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’

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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