148 Special Issue | October 2014
BARC NEWSLETTERFounder’s DayDESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF TELE DISTRESS
ALARM DEVICE ‘NIRBHAYA’
Pithawa C.K., Lalwani S.K., Sinha V., Srivastava S., Bharade S., Khole S., Kamble A.D., Jyothi P., Muralikrishna L.V and Patil S.K.
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Abstract
‘Nirbhaya’ is a small, low cost electronic distress alarm device which can be used in case of any distress like fear
of attack or medical emergency to get immediate help. When activated, this single-button, single-press operation
device can send SMS alerts, through user’s cell phone, to near and dear ones including police. The SMS alert
containing a pre-formatted user defined message, GPS coordinates of the device & Google maps link is sent to user
defined telephone numbers. After activation, the device continues to send the message and latest GPS location
every minute to the same phone numbers. The device operates on rechargeable battery and pairs with user’s cell
phone via Bluetooth. The technology of this device has been transferred to ECIL for its mass production.
Shri C.K. Pithawa is the recipient of the DAE Group Achievement Award for the year 2012
Introduction
In recent times, there have been increasing attacks on
women and on elderly persons living alone. Children
need to travel long distances for their schooling and
many are kidnapped. Persons working during odd
hours and traveling alone are also prone to attacks.
To provide timely help to such persons in case of
attack, medical emergency, accident or kidnapping,
an electronic device has been developed which alerts
relatives, friends, police and doctor just
by pressing a single button on the device.
Nowadays, almost every one carries a
mobile phone. But in case of attack or
medical emergency, the person may
not be able to use the phone. It may be
snatched by attacker or kidnapper. In
case of medical emergency, it may not be
possible to use the phone due to physical
disability. Hence, for this purpose, a Tele
Distress Alarm Device named ‘Nirbhaya’
was designed and developed. It is a small
device which can be carried in purse or pocket. It is
a single button single press operation device which
sends SMS alerts via user’s cell phone to five user
defined mobile numbers along with its GPS location.
Description
Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of the device. Main
components used are a microcontroller, Bluetooth
interface, GPS receiver, battery charging circuits, single
Fig. 1: Block diagram of Tele Distress Alarm Device ‘Nirbhaya’
Home
NEXTPREVIOUS ê ê
CONTENTS
Special Issue | October 2014 149
BARC NEWSLETTERFounder’s Daycell Li-Ion battery and a push-button (distress)
switch. Bluetooth is used to pair the device with
the user’s mobile for sending the information to
the mobile application running in the background
when the distress switch is pressed. The distress
switch needs to be pressed once only in case of
distress. When the switch is pressed, the device
gets activated and starts sending SMS alerts to the
five phone numbers via the application running in
the user’s cell phone. The SMS contains personal
information, GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude)
of the device, date, time and Google maps link to
the GPS location.
A typical SMS alert can be “I am Shubham, F/25,
Blood Gr. B+Ve. Please HELP. My PRESENT location
is: Latitude:19.011552N, Longitude:072.920624E,
Date:19/05/2014, Time (IST):15:18:00 For location
on Google Maps click on https://maps.google.
com/?q=19.011552+072.920624”. Once activated,
the device continues to send the message and its
latest GPS location every minute to the same phone
numbers. Thus if the person is being kidnapped, the
latest location will be available. In case Bluetooth link
is broken after device activation, due to snatching of
the device or the cell phone by the attacker, the mobile
application continues to send the SMS with last GPS
coordinates.
The device is rugged and cannot be switched off. The
battery cannot be removed easily. The switch is located
in such a way that it cannot be pressed accidentally.
With 700mAh rechargeable Li-Ion battery, it has
standby time of more than 5 days and active time of
more than 12 hours. It can be charged using standard
cell phone charger. Battery low and charging status
indicators have been provided on the device. Fig. 2
shows the photograph of the device along with the
SMS alert received by the receiving mobile.
Device Configuration Software
Before the device can be put to use, it needs to be
enabled and configured once. This involves storing
personal information in the device (name, age, sex,
blood group) and five phone numbers, to which the
alarm SMS will be send in case of distress. In order to
avoid unauthorized change of this information, the
process of storing or changing the stored information
is password protected. Device configuration can be
Fig. 2: Photograph of ‘Nirbhaya’device and the SMS alert received by receiving mobile
Fig. 3: Device configuration using mobile
carried out using either a mobile or a PC.
An Android OS based mobile application
has been developed for configuring the
device using a mobile phone. Similarly a
Windows based application program has
been developed for configuring the device
using a Personal Computer. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4
show the screen print of the GUI for device
configuration using mobile phone and PC
respectively.
150 Special Issue | October 2014
BARC NEWSLETTERFounder’s Day
Mobile Application Software
Application software has been developed for mobiles
using Android or Symbian OS. This application needs
to be loaded and kept running in the background
in the user’s mobile phone for operation of the
device. Whenever the distress switch is pressed,
this program receives SMS alert contents from the
device and sends the SMS to five numbers provided
by the device. In case the Bluetooth link is broken
with the device, this application keeps sending the
SMS alerts every minute with the last GPS location
of the device.
Applications
The ‘Nirbhaya’ device has been developed for societal
applications and is a means for sending SMS alerts for
help to friends and relatives when needed. It will be
of immense use in case of personal attacks, accidents,
medical emergency and kidnapping. The device is
useful for women, children, elderly persons, security
personnel working in isolated areas and persons
working during odd hours.
Future Scope
This device requires a mobile phone for sending the
SMS alerts. An enhanced version of the device is under
development which has on board GSM modem for
sending the SMS thereby dispensing with the need of
user’s mobile phone. Other improvements could be
changing the shape of the device to a wearable form
e.g. wrist band, necklace or pendant.
Conclusion
A Tele Distress Alarm Device named ‘Nirbhaya’ has been
designed and developed for societal applications. It is
a small, low cost device which can be used for sending
SMS alerts to five user defined mobile numbers in case
of any distress like fear of attack, medical emergency
etc. The technology of the device has been transferred
to ECIL, Hyderabad where it is under mass production.
Fig. 4: Device configuration using PC