Keywords

1 Introduction

A lack of women’s security has been observed in today’s developing cities. Crimes against women are increasing day by day. Although there are security solutions available, there is a need for a more reliable security solution to ensure women’s safety. Nowadays, many organizations are coming up with different ideas to tackle this problem, and they are using various technologies to do so, but many of these ideas are under development.

This paper focuses on a security system that will help women in dangerous situations, places where they find themselves alone or in case of medical emergency. It is also a helping aid for women who cannot afford devices like smartphones or any other expensive solutions for their security. This system will be able to detect the location of the emergency as soon as it happens and that will enable us to take actions accordingly. It is based on technologies like GPS receiver, GSM, RFID tag and reader. Since most of the applications are cell phone-based which are handy and easy to use, they still have few drawbacks such as battery constraint or cases where the phone is lost or damaged. Our paper proposes better solutions to overcome these drawbacks. We are focusing on building a roadside unit instead of a phone-based application which will use Raspberry Pi as the main processing unit. We are using technologies like RFID, GPS, and GSM to build a robust system which can be used to provide extended security to women.

2 Related Work

Some of the applications developed for women safety are as follows:

  • SOS-Stay Safe: This app is freely available in play store. Unlocking the phone is not required, just keeping the app activated works. The user needs to shake the phone to send the alert. Along with shaking, tapping the home button option is also available, which will also send a message having the location, even battery status of the phone and an audio recording.

  • Eyewatch Women: This app works a little different, and it not only sends the alert message but also sends an audio/video recording to the predefined contact number. It is highly appreciated for its accuracy and functioning without the need for GPS. By pressing “I am safe” button, the user can let the concerned people know of their safety.

  • VithU: Channel V had this initiative of providing an interactive safety application, and they came up with this application. By pressing the power button twice, your location will be sent to the emergency contacts you have saved. This app sends location every 2 min so that tracking is made easy.

  • Smart Belt: This system resembles a normal belt design wise. It has an Arduino board for activating the alarm, screaming alarm which can be heard from a considerable distance and pressure sensors. When the pressure sensor is activated, the device will start working automatically. The screaming alarm unit will be activated, and a siren will start [1].

  • Police Nearby: The developer of this application is Big Systems. The police nearby scanner is an android application that helps students and citizens to connect to their nearest police station in case of emergency. This app connects citizen to their respective city police, and it is an initiative to involve as many people in public safety with the help of their android smartphones. No signup is required to download this application.

  • Sonata Act: Sonata launched this watch that works with an android application. This watch connects to the phone using Bluetooth and sends alerts. The alert contains user’s location, and it is sent via the in-app alert system and by SMS.

3 Proposed System

As shown in Fig. 1, the system consists of central processing unit, preferably a microcontroller which will be responsible for interfacing and activating other components of the system. This system will be installed at strategic locations which are easily recognizable by any individual. The system will be a roadside unit consisting of Raspberry Pi as the main processing and controlling unit. All the other modules will be interfaced with this Raspberry Pi. Individuals will be provided with a RFID tag which will contain identification information along with an emergency contact number. As soon as the unit is activated by the individual using their tag, the RFID reader will get the information from the tag. The reader will then pass this information to Raspberry Pi. The alert will be sent using GSM module to the nearest police station and the emergency contact number fed in the tag. Along with sending the alert, this module will be linked to a camera which will record the event and the data will be saved in the database. All this will happen in real time. The system includes the following modules:

Fig. 1
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Diagram of the security system

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  1. 1.

    Processing module: This module is responsible for controlling and activating all other modules. We will be using Raspberry Pi for this purpose. It is a credit card-sized computer which is easy to use and maintain [2, 3]. Raspberry Pi is interfaced with all the other modules and is responsible for handling and redirecting data from one module to another. Performance wise Raspberry Pi is slower than a laptop or desktop; it is a complete computer but uses much less power. It is also a Linux-based computer which is perfect for the kind of system we want to build.

All of the Raspberry Pi is not an open hardware just the primary chip that runs many of the components of the board. CPU, graphics, memory, USB controller, etc., is not open source. All the projects that can be made using Raspberry Pi are very well documented, and there are many forums that support the development of new projects and applications using the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi can also be easily expanded by adding different modules like the camera module and touch screen module and greatly increased the scope of the module (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2
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Top view of Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

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The Raspberry Pi 2 comes with 40 GPIO pin which we can use to connect other modules. For easier connection, the signals can be converted and transmitted using USB ports available on Raspberry Pi.

