A dynamic AI-powered app is revolutionising the way people manage their personal safety.
Epowar, set up in 2020 by University of Bath graduates E-J and Maks, is an innovative AI-powered personal safety app for smart watches which harnesses a wide range of original features.
According to a survey commissioned by ITV News, 81% of young women aged between 18-25 feel unsafe walking home in the dark, and E-J revealed her inspiration for creating Epowar came from a string of unwanted followings by a man in her second year of university.
She said: “I was living in Bath and there was this guy that was following girls home, committing acts of voyeurism, making us all feel very scared and we were all making complicated arrangements to basically avoid walking alone.
“My Mum had also sent me a rape alarm in the post, and I realised that I had to have it in both hands to make it work.
“And what if I drop it? What if I don’t have it accessible?
“So, I realised that there wasn’t really anything that was usable in those situations.”
E-J began to consider whether smart watches could be used to detect physical attacks while watching an Apple keynote speech which looked at how they were being used to detect heart attacks.
She was studying business at the time and reached out to her co-founder Maks, who was studying for a degree in engineering, and realised they could utilise personal expertise to create something which could work to solve the ongoing issue of women’s safety.
E-J said: “Maks actually focussed on Epowar for his final dissertation, and I did the same thing for my final year.
“I also had a six month work placement so I ran Epowar as my placement.
“There’s always that classic romantic story of dropping out of uni to pursue an amazing idea, but for us it was ‘no, we’re going to get our degrees and do this too’.”
Whilst other personal safety apps do exist, E-J explained Epowar has specific features which not only set it apart from others on the market, but allows it to function far more effectively.
She said: “I think that Epowar itself is very unique as it both builds on other things and adds things there haven’t been before in terms of safety products or safety apps.
“For example, there isn’t another app which has automatic attack detection, so that’s a very unique thing that our app does.
“This means that in those worst-case scenarios, you don’t have to do anything, it’s automated and works on your behalf.
“On top of that we also have re-imagined the SOS button, something other safety apps do include, but are very difficult to use.”
Epowar operates through analysing a person’s vital signs, such as heart rate and movement.
E-J said: “Looking at both of those allows us to really accurately tell if somebody’s being attacked.
“In terms of movement, we’re looking at if the movement is not repetitive or not regular, so random changes in speed and intensity that would be indicative of an attack.
“We couple that with things within the heart rate that indicate a kind of fear or distress, which, when these two things happen at the same time, it suggests that somebody’s being attacked.”
As E-J explained, these signifiers are generally very accurate as it is highly unlikely where a person would not be in danger or physical distress and these indicators would not be present in someone’s activity or vital signs.
Epowar, which is free to purchase, also sets itself apart from other apps on the market by having a critical alert feature.
This means if a user’s phone is on silent or do not disturb, their nominated contacts which can view a user’s journey, will still get alerted.
Operating on its motto of “don’t text me when you get home”, Epowar works in the moment to protect its users.
Its design means that, should the worst happen, evidence of an attack is recorded and compiled into an evidence pack.
Evidence and location data is also sent to the cloud, meaning it is accessible if a phone is lost or destroyed.
However, E-J revealed the largest hurdle she and co-founder Maks have had to jump is getting funding support for the app.
She said: “Funding has been really difficult, especially more recently post-launch.
“I think being very impact-focused and very mission-focused makes it difficult when you’re looking for investment from people who are more focused on returns.
“The investment landscape is also very male dominated and obviously this is a problem that predominantly affects women.
“Even though men might empathise with the problem, it’s very different to having felt it and felt scared walking alone.
“As a result, it means we’ve had a lot of other challenges in terms of basically having to bootstrap, but not having any budget to do anything and not paying ourselves a lot.”
She added: “We want to try and be more powered by community rather than having to rely on external investment, but it’s difficult.”
While E-J and Maks have their personal expertise in business and engineering, Epowar’s design director Valeska has extensive women’s advocacy knowledge, having received survivor centric UX training and as a part of UN Women UK.
In line with data finding over 80% of women feel unsafe walking in the dark, Epowar’s recent research with Words and Pixels found less than 3% of attack cases result in any form of conviction, and 70% of the women who do come forward end up dropping their case.
E-J said: “We found that 88% of women would be more likely to come forward if they had concrete evidence, and obviously Epowar gives you that concrete evidence which is very easy to then submit, and it makes it easier to get a conviction.
“We also found that women spend around £420 per year just on taxis to avoid walking alone, so having a tool like Epowar might reduce this further contribution to women’s safety tax.”
E-J and her team recently wrote an open letter to the government as a part of their ongoing mission to help women claim their right to feel safe.
She said: “Right now, the government is focussing on things like the safer streets policy because they have deemed violence against women and girls to be a national emergency, but a lot of these solutions are very long-term.
“For example, educating young boys and men or putting money in more outdated technologies like CCTV.
“Whilst those things have their own value, there are women who are scared right now, who need something right now, who are being attacked right now and who are making complicated arrangements to avoid walking alone right now.
“Epowar is a tool that women can use today to feel empowered.”
E-J added: “Other national emergencies like COVID had very proactive measures that worked very fast to help people in them, there and then, but it doesn’t feel like the solution for this one necessarily matches that same level of urgency.”
Users have described Epowar as a life-changing, vital tool to have in their back pocket, should the worst ever happen.
One app user said: “This app is amazing, the safety features it provides are so reassuring to know if something ever did happen, I would have the evidence to protect not just me but other women too, because we need to get violent offenders off our streets.
“What Epowar is doing is so incredible.
“Every woman should be using this app.”
Another user said: “I was attacked a few months ago and this has already made me feel so much safer.”
The app, which is now based in Liverpool Street, has recently been awarded a grant from the Santander Entrepreneurship Fund to support Epowar’s mission in keeping women safe.
E-J hopes to eventually make Epowar global and that with mass app adoption, Epowar can make a real impact on the future integrity and autonomy of women’s safety.
All pictures: Used with permission of Epowar
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