Totwoo pendant aims to enhance women’s safety

Running or walking after dark, backpacking in an unfamiliar city, even taking a taxi alone in the middle of the night, can all be dangerous activities, especially for women.

To offer better protection, some technology companies are looking for a way to develop or expand tools that highlight women’s safety.

In Beijing on Jan 10, China’s smart jewelry brand Totwoo launched a kit called Safety, which is expected to combat assaults on women in the country.

If the user feels threatened, pressing the button for four seconds will activate the device that will start recording for 10 seconds. Within 50 seconds, the device will telephone and send text messages to three emergency contacts to alert them, providing a location, first-aid information and audio recordings.

Once a contact responds, the device vibrates and lights up to inform the user. The user can disable the alarm by pressing the button three times in succession.

Around the diameter of a bottle cap, the waterproof piece of jewelry can be attached to a bag, a key or even worn as a necklace.

“In Chinese culture, certain jewelry is sometimes worn as an emblem of safety. Our product brings some truth to that,” says Wang Jieming, who founded Totwoo in 2015.

It makes sense that the company decided to model the trinket in the shape of an apple, the name of which in Chinese is pingguo, sharing the same pronounced ping as ping’an, the Chinese word for “safety”.

Cooperating with China Mobile, the small core module uses a remote SIM, bypassing the need for a physical SIM card. It has certified wireless-charging technology similar to the system used by Apple. Supporting navigation systems such as GPS, Beidou and GSM base station positioning, it can provide accurate location information.