The GPIO pin layout is given in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3
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Raspberry Pi 2 GPIO pin layout

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  1. 2.

    Identification module: This module consists of a RFID tag and reader [4, 5]. RFID tags are either passive, active, or battery-assisted passive. Passive tags are smaller and cheaper as they are not equipped with a battery. Passive tags work by collecting energy from a nearby RFID reader’s radio waves, whereas active tags have their own local power source (battery). As active tags are equipped with batteries, they may operate at a range of hundreds of meters from the RFID reader. Our tag will be a passive tag with enough memory to store unique identification number and contact number of the user’s kin. The RFID reader/writer that can be used is MFRC522; it is a highly integrated reader/writer IC for contactless communication at 13.56 MHz. Every user will be provided with one RFID tag, and they can use it to activate any unit nearby. The reader will then send the information to the Raspberry Pi.

The tag which will be used is a passive tag which means it does not have a power source to transmit signals to a long distance. Therefore, the user needs to bring the tag as near as 2–3 cm to the reader. Reading and writing on RFID tags is done using electromagnetic waves transmitted from the antenna of the transponder. The MIFARE library is available which contains source code for reading/writing on RFID tags (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4
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RFID reader/writer with RFID tag

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The RFID reader/writer is connected to Raspberry Pi using the GPIO pins. The required connection is as in Table 1.

Table 1 RFID transponder to Raspberry Pi connection
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  1. 3.

    Location module: This module consists of a GPS modem which is able to determine the coordinates of the system using MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) satellites. The longitude and latitude of the receiver are calculated from the time difference between the signals of various satellites to reach that receiver [6, 7]. The GPS module antenna requires clear sky view to receive NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association) sentences. The data by GPS receivers consist of a lot of information like latitudinal and longitudinal position, speed, and altitude. The NMEA standards send a series of independent and self-reliant sentence that contains all these data. A particular sentence begins with a “$”, and it is about 80 characters in length with the data items separated by a comma.

GPS receivers are made compatible with NMEA standards and are also compatible with serial ports using RS232 protocols. This system uses the SIM 28 M GPS receiver which is a stand-alone receiver. The coordinates acquired will be incorporated in a Web link that will be sent using the alert module (sample link in Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
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GPS receiver with external antenna

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The SIM 28 M can be easily interfaced with the Raspberry Pi with the help of the Tx (transmit) and Rx (receive) pins along with 5 V supply and ground (Table 2).

Table 2 GPS to Raspberry Pi interface
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  1. 4.

    Alert module: Once the system is activated, Raspberry Pi will send an alert message (Fig. 6) having the location of the system to the nearby police station and to the contact hard-coded in the RFID tag using the GSM modem. The GSM module we will use is SIM 800. The GSM modem can accept any SIM card and act just like a mobile phone. AT commands are used to control the GSM module. This system uses AT commands to send messages. Moreover, more than one GSM modem can be used and with slight changes in software code, these modems can work simultaneously for a more reliable alert mechanism (Fig. 7) [8].

    Fig. 6
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    Sample message to be sent

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    Fig. 7
    figure 7

    SIM800 GSM module with antenna

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SAMPLE PYTHON CODE TO SEND A MESSAGE:

  1. 5.

    Camera module: Since the system is located at one position, a camera can be used covering the area of the system so as when anyone activates the system it can record the event in case police needs video evidence to produce in court or for investigation. In case someone tries to damage the system, the further enhancement will be a pressure sensor that will activate the system and the camera will capture the recording.

4 Conclusion and Future Scope

The proposed system is an effective application toward extending security solution for women. This system can be adopted by smart city planners for providing a safer environment for women. Since this system uses RFID technology, it is cheaper than cell phones and can be used by anyone. It can be made easily available to everyone and can be easily installed and maintained.

The proposed security system for women can be effectively deployed in cases where help is not easily available. It not only provides extended security to women but also provides evidence to support further investigations with the help of the feed obtained from the camera module. The same system could also be used for providing extended security for senior citizens, children, etc., and for other applications like police surveillance system. With slight changes in the source code, this system can also be installed in buses and trains. With other slight modifications, the proposed system could be deployed as a pick-and-drop cab service across various locations.