Previous patents
Existing products
Potential market
Based on the survey we collected (out of 355 people from all across the country (some friends from SkillsUSA had posted our survey on their Facebook as well)), 95.5% of people believe that sexual assault is a problem in today's society. This result was astonishing, but what was more staggering was the response to our next question. Out of 355 people, 85% has seen or experienced or know a loved one who has seen or experienced sexual assault. Therefore, we can conclude that sexual assault is a major problem in today's society and is a problem that must be fixed. As for market survey, 81.1% of people wish they had a product that could prevent/stop an event before it happens. 88.4% would like a product that could notify authorities faster of such an event. There is a large potential market for a product to solve this problem.
summary
In this part of the project, we identified solutions to our problem that are either already patented or are currently on the market. A lot of the products/patents that we found were intended to be used for self-defense (TigerLady & Saber Pepper Gel), or as an alarm system (Safelet, Athena). However, all of the products/patents that we found required that the potential victims be proactive when it comes to their safety, which is a variation of victim blaming - that it is the victim's fault if they are assaulted and they don't have defense products. Even the Undercover Colors nail polish, which is the least proactive of them all, require that the victim be vigilant in testing their drink for date rape drugs, instead of the prevention of drugs being put in drinks in the first place. This is a problem within our problem