Show HN: ROAR – a wearable safety device for women | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: ROAR – a wearable safety device for women

3 pointsmyasmine12 comments

Hi all, I'm launching a landing page to announce my new startup - www.useROAR.com - a tech wearable company aimed at reducing assaults against women.

We're finalizing the prototypes now and will be crowdfunding on CrowdTilt or Kickstarter later this Summer. The page is meant to collect emails of those interested in learning more about what we're doing so we can have a community ready to go when we announce the campaign.

I'd love to get thoughts from men and women on what you think of the messaging and the idea. I'm here to listen!

[EDIT] - Here's an album showing our circuit boards for the prototypes: http://imgur.com/a/O85fs There are actually two different versions as we're testing out using a rechargeable battery and a cell battery. Each one has a 75db alarm, a bright flashing light, and a bluetooth chip that connect to a smartphone to send a distress text/call.

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I feel like the way you're positioning this paints women as weak and unintelligent and plays off of their fears.

This line in particular paints women as weak and unintelligent:

"Existing self defense devices such as pepper spray and stun guns can be scary and intimidating."

Bringing up the 2012 Delhi gang rape is really playing off of women's fears and I seriously doubt your product would have made any difference whatsoever in the outcome of that attack.

Another problem I have with this is the positioning of it as only a product for women. Men are the victims of violent crime more often than women. Why wouldn't this be a good product for men too? By marketing only towards women to protect themselves from men you are implicitly placing women in the role of victim and men in the role of aggressor. This just serves to reinforce the roles prescribed by the so-called rape culture you're trying so hard to put and end to.

Clickable link: http://www.useROAR.com

Clickable link to circuit boards: http://imgur.com/a/O85fs. They are 40mm x 25mm in size.

The first thing I think of when I read the title of this post is "How is it different to a rape alarm?" this page does not answer that question.

Maybe I should have that as an actual question. It's basically combining the functions of a rape alarm and an emergency kiosk (like those in campus) to sound an alarm and call for help, sharing the location of the wearer. Is that better?

That'd be a great addition, showing the product on the landing page and listing its unique features in a way that can be glanced over and understood is essential.

We don't have a product to show quite yet as we're testing the prototypes. I love the idea of a features list though - thanks!

You shouldn't be doing a Show HN on a project that has nothing to show for it yet.

Would it help if I posted pictures of the prototype board and explained the mechanics behind it?

That would help significantly.

Here are some pictures! http://imgur.com/a/O85fs. I wish there was a quarter next to the chips to show its size but I can share it's 40mm x 25mm - comparable to a small key tag.

Thanks for the feedback. Coming up in a few!

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