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Ghost Pepper

Made by Kami Chin, Ashutosh Sharma and Varun Gadh · UNLISTED (SHOWN IN POOLS)

In many situations of attack or robbery, the victim can't react fast enough to defend themselves. For this reason, we've prototyped an automated pepper spray that attaches to your clothes and activates whenever a threat is detected. Unfortunately, the signs of a threat from a stranger sometimes overlap with the signs of excitement or anxiety...

Created: March 26th, 2018

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Intention/Narrative

Ghost Pepper is a smart pin designed to keep its wearer safe by detecting potential threats such as stalkers, kidnappers, and pickpockets. When Ghost Pepper detects movements from other people that seem threatening, it will alert the police or shoot pepper spray. Movements that might trigger Ghost Pepper include sudden approaches from behind, outsider access to personal baggage, or following. The device also tracks the wearer's heart rate and blood pressure as indication of when the wearer is anxious or being threatened. 

We chose to design a device like Ghost Pepper because there is a shortage of products on the market for discreet, internet connected personal protection. Ghost Pepper Spray is an inconspicuous device that can ensure its wearer feels protected at all times and from a variety of common outside threats. Furthermore, the device provides an effective solution to people living in crime-ridden areas due to its ability to covertly defend at close ranges. Ghost pepper can detect danger totally unbeknownst to the wearer, such as a stalking or pickpockets. Additionally, Ghost Pepper connects the wearer to help by calling the police and sending a picture of the aggressor. 

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Process/Brainstorming

The overarching issue that we wanted to explore with this IoT device was whether a device could differentiate between aggression and affection in different contexts. 

We began by exploring the breadth of possible human-robot interactions in where there was room for error and problematic results. We then typified these potential problematic results:


We used a 6-3-5 brainstorming session to explore ideas stemming from these paradigms, and we were subsequently able to narrow down our focus to the regimes of "Affection misunderstood as aggression" and "Errors of food automation".