As governments worldwide invest in the education and awareness of sexual assault and rape issues, communication messages play a limited role to protect women and girls during those crucial moments of assault.

Nearly 1 in 5 women or nearly 22 million have been raped in their lifetimes. 80% were raped before 25. More than 90% knew their perpetrator.

Whilst one would shout for help when attacked by a stranger, a girl is often shocked and confused when it is committed by someone she trusts or knows.

In partnership with AWARE, we wanted to create a simple intervention in seconds that would empower any women during any circumstances to disrupt the chain of events and call for help as soon as possible to prevent the rape from happening.

We needed to create a device that is always accessible especially during those crucial moments. One that is still with her even if she's away from her bag or phone. With the rise in exploration of wearable technology, we felt this was an appropriate moment to create one so we partnered with a technology provider, silver accessory maker and retailer to make this happen.

The product is currently available for sale online.

The Guardian Angel leverages existing technological assets which is currently available such as high performance, professional grade Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (BLE or Bluetooth Smart) radio transceiver with built-in ARM Cortex M0 micro controller. The technical lead from our partner leveraged such existing parts to design and fabricate the smallest motherboard possible that would fit as a fashionable pendant.

Then working closely with a mobile app developer, they created The Guardian Angel app that would communicate with the pendant to trigger the 2 mobile functions - making a fake call and sending an SOS via SMS to designated phone number.

The Guardian Angel is powered an everyday battery type: Lithium 3V, CR1632 (16mm diameter, 3.2mm thick) which is cheap and accessible.

Once the first prototype has been created, mass production of the motherboard happens in China as the silverware is produced in Thailand. An online e-commerce site was set up with fashionable shots of the accessories, highlighting The Guardian Angel's appeal.

The concept of The Guardian Angel embodies exactly what it sets out to do - a mode of protection which a woman can call upon anytime, anywhere. The design of the primary pendant was inspired by the concept as it takes the form of an angel's halo. Every aspect of this product from its name, to its design and tonality was finalised to provide women a true sense of security and purity.

Though it was conceived in Singapore, it is sold worldwide as The Guardian Angel works in any country. Because of its accessibility world-wide, we hope to garner more funds and investment to explore more possibilities of smaller motherboards which could be designed into other accessories such as charms for bracelets, rings etc.

As The Guardian Angel's hardware is built with 2 functions - one click and one press-and-hold, we can continue to explore other forms of activating the mobile app with these functions. A simple upgrade of the app will allow us to constantly improve its utility.

We continue to explore various sizes of shrinking the motherboard down and this would generate more possibilities of other forms of accessories.

We also aim to create one which holds its own SIM/data card that would make it mobile independent as this would become useful for those who do not hold a mobile phone such as young children.

As the launch has only happened on 28th April 2014, please review the results on the Additional URL.

But this is what the client has to say at launch:

“AWARE believes in the rights of women to participate in social and public spaces free from harassment and violence,” says Corinna Lim, Executive Director at AWARE. “But especially in a workplace or social scenario, there can be social penalties for confronting harassers directly. The Guardian Angel can help to defuse some harassment situations. The emergency contact function also empowers women to more easily seek help in cases of serious threat.”