tech:

taffy

Carnegie Mellon Students Design Wrist Bands To Counter Date Rape

538c8dff-09d8-48da-8ee0-70153cc2a7dd

Students at Carnegie Mellon University have come up with two mobile technology-based solutions, SPOT (A Problem) and NightOwl, to counter date rape. The prototypes are aimed at the college population and designed by graduate-student teams. Carnegie Mellon has filed provisional patents on both prototypes on the students’ behalf.

NightOwl is a social (peer-to-peer) mobile application that provides users with an anonymous way to report dangerous situations at social events. A temporary, location-based messaging platform, it encourages social sharing of music playlists and pictures – features aimed at increasing implementation – while simultaneously promoting shared responsibility to look out for other partygoers’ safety. Users can report potentially harmful behavior in their own words or via preset messages directly to the host or to other attendees – for instance, a friend of a guest who may be at risk.

SPOT (A Problem) combines an integrated mobile application and wristband, and seeks to incentivize fraternities to exercise collective responsibility for keeping events safe. Based on a crowd source feedback system, event guests use the application to send information about aggressive or unsafe behavior in real time to fraternity-designated risk managers who receive messages via an associated wristband that vibrates and emits visual (light) alerts.

Of the roughly 12 million women enrolled in American colleges and universities, an estimated 20 to 25 percent, approximately three million, will experience rape or attempted rape, according to statistics shared by the university.

[Image courtesy: Carnegie Mellon University]

Just in

ServiceNow expands workflow capabilities with two acquisitions

Digital workflow company ServiceNow has announced the acquisition of 4Industry, a technology firm from the Netherlands, and the completion of its acquisition of Smart Daily Management, a digital application developed by EY. 

Apple expands Restore Fund with $80M new investments from TSMC, Murata

Apple has announced that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Murata Manufacturing are joining as new investors in the Restore Fund, a project aimed at investing in carbon removal and ecosystem protection globally.

Mercedes hires humanoid robots to work at its factories — PCMag

Mercedes-Benz is adding Apptronik's Apollo humanoid robots to its factories to complete physically intensive and "low-skill" tasks, the car manufacturer and robotics firm announced Friday, writes Kate Irwin. 

LinkedIn plans to add gaming to its platform — TC

TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that LinkedIn is working on a new games experience. It will be doing so by tapping into the same wave of puzzle-mania that helped simple games like Wordle find viral success and millions of players, writes Ingrid Lunden. 

Quintessent raises $11.5M

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Quintessent, a company specializing in silicon photonics and quantum dot laser technology, has completed its Seed funding round with over $11.5 million.