NEW DELHI: If you are new to the national capital and need a guide to help you find your way around the city and make you familiar with the surroundings, then look no further than ‘Bware’. Tanya Budhiraja and three of her bright colleagues at the Delhi government-run Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIITD) put their innovative minds together and what followed was ‘Bware’ — a mobile application that can help you explore the city safely.
This talented bunch, three of whom are pursuing computer science and engineering at the tech institute, designed and developed the application as part of their semester assignment. The fruit of their labour, which they hope would fetch them good grades in the semester, also holds the promise of emerging as a handy tool for commuters in the city.
It is the ongoing construction work on campus that put the germ of innovation in their minds. They soon ganged up and bounced ideas off each other. Bringing their tech nous into play, Tanya and her friends decided to design a mobile app, which uses Google Map as a navigation guide.Those downloading the app are asked to register with their email ids. On putting a particular location on search on the app, the user will get a ‘Safety Score’ of the area that they plan on visiting.
Users are also provided with six different options to post their feedback, which, in turn, would help in generating reviews of the locations they visited for other users. In the long run, such feedback would help create a large database for ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ spots in the city, the developers said.However, the app, which has already set tongues wagging on campus, has not yet been made available for downloads on Google Playstore.
“Safety can be subjective. A location, which is deemed safe for men, may not be so for women. We tried our best to incorporate all the safety parameters in this application so that it could be used while travelling in the city. Our aim is to make it a user-friendly app,” Tanya told this correspondent.The other members of the innovative bunch are Ritu Kumari, Paridhi Lohani and Rupal Jain.Rupal is pursuing a course in Integrated M.Tech.
“The functional version of our application is available and many of our colleagues on campus are using it. We are planning on an official launch soon. We are also planning on sending a word to Google about the app and seek its help in taking it to the people,” Ritu, a fourth-year computer science and engineering student, said.
One of the six parameters on which a location can be rated on the app is ‘Light’, where a user can post his comment on whether the location he visited has adequate streetlights. Another is ‘People’, where a user can comment on how crowded the area is.“We did field surveys and used data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). If an app user, say a girl, passes through a crowded Delhi market or some other congested area, she can post a feedback on the go on whether the location is ‘very crowded’ or have bright lights. Such feedback would help us create a safety database,” Paridhi said.
Letting you leave your commuting worries at home
The application also enables users to rate locations on the yardsticks of ‘Visibility’ and ‘Security’. The app would enable user feedback on whether a street is lined with wine shops, this rendering it unsafe for women, the developers said. The developers are planning on an official launch soon.