Toss aside your pepper spray and mace, ladies – there’s a new form of rape protection coming soon to a store near you!
Several engineering students at an Indian university are in the process of developing a special nightgown, the Society Harnessing Equipment (S.H.E.), that is equipped with electric currents that can shock someone who makes an unwanted advance toward the wearer.
The garment itself is equipped with enough power to shoot out 82 electric shocks at 3,800 kV and is lined with a special polymer that prevents the wearer from being zapped. It is also wired with a GPS device so that police and parents can be notified as soon as the attack occurs. The students are also working on adding a Bluetooth device to the lingerie and making it water-resistant and washable.
They came up with the idea for the S.H.E. after a New Delhi woman was gang-raped and died last year.
“We wanted to bring in a solution, an instant solution, punishment on the spot, so that it can be proved as a deterrent – that the person who has tried to attempt rape on a girl should be shocked and should be terrified with that shock actually, so that he can never even dream of raping or touching a girl with an evil sense,” Rimpi Tripathi, one of the creators, told Reuters.
“Lawmakers take ages to come up with just laws and even after that, women are unsafe,” Tripathi and fellow creator Manisha Mohan reportedly said. “Hence, we have initiated the idea of self-defense, which protects the women from domestic, social and workplace harassment.”
While the developers hope to have the S.H.E. on the market soon, the device is still in prototype form and is currently waiting on patent approval.
It’s not exactly the most sexy piece of lingerie out there, but then again that would be counter-intuitive.
