SonicAlert
Reports active shooters to the authorities
SonicAlert identifies gunfire in schools using various microphones and automatically alerts authorities with audio/visual footage, expediting the response time compared to manual calls to the police.
Introducing SonicAlert, a New System that
Identifies Gunshots
Improves Response time
Prevents False alarms
SonicAlert
SonicAlert
SENSORS
PHONE APP
Glimpse of the Project
The Problem?
During school shootings, it often takes 10-20 minutes for people to identify the first gunfire and alert authorities, potentially costing more lives/injuries.
Misidentifying gunshots results in false alarms, wasting police resources.
Solution
SonicAlert's cameras and microphones detect gunshots and automatically notify school authorities and police, providing audio and visual recordings of the incident through the app.
Impact?
The reduction in alerting time potentially saves lives. Police too can verify the situation through the SonicAlert app and avoid responding to false alarms.
HOVER to Interact
Personal Contribution
The sensors - 3D models
Apart from ideating with the team, I created the 3D designs and renders for the camera as well as the audio sensor.
The UI
While there was a different UI for the project created as a team, I have modified that UI for my personal portfolio here. All the screens here are designed by me
Where I made a difference
Journey maps - Current user journey, SonicAlert journey
I designed the journey maps for current user journey. I also designed the product journey map for SonicAlert, as well as the journey map during False alarms
Personal Contribution
Personal Significance
Challenges related to a sensitive topic
Given the sensitive nature of this topic, we couldn't get enough official data, even after visiting multiple schools and police departments, and sending countless emails to teachers and staff. These limitations motivated me to dive deeper. I turned to Reddit and conducted primary research with people who had experienced such events. Hearing their perspectives and comparing them to the limited data we got from officials really helped in grasping the core of the topic.
Proactiveness and teamwork
The entire project was completed in just three weeks, leaving us little time to waste. A lot of time went into setting up meetings with officials, which turned out to be more of a hassle than productive. However, we managed to gather enough data to create a journey map and used a design sprint to quickly generate and refine ideas. We even got a chance to run our designs with a Police officer. Despite the challenges, it felt like a real achievement to finish everything on time.
Let's dive into the details
Case Study
Why this Topic?
As a class project, our main goal was to identify a public safety issue and find a solution. While discussing different ideas, we got sidetracked by the song "Pumped Up Kicks - by Foster The People" and realized it was about school shootings. This sparked more conversations about recent news related to these events. Once we saw that we all had a shared interest in the topic, some quick research made us realize how serious the issue was, and we knew it was the right project to work on.
Why this Topic?
Around 50% of these shootings are done by students and former students. Rest shootings are done by staff, teachers, parents, relatives, SROs etc.
The most common reason is escalation of disputes. Other reasons include anger over grades, bullying, racism, intentional property damage etc.
According to k-12 School Shooting Data Base, from 1966 to 2023, there have been more than 2500 school shooting incidents where close to 800 victims were killed. The number of school shooting incidents, victims, deaths have increased dramatically over the last 6 years
Research
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Incidents
Injured
Deaths
In 2023 Itself..
346 Incidents
240 Injured
70+ Deaths
700+
False Alarms
Who does it Why?
The last 10 years…
WHY is this project important
Research
1300+
1500+
Primary
Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, obtaining details from school staff and the police proved challenging. Nonetheless, we were able to gather some insights by speaking with a school county director, police officers, a student, and Reddit users.
School County Director
Existing physical Panic buttons
lockdown procedure and safety rooms
Police
Existing app that alerts about shootings
have to attend every 911 call including false alarms
UChicago Witness
insights on how they couldn't recognize the gunshot
no communication, leading to confusion
Reddit Users
Not able to differentiate between gunshots and a loud noise
Couldn't escape because they couldn't identify the gunshot in time; no communication.
Current Safety
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1500+
Measures
Schools premises
Security cameras, controlled access inside schools through badges and ID cards, Panic buttons
SROs
Dedicated School Resource Officers are appointed in most schools for safety and crime prevention
Lockdowns
Lockdowns are initiated to ensure the safety of both students and staff, relocating them to safety rooms
Mental health programs
To reassure students and detect potential shooters by studying their past actions.
Ignorance
Individuals disregard training to prepare for such incidents because they believe "This will never happen to us"
SROs
Some SROs have hurt students for varied reasons like Racism. Students(especially from African-American culture) do not feel safe around SROs
Panic buttons
Cannot be pressed until the situation is confirmed. Not everyone has the access. Have to be pressed manually and need time to reach the button.
Manual Alerting
with its inherent time delays, can contribute to increased loss of lives or injuries
Challenges
Current User Journey
1300+
1500+
Let's look at the
Current User Journey
Ideation
After identifying the painpoint through our User Journey, we jumped into ideation. We conducted a Design Sprint exercise where we each sketched out about 50 ideas.
Ideation
We then combined and refined our ideas to develop the final design.
*These are just my sketches
The Final Design
Lets look at how SonicAlert functions
SENSORS
PHONE APP
Hover to know more
The SonicAlert Installation
Starting with
Starting with
SonicAlert: Product Journey
Lets look at how SonicAlert functions
Lets look at how SonicAlert functions
Attacker
Gunfire
Detection
Footage
Confirmation
Lockdown
Informing the Police
Police Notification
Help on the Way
Informing the Parents
Attacker enters the school
Gunshots are fired
The audio sensor detects specific
frequencies to recognizes the
gunshot, sending alert on the
SonicAlert app
Location(inside school) and a video footage is sent to the school staff and SROs. The video contains footage of 5 seconds before and after the detection
Seeing the footage, staff can confirm the attack
Once confirmed, the system activates the intercom and announces a lockdown
Meanwhile, details such as school location, alert message, school blueprints, and video footage are sent to the Police
Police can also confirm the attack and dispatch a team to apprehend the shooter. Details are also forwarded to an ambulance
Live location of the Police is visible via the app
Staff can choose to inform the parents manually. An alert text message will be dropped to the registered numbers
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Let's see how it looks on the app
Let's see how it looks on the app
The message to the parents
A False Alarm
What happens during
What happens during
Lets look at it from the perspective of Police
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Police Screens
Reflections
Gathering Information related to sensitive topics
From this project, I learned to handle sensitive topics like school gun violence. Despite talking to the Police and a school county director, getting confidential details was challenging. This experience emphasized the importance of being careful and strategic to gather necessary information while respecting confidentiality.
Journey/experience mapping
This project taught me the value of mapping the user journey to identify problems. It simplifies detailed research, highlighting pain points and illustrating the product or solution journey effectively.
Thank you