The document summarizes a mobile application called WoSApp that was created to improve women's safety in India. WoSApp allows a user to discreetly activate an alert by shaking their phone, which will send an emergency message and the user's location to local police. It was developed with a straightforward interface and aims to ensure alerts are quickly received by police. The application was created through an iterative development process and collaboration with local Mangalore police. It represents a potential solution to help women in crisis situations.

1. A Mobile Application for
Women’s Safety
WoSApp
Authors: Dhruv Chand, Sunil Nayak, Karthik S. Bhat,
Shivani Parikh, Yuvraj Singh, Amita Ajith Kamath

2. Motivation
● 35 percent of women around the world have been victims of
sexual violence (World Health Organization - 2013)
● A woman is assaulted in India every three minutes (The National
Crime Records Bureau of India)
● The current system does not enable police to help these
women effectively

3. Related Work
● iMace - shaking phone produces a high pitched alarm,
notifies friends and law enforcement
● VithU - pushing the power button twice sends messages to
pre-selected contacts
● Nirbhaya - in-app button sends user’s GPS coordinates to
pre-selected contacts

4. ● Direct tie-up with the local police (Mangalore)
● Free of charge
● Open-source
How WoSApp Stands Apart

5. We needed a mobile application that:
1. Has a straightforward user interface
2. Ensures the alert message is sent to the police
3. Allows the user to activate alert discreetly
4. Monitors and reports crises locations
Problem Statement

6. Using the Application
There are four main phases of operation of
the application:
● Input of emergency contacts
● Activation of the service
● Transmission of the emergency
message and call
● Police response

7. Interface Design
● Need for simplicity, easy
access during crises.
● Home Page: three distinct
buttons - PANIC, Configure
Settings and About.
● Police station: Google Maps
interface.

8. Work Done
● Shake detection
● The back-end of the application
○ Portal receives the encoded text message and stores it in a database.
○ GPS coordinates plotted on a Google Maps interface.
○ Audio alert system added at the receiving portal.
● All work was open-sourced

9. App Development Stage
● The development followed the Rapid Application Development model
● Used iterative, evolutionary prototyping
● High speed of development - aided collaboration with the local
(Mangalore) police
Image source: http://www-old.novulo.com/Rad.aspx

10. Technology Used
● HTML/CSS and JavaScript
● Java
● PHP
● MySQL
● JSON
● PhoneGap API
● Android SDK
Image source: http://www.canon.co.uk

11. Conclusion
● WoSApp: a straightforward solution in times of crisis
● Shake phone → Police receive required data
● Moral responsibility to society
● Beta version circulated in college

12. Potential Future Work
● Expand area of influence to a nationwide scale
● Voice activation/trigger, like “OK Google”
● Real time data analytics
● Tie-up with Project Jagriti

13. References
…
● “iMace: Protecting Females from Sexual and Violent Offenders in a Community
via Smartphones,” by Chang et al
● VithU: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.startv.gumrah. Accessed
2015-06-01.
● Nirbhaya: Be Fearless: http://www.nirbhaya.mobi. Accessed 2015-06-01.
● “Rapid Application Development,” by James Martin
…

14. Thank you!