The bra that can burn
The night of
December 17, 2012 wasn’t an easy one for 20-year-old Manisha Mohan. The
previous day, a 23-year-old woman was brutally gangraped in a bus in New Delhi.
Mohan was spending winter vacations at her home in Chhattisgarh. The student of
automobile engineering at Chennai’s SRM University was aggrieved.
Mohan, who belongs to a middle class family of scholars — her father is a professor of geography in Punjab University, her mother is a historian — went to a convent where, as she put it, “they teach you to be loving towards others.” “I felt pained,” she recalls, “which transformed into anger and anguish.” Mohan thought for days. “I knew that women, not only in India, but everywhere are not safe. I respect the law, but what I wanted was something that gave out a message, ‘you touch me and you see!’”
A fortnight later, she returned to college and discussed a plan with Rimpi Tripathi, a second year student of Instrumentation and Control Engineering. By then, Mohan had worked out the device she wanted to make — a bra that shocks the assailant. “The upper part of a woman’s body is prone to harassment,” she explains. To create the circuit, she needed the help of someone with an electronics background. Tripathi introduced Niladhri Basu Pal, a student and friend to Mohan. In a couple of months, the trio worked on a circuit board that could be fitted on to a bra that would perform two vital functions.
The device called Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE) comprises pressure sensors, an electric circuit, and Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) modules. The circuit is placed on the bosom and when pressure is applied the sensor-enabled device will trigger a 3,800 KV surge of current that can incapacitate the assailant long enough for the woman to escape. The innerwear would be bilayered; the layer touching the skin made of a material that would insulate her from the shock. Sensors would be placed between the two layers. The sensor is calibrated to distinguish between a normal touch, like a hug, and a violent one, like a squeeze, grab and pinch. The GPS and GSM work in tandem to send location details of the woman.
In case of multiple attacks, SHE can send up to 82 electrical currents. “The device can be recharged like we recharge our cellphones,” Pal says.
As of now the size of the device is a hassle. “We’re still in the R&D stage, and looking for funders,” adds Mohan. “We’re also looking at the washability of the fabric.”
HOW SHE WORKS
» Two layers of cloth – the inside » Sensors insulates placed the skin between from shock the layer is calibrated to react to » squeeze When , grab pressure and pinch is applied, the device triggers a 3,800
KV surge of current, up to 82 » times GPS and GSM work in tandem to send location
details of the woman to a family member and the cops
Mohan, who belongs to a middle class family of scholars — her father is a professor of geography in Punjab University, her mother is a historian — went to a convent where, as she put it, “they teach you to be loving towards others.” “I felt pained,” she recalls, “which transformed into anger and anguish.” Mohan thought for days. “I knew that women, not only in India, but everywhere are not safe. I respect the law, but what I wanted was something that gave out a message, ‘you touch me and you see!’”
A fortnight later, she returned to college and discussed a plan with Rimpi Tripathi, a second year student of Instrumentation and Control Engineering. By then, Mohan had worked out the device she wanted to make — a bra that shocks the assailant. “The upper part of a woman’s body is prone to harassment,” she explains. To create the circuit, she needed the help of someone with an electronics background. Tripathi introduced Niladhri Basu Pal, a student and friend to Mohan. In a couple of months, the trio worked on a circuit board that could be fitted on to a bra that would perform two vital functions.
The device called Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE) comprises pressure sensors, an electric circuit, and Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) modules. The circuit is placed on the bosom and when pressure is applied the sensor-enabled device will trigger a 3,800 KV surge of current that can incapacitate the assailant long enough for the woman to escape. The innerwear would be bilayered; the layer touching the skin made of a material that would insulate her from the shock. Sensors would be placed between the two layers. The sensor is calibrated to distinguish between a normal touch, like a hug, and a violent one, like a squeeze, grab and pinch. The GPS and GSM work in tandem to send location details of the woman.
In case of multiple attacks, SHE can send up to 82 electrical currents. “The device can be recharged like we recharge our cellphones,” Pal says.
As of now the size of the device is a hassle. “We’re still in the R&D stage, and looking for funders,” adds Mohan. “We’re also looking at the washability of the fabric.”
HOW SHE WORKS
» Two layers of cloth – the inside » Sensors insulates placed the skin between from shock the layer is calibrated to react to » squeeze When , grab pressure and pinch is applied, the device triggers a 3,800
KV surge of current, up to 82 » times GPS and GSM work in tandem to send location
details of the woman to a family member and the cops
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