The problem Shastra solves

We advocate for the Safety of Women. It helps women defend themselves and gives her time to escape from an unsafe situation. In case of an attack, Shastra electrocutes the assaultee, informs people in 2 the mile radius, nearest police station and emergency contacts. It could record the audio during the attack so it could serve as a piece of evidence when filing a report in the police station. Shastra could be the accessory of modern-day women which not only keeps her safe but also camouflages with her everyday wear where the products like pepper spray & tasers could be thrown away and aren't easy to reach out for in that short moment when a woman is attacked. It could be used as a band or a glove. The essence behind this device is to instil fear in the minds of people that yes women can take action and protect themselves even if they are walking out during the night.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges we ran into were designing the Hardware Prototype. Hardware availability at this time is one of the major issues. But whatever we had in terms of Sensors, Actuators and Other Hardware Components, we were lucky to have to demonstrate our product using them. We first thought of keeping it as it is without connecting a pulse rate sensor to it but that won't have made sense as a woman could electrocute herself while doing activities. The way we encountered it was embedding a pulse rate sensor so we could narrow down the situations when the circuitry gets triggered. Moreover by introducing modes such as Running while she is exercising the Shastra could be made to stay off until required. One of the challenges was to design the Analog Hardware in a manner by adjusting the values of Voltage and Current that it electrolytes an assaultee to faint and not to kill the assaultee.