A A Context-Aware Human Distress Alert System for Safety from Interpersonal Violence Using Smartphone Sensors

Abstract

Interpersonal violence is one of the causes of death globally. Getting help depends on timely response from responders. Development in personal safety technologies have been improved over the years due to the increase in the use of mobile technologies and the miniaturization of electronic sensors. However, existing technologies for communicating distress usually require active user interventions in alerting emergencies. Hence, this study proposes a system for the automatic detection and alert of distress situations arising from violent attacks through smartphone sensors. A fuzzy logic approach was adopted to classify levels of distress situation using input data values from tri-axial accelerometer, gyroscope, sound and proximity sensors. A prototype of the distress detection and alert process was implemented using Java programming language. The system prototype was implemented as an android based real-time application that detects and alerts distress using values from mobile device sensors. Testing the prototype showed that the system can automatically detect and send alert to responders using smartphone.