– Gursimran Singh

Crime against women in Indian cities is at an all-time high. Trashing all stereotypes about women and technology not to be spoken in the same sentence are a few products that are built to keep women safe, at most times. A caveat: While technology can help safeguard her physical existence and give her a certain amount of confidence, her heart, and spirit (despite being invincible) need extra care.

Spotnsave: A wristband for safety

There are several safety apps for smartphones. Subscriptions to SMS-based emergency alert services are also popular. But, all of these services need you to activate the alert using your smartphone. What if you can’t reach your smartphone fast enough? It is in these situations that you might want to try Spotnsave’s Bluetooth Wristband. Smartwatches may be all the rage in the wearable technology segment, but a wristband that lets you, alert friends and family, when you are in trouble is something I would put my money in.

A big advantage of the wristband is that it doesn’t look like a safety device and isn’t even something anyone would consider stealing – considering an attacker may go to your phone first. Priced at Rs 2300, the band ensures that one may not need to reach for their phone, unlock it and then press the assigned button to alert users. It lets you activate Spotnsave’s emergency alert system without touching your phone.

SpotNSave band is allergy and waterproof that has a Bluetooth device embedded in it which connects it to your smartphone. All you need to do is install the Spotnsave app on your Android phone, choose up to four guardians and pair it with the wristband via Bluetooth. It will take some time to set this up, but the app is easy to use once you do that. To activate the emergency alert, you will have to press a button on the wristband twice. The app will then send an SMS every two minutes to your guardians. Along with the alert, it also sends the user’s current coordinates on Google Maps, every two minutes. The SpotNsave app is available for Android, while the startup is currently working on apps for iOS and Windows Phone platforms. Users can download the SpotNsave for Android from the Google Play store.

So all you need to do when you head out, is to long press the button on the safety band to activate the functioning of the device. When in trouble, you just need to tap twice on the button, on the count of 5, the device will alert your contacts. The device will send the location details every two minutes to the emergency contacts until the SOS is stopped by the user manually. The safety band will also alert the guardian about the user’s low battery.

For false alarms and to prevent accidental activation of the emergency alert, you’ll have to tap the button twice in quick succession. The wristband is used only to activate the SOS alert through the app. Alerts are sent out through the app. The Spotnsave wristband lasts around 16-18 hours on a single charge. That’s satisfactory, considering the size of the device. It uses a port smaller than the standard micro USB charging port on most Android phones.

I found a few issues that need consideration. Firstly, a design element – the wristband houses a pen drive-like Bluetooth module that has a button to activate alerts. If the wristband is bent or twisted, this module pops out – and can get lost. Also, as of now, there’s no way to know whether the band has sent an alert or not. It would be great if the band could vibrate or beep to confirm that an alert has been sent. That said, Spotnsave also allows you to send alerts by pressing your phone’s power button twice. Finally, something that could be a little cumbersome is that you have to carry an extra cable to charge the band.