Shield

What it does

Shield is a smart system that detects sexual abuse, takes a picture of the assaulter and sends parents the location of their child using a smartwatch worn by the child and pressure sensors attached close to the child’s private areas to detect any violation.

Your inspiration

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year and 1 out of 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. The motive behind this project is to protect children around the world from going through this traumatizing event with lifetime lasting effects. We want parents to feel less anxious not being around their kids all the time, hence the children feeling more secure and safe. We aim to utilize technology to minimize occurrences of child sexual abuse by implementing an accurate yet simple system which protects children and establishes immediate contact with the parents in case of any violation to their child.

How it works

The system consists of three main components, smartwatch, belt and garments. The smartwatch includes the heart rate sensor, the temperature sensor, and the skin conductance sensor. The belt carries a microcontroller and a force resistance sensor, finally a piece of pressure sensitive conductive sheet is attached to the garments, in addition to the sensors, the smartwatch also contains GPS and Bluetooth modules. The smartwatch monitors the user’s vitals continuously, when the heart rate reaches a certain prespecified limit, and the temperature drops to a certain degree along with the increase of skin conductance; the smartwatch will communicate with the microcontroller via Bluetooth, if the resistance of the pressure sensitive conductive sheet and the force resistance sensor changed as well, the system produces an alarm sound, take a picture and send it to the parents smartphone automatically, along with the child's location.

Design process

After our literature review, we looked for suitable components, this was challenging since not all initial plans complied with what we found on the market. For instance, a smartwatch that carries a temperature sensor, skin conductance sensor and an SMS slot was not found. Therefore, some compensations were made to come up with the best solution possible and deliver the outcomes using the components found. After buying and testing all the components, some sensors, like the GSR sensor, appeared to be faulty and in need of calibration. The sensor appeared to not be reliable when used in the traditional way. Therefore, further studies were done to detect the amount of change in GSR levels for different emotional states, this helped create a much more accurate system. Consequently, the work on the initial prototype began. Since all the sensors were tested at first, what was left is to connect all components and do a final test. The prototype functioned effectively with excellent response time and gave the expected and desired output. but we observed that additional enhancement can be done to the design to improve it. In terms of looks, the system was uncomfortable and bulky, hence we designed a PCB that contains all needed components to make the system lighter and less noticeable.

How it is different

While in search for available solutions related to sexual abuse, not many were found regarding the prevention and protection against sexual abuse, most were focusing on forensic evidence and identification of criminals which is not the main concern when it comes to child sexual assault. The main concern of our project is to develop a system that prevents the assault from happening altogether, not just identify and catch the assaulter. What makes our system unique is that it uses five indicators of fear to ensure accurate detection of sexual abuse. It also offers constant connection between the child and the parent and automatic communication to parents in case of any danger. It can also identify the assaulter by taking a picture using the camera in the kid’s brooch pin. Shield is simple, safe, and unnoticeable thus it can be worn by the child daily without any difficulties. Lastly, expenses of the project’s production and implementation are very low.

Future plans

In the future, we are planning on developing a dedicated smartwatch that has all the needed sensors implemented within it. We also want to allow parents to track the live location of their child. We are also planning on utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to create a predictive model for sexual abuse. Moreover, we want to create a more comfortable and easier to wear system by making our prototype more compact and changing some features of it like choosing a small bracelet instead of a smartwatch, and designing a small PCB connected to wearable sensors which are more compact and comfortable for the child.

Awards

Awards: Hackathon UAE 4.0 - Won first place on the emirate of Dubai under the theme of security, safety and justice for children. Undergraduate Research Conference, Zayed University - Won best presentationز Nominations: URC, Abu Dhabi University ProjectSet, ICE-21 Student Research Competition, AUE Poster Competition, AUS