Whistlemate

Every year there are around 250,000 sexual assaults in the United States where the person attacked is harmed. In the UK there are around 100,000 similar attacks. There are many thousands more unsuccessful assaults. Needless to say, almost all of the attacks are against women.
How are women meant to protect themselves from unwanted attention? Don’t dress provocatively, don’t flirt, don’t make close eye contact with a man — or carry a gun, pepper-spray, or a loud alarm.
The best protection — as it should be — is from the police. But what do you do if you feel someone is following you, or stalking you, or you think that someone may have put something into your drink, or you have actually been snatched into a vehicle. Most people would try to use a cell or mobile telephone. But it takes time to find it and then dial the emergency number, and the sight of a woman attempting to use her ‘phone might be enough to provoke an attack before she can get through to the emergency services. And usually the first thing an attacker does is take control of the victim’s ‘phone.
What is perhaps needed is a simple, nondescript alarm that can be triggered to contact the emergency services immediately. Today’s technological advances should make this possible.
To this end, a crowdfunding project has been started on Indiegogo to develop the concept of a device provisionally called WHISTLEMATE. And despite the name, it has nothing to do with a whistle.
The device is intended to look like a neck pendant or a wrist charm, or maybe even a watch. But whatever it eventually looks like it will have a discrete button that when firmly pressed sends an instant alert to the emergency services. GPS and mapping technology will be used to identify the location of the potential victim.
The alert will consist of a message:
“THIS IS A WHISTLEMATE CALL FOR URGENT POLICE ASSISTANCE. THE CALLER REQUIRES AN IMMEDIATE RESPONSE. THE LOCATION OF THE CALLER IS …
and the message will continue with the exact location of the owner of the WHISTLEMATE. The message will continue, each time updating the location of the caller, until assistance arrives and the device can be disabled.
WHISTLEMATE will also contain a transponder that will transmit its position to a tablet application so that even if the assailant is attempting to hide with his victim in a building or in undergrowth he will be easy to find.
At the moment WHISTLEMATE is at the concept stage and any money raised through the Indiegogo campaign will go towards developing a working prototype that will demonstrate the functionality of the idea.
There may be another call for funding when WHISTLEMATE is ready to go into production, and when it has been determined what form the device should take and what material should be used in its manufacture. The aim will be to keep the retail price as low as possible and no higher than between $50 and $100.
All financial contributions will be gratefully received, but if you can't spare any money please try to get the word out about the project — use the Indiegogo share tools!
WHISTLEMATE might just save your life one day!

To develop a personal alarm that doesn't look like an alarm but which is the most effective available.

3 Torphin Bank
Edinburgh
EH13 0PH
Scotland
UK

This release was published on openPR.