by Xinhua writer Xu Xiaolei
UNITED NATIONS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- An Indian-designed safety device aiming to protect women from assault won 1 million U.S. dollars in an philanthropic awards ceremony held here Wednesday, beating the other four finalists in the competition.
The 1 million Anu & Naveen Jain Women's Safety XPRIZE, backed by Seattle-area entrepreneur Naveen Jain and his wife, was created in October 2016, focusing on the issues of sexual harassment and violence against women.
Leaf Wearables, the startup company behind the winning smart device, was built by students of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and Delhi Technological University.
"It sends out signals based on two aspects instead of one," Neihariks Rajiv, the strategic designer of the device, told Xinhua, explaining that not only emergency alerts, but also live audio recordings could be sent to five pre-set guardians through the device if triggered.
A video clip run at the awards ceremony said one in five women in the United States was a victim of assault on college campuses and 90 percent of the cases went unreported.
Globally, a third of women has experienced violence in their lifetime, and many of them have no access to emergency response. That number soars to 92 percent of women in New Delhi, India.
The Anu & Naveen Jain Women's Safety XPRIZE acts as a challenge to technologists to create a device that can inconspicuously trigger an emergency alert if a woman is facing a threat, and transmit information to a network of community responders within 90 seconds.
Jain said when presenting this feature "that means it's not about he said, she said,(but) she said and she has proof," to a big round of applause.
The low-cost device (it costs under 40 U.S. dollars) and its compatibility with low network connectivity were also among the requirements for competitors.
The device could "go as low as 2G," given that in many developing countries, connectivity was problematic, said Rajiv, adding that they "took a lot of insights from women in developing countries."
Since its launch, 85 teams from around the world had registered to compete for the prize. Five teams made it to Wednesday's awards ceremony, three of them from the United States and the other two from India and Switzerland.
All the solutions were tested in simulated environments this April, including on public transportation in Mumbai, and in front of an independent judging panel composed of experts, including a geopolitical security consultant and a former FBI executive.
Peter Diamandis, founder and CEO of XPRIZE, said this project "has proven that breakthrough solutions are borderless and exponential technology can help aid humanity in our most challenging global issues."
Jain said a total of 200,000 dollars from two philanthropists presented at the award would be divided among the four finalists who did not win. All five solutions would go out in the marketplace, Jain said, and were "all winners nonetheless."
