What problem does Myla solve?

Myla falls under the “Safer World” category as it reduces the impact of domestic violence. According to NCADV.org, “One in four women and one in nine men experience severe intimate partner physical violence…” Unfortunately, domestic violence became an even bigger issue during the Pandemic as cases increased significantly from 25 to 33%. Due to the alarming statistics stated above, I decided to create a device to combat this issue.

How does Myla work?

Hardware Functionality:

Once the device is placed in a secure location and connected to WIFI, it will measure the environment's sound level using the decibel unit. A high-pitched noise varies from 60 to 100 decibels as it varies how far the human is from the hardware device. Thus, I have set my sound threshold to 75dB to support various distances. If the measured decibel value exceeds this, the system will first send a text alert to the user to check if this is a false alarm. If the user doesn't turn off the alarm in a specified time frame, an SMS will be sent to the emergency contacts and/or the police.

​​iOS Mobile App Functionality:

The iOS mobile app allows the user to create an account and store profile and contact information. The profile information consists of the user's first name, last name, phone number, and address. In addition, the user is allowed three contacts, including the contact's first name, last name, phone number, and relationship to the user. Other settings the user needs to configure are the wait time, which is the amount of time the user has to disarm the system, and the alarm status toggle, which is used to turn off the text alerts that are sent to the emergency contacts or the police.

What technologies were used to create Myla?

Myla is built using both hardware and software. The hardware components include an analog sound level meter, an OLED display, a breadboard, and an ESP32 Huzzah Microcontroller. Apart from these components, other technologies such as Swift to create the iOS mobile app, Firebase to store user information and authenticate the user, Twilio to send the SMS alerts, and Arduino programming language installed in the hardware device to measure the sound level and communicate to Firebase.

Who benefits from Myla?

Myla benefits the general public by preventing future domestic violence cases and reducing the severity of the victim’s energy. In German, Myla means soldier because victims of domestic violence are soldiers fighting for their freedom and rights.

Myla Hardware Device