
In a recent survey on what people actually want from wearable tech, a panic/SOS button came out on top. So it's no wonder that over the past few months, safety wearables of all shapes and sizes have been popping up.
One name to look out for could be Flare Jewelry. It's a Harvard Business School Innovation Lab startup co-founded by Quinn Fitzgerald and Sara de Zarraga, who have both had personal experience of sexual assault.
Read this: #Trending - Playing it safe with wearable tech
They are currently building their first smart jewellery prototype this summer with MIT engineers. It's designed to prevent, alert and record sexual assault and rape.
The features were actually developed in conjunction with survivors of attacks and the product will be tested on college students and young professionals. That said, the team reckons their tech could be used by travellers, the elderly, people with disabilities and children.
The modular smart jewellery, which would currently work as a bracelet or necklace, will feature a loud alarm, automatic texts to emergency contacts with your GPS location and an audio recording feature to capture evidence. It doesn't sound like there's GPS on the device itself so it will rely on your smartphone.
That's a familiar set of features so Flare Jewelry will have to live up to its promise of not impacting the look of the jewellery at all. We'll check in with the co-founders after the summer but if you're interested, you can sign up for updates on the website now.
Source: BostInno
How we test