Flare App

Inspiration & introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased incidence of domestic violence and potential for women to be trapped in uncomfortable/frightening/abusive situations. We have created an app which allows for inconspicuous contacting of friends, family or the police and asking for help in a way that is hidden from the aggressor. This is done by having the user interface masked as a calming meditation/photos app, and trigger words being typical everyday words used in conversation to not arouse suspicion.

How does the app work?

The app allows for the user to set an 'activation' word, 'trigger' words, and the numbers/contacts they would like to communicate with in Settings. When the image button is pressed, the app will start listening. If the activation word, such as 'weather' is heard, the app will wake up and listen further. If a specified trigger word is heard, such as 'sun', a message is sent via WhatsApp to an assigned contact for that trigger word, including the coordinates of the user.

We used Kivy software, as well as speech recognition, GPS, and message sending techniques. We have experimented with a second version of the code, allowing us to use multiple Kivy screens and input the text within the app itself, instead of the console.

We have also built an alternative front-end HTML website design for the app.

What else did we learn that you can't see? Our background

Coming from a coding background of using Python for data analysis, we had no skills in software/app/website development, using the command line, or git, etc. While working on the project, we explored multiple different routes and software along the way, such as deploying our app via Heroku, or using front-end development websites. The biggest challenge was learning how to efficiently use Git, as well as coding remotely (since due to this we cannot simultaneously work on the same exact piece of code). We also learned many useful strategies such as implementing virtual environments, or checking form entries in HTML.

Future developments/ What's next?

This could be developed into an actual phone app using front-end software, and inputting text into the Kivy screen itself could be implemented. Moreover, multiple levels of severity could be activated by different key words - ie. calling police, texting friend, calling friend, etc. Ultimately, the app is imagined to listen for the activation word constantly, instead of occurring upon button press (similar to Siri/Google Assistant).