I first developed this idea when I knew that I wanted to address police brutality after seeing the events of 2020-2021 on the news. However, I didn't want it to just be a visual protest - I wanted the protest to be an active defiance of a potentially brutal police officer. I had the idea of wearable tech recommended to me by a group member, so I ran with it. The best way to protest something that affects real people is to actively try to defend them from it, and that's what I wanted to do with this project. Utilizing transparent, thin wires, I affixed the board to a wearable piece of activewear - an armband - and then affixed the battery to the inside of the band to keep it nonvisible and low-profile. The actual object has to be stealthy as to not alert a potentially aggressive officer. The code itself is fairly simple - when the accelerometer receives an excess of force on the wearer's left or right side - the sides that officers often remove people from vehicles by force from - the board begins to emit a loud noise and flash. This is to alert any nearby passersby to the police's behavior so they can begin recording - as we've seen, the best way to diffuse a situation with an officer abusing their power and hold them accountable legally is to film them. The more passersby that notice, the better, as the only people that can hold abusers of power accountable are large groups of people.
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