FirstSignLogoThe recent technology phenomena over the last several years has produced some amazing ideas to help keep women, men and kids safer. Everything from a cell phone case with a loud buzzer and GPS locator app to a cell phone case with a stun gun built in, have all made their way to retail store shelves. There have been break throughs in the panic button, dash cam and other personal safety devices, all thanks to technology.

FirstSign-2As well as they work though, some of the best new personal safety technologies are still flawed. These devices, like both cell phone cases described above, stun guns, pepper spray, knives and even handguns can be thwarted by the element of surprise, brute strength and even when an attacker is someone you know and trust.

Wife and Husband team Rachel and Arthur Emanuele have come up with the first personal safety device that both conceals itself from the element of surprise and operates automatically.

The First Sign hair clip is exactly what you think, a hair clip. It’s black and looks good plain but the creators also have a variety of other accents that make it look like a piece of fashion jewelry. It can clip to a woman’s hair anywhere she would clip a hairclip and it can clip onto a mans clothes, inner breast pocket of a suit coat or even right on the inside of a t-shirt.

But how does it work?

There are sensors and a gyroscope inside the clip that detect sudden movement and a break from one’s normal routine. The sensors and gyroscope are made with safety and mind and the triggers are set up by actions and movement most common with an attack, whether the victim is being beat up, mugged or worse, raped, the First Sign hair clip thrusts into action.

The clip, connected to the users smartphone, can send a call with GPS coordinates to authorities. It also features a built in microphone that immediately starts listening and recording at the first sign of trouble. Hopefully authorities can arrive quickly to the scene and once the user is out of harms way the recorded evidence can be turned over.

FirstSign-Clip1First sign is almost halfway to their goal of $50,000 on Indiegogo, you can preorder and support them here. 

“The response to the Technologies has been overwhelming. Violence against women is far too common and this is the first solution to not only be automatic, but to focus on increasing the prosecution rate,” said Rachel Emanuele, co-founder, First Sign Technologies.  “The First Sign Hair Clip can be used in so many different situation to protect you – when dating, walking at night, exercising alone, traveling, to protect kids against bullying, and many more.”

First Sign Hair Clip features:

Automatic Alarm: Working with the user’s smartphone, the First Sign Hair Clip triggers an alarm that alerts professional security personnel at the first sign of violent movement using its gyroscope and accelerometer.
Evidence Collection: Evidence is immediately collected once the alarm is activated.  A microphone on the hair clip transmits audio evidence while it connects via Bluetooth to the user’s phone to access its camera, GPS, speaker, and cell signal.  The evidence is streamed to the professional security monitoring station so all evidence will remain available to prosecutors even if the phone is destroyed.
Lifestyle Friendly and Fashionable: The hair clip can be worn discretely concealed under the hair, as a fashion accessory, or clipped on the body somewhere close.  Either way, the clip is “out of sight and out of mind” but it will never stop working for you.  There is a 15-second window to deactivate it in the rare case of a false alarm.
Watch the video below for more info:

See how First Sign Hair Clip works in the infographic below:

First Sign Hair Clip_Infographic