Gadgets to Protect Women from Assaults and Harassment

Gadgets and devices that are specially designed to repel or deter a potential male offensive can be used by a girl to protect herself from a crime situation, and therefore can be very handy. In this post I have explained a few of these devices which could be either purchased or even developed at home.

Despite of all the efforts from the law and the police, it has so far been quite ineffective to control crime against women, which is seeing a constant rise in not only the metro cities but also the rural parts of many developing countries, like India.

Physical abuse and molestation are among the main crimes against girls which is rising at an alarming rate, resulting in panic, fear, uncertainty in the minds of young girls and also their family members.

Reasons Behind Crime against Women

A few of the fundamental reasons responsible for creating such crimes could be poverty, illiteracy, lack of knowledge and communication, lack of basic amenities of life, adolescence phase, watching illicit content on mobile phone. That said, you may find such crimes happening even from modern guys having good reputation and sophistication, but with hidden, distorted mindset.

No matter what, for a girl or a woman it certainly becomes immensely important to make sure that she's always well equipped to tackle any such unpredictable abuse, assault or an offensive attack especially while walking in remote, secluded streets, or lanes, public transport etc.

Although many techniques have been suggested for girls self defense, some popular ones appear to be rather incompetent, and with adverse repercussions.

Learning Martial Arts and Self Defense Tactics

There's been a lot of hype and discussions regarding training girls and woman with martial arts, karate etc. so that they can safeguard themselves against an assault.

However, some thinking reveals that this approach could be quite ineffective, unreliable and dangerous for the girl, unless she's trained at a professional level.

It is because:

Physically, an average man could be 2 to 3 times more stronger than a woman. A man may easily handle a few blows from a women (unless it is hit on the vital areas), but a single hard blow from a man can cause unconsciousness or even death to a girl.

Moreover, dealing with a real situation can be a lot difficult, and due to nervousness the victim may tend to forget the techniques learned during her training course, due to fear.

Even if she attempts the self defense techniques may result in the assaulter getting angry and dangerously violent. This situation can put the girl in greater risk of harm and damage.

Using a Taser Gun

A taser gun is a gadget that works like a gun, but instead of bullets it releases a pair sharp metallic terminals, intended for hitting the offenders skin. While being shot, the terminals remain wired with the taser gun carrying a high voltage pulse with it.

When the terminals hit the target's skin, the high voltage across the terminals inflicts an excruciating pain and even temporary paralysis, incapacitating and preventing the offender from any further actions.

But again this unit can be quite unreliable, because the unit is cumbersome, needs proper aiming which can falter, and result in the offender getting more aggressive.

Another disadvantage of a stun gun is that it cannot be used multiple number of time, and the girl has only one chance to use the gun against the offender. In case there are more than one attacker, the situation can get even worse.

Ultrasonic Sound Weapon

An ultrasonic sound weapon is an effective looking weapon which generates a sharp ear piercing sound, that may have the potentials to break the ear drums of the target.

The sharp sound may also alert the nearby locality which might indirectly help the girl by attracting the attention of the folks in the vicinity. Due to this the offender may be discouraged from his illegal intentions.

Although, the devices looks good, it may be slightly bulky due to its cone like speaker enclosure, designed to ensure that the sound focuses specifically toward the target, and the high pitched sound does not affect the user.

Dependable Self Defense Strategies

Alternatively, there are a few highly reliable and effective approaches that could be used by any girl, with greater confidence.

Pepper Spray

A pepper spray is perhaps one of the very reliable self defense gadget for women, and may work like an ideal male assault deterrent unit.

The main advantage of a pepper spray unit is that, it can be comfortably gripped and shot at the target from above 2 feet distance.

The spray can be mostly very effective and should succeed in getting into the eyes of the target 99% of the time, unless the target is wearing glasses. Even then, the spray particles may have the potential to reach the eyes through side gaps of the specs of the unwary target.

Even if the offender succeeds to evade the spray, he will have no other option but to run away, as attempting further assaults could be useless, and dangerous for him.

High Voltage Gloves

This type of gloves could be modified and enhanced with parallel metals foils, and connected with an integrated high voltage source. A girl wearing these gloves can defend herself by grabbing any section of the offenders skin, preferably the face for inflicting a highly painful electric shock and a temporary blackout to the offender.

This high voltage gloves may not be available ready made, but could be built at home with some skill, and knowledge of some electronics.

You will need the following materials to make this high voltage glove equipment:

1. A high voltage generator module as shown below, rated to generate a 1000 to 4000 voltage from a chargeable 3.7 V Li-Ion battery.
2. There are plenty of options and varieties available online that you can buy from. A 1000 V output from 3.7 V should be quite enough although higher voltage ranges may guarantee higher safety and repulsive power.
3. For the battery, you can use a 18650 type pencil cell
4. A pair of skin tight rubber gloves, as shown below:

5. Adhesive Copper Tape as demonstrated below:

How to Make an Electrified High Voltage Hand Gloves

Once the above the above ingredients are bought, the high voltage gloves could be created with the help of the following diagram instructions:

• Cut and stick a couple of copper adhesive tape strips on the inner surface of the gloves, as shown above. Make sure to use external glue to reinforce the existing adhesive strength of the copper tape.
• Once the tape is firmly fixed and dried, you can wire the high voltage generator module, the battery and an ON/OFF switch with the copper tape, as indicated in the above diagram.
• Make sure to enclose the module, battery and the switch inside a water proof plastic box, which should be sufficiently compact so that it can be comfortably installed at the base of the gloves.
• Now whenever the switch is pressed ON, the two copper will be instantly energized with a high voltage, which could be used to deter a potential offender.

Using a Tilt Switch

If you think the manual ON/OFF switch may be bulky and inappropriate in such precarious circumstances, you can replace with a tilt switch device, for enabling an automated switch ON whenever the situation calls for.

An example tilt switch unit is shown in the following figure.

Here we can see a mercury ball which rolls across the glass tube depending on the orientation of the glass tube. If the unit is positioned vertically with the two terminals downwards, the mercury ball would roll over the inner two terminals ends causing a short circuit across them, this would switch ON any circuit powered across these terminals.

In the high voltage glove prototype, the tilt switch could be installed in a way that would cause the two terminals to short when the hand is lifted vertically upwards, with fingers pointing upwards (just as we normally do while defending ourselves).

A Passive Approach

There are perhaps some passive methods also, which could force all males to ignore the particular girl applying these techniques.

One technique is putting artificial get up resembling an old man. For example putting an artificial beard set, wig and an overcoat.

The idea might look silly, but actually it can prove to be more effective than many other complex techniques.

Putting Fake Skin or Make Up

Another passive method which can be applied for protecting woman against male offensives, is to use fake skin with a loathsome appearance, as shown in the following example.

This approach may be truly repulsive and would certainly repel not only the bad guys, but all, nonetheless the main purpose of safeguarding the girl could be accomplished, no matter what.

Better Safe than Sorry

Although the above discussed gadgets and strategies for protecting woman and girls from an assault may look impressive, it is always good to ensure you never get into such situations on the first place. This can be ensured by avoiding venturing into unknown secluded zones alone. If at all it becomes a necessity, try having a male companion with you, or ask a cop nearby for an escort.

You opinion surely maters, so if you have a suggestion please send it through the comment box below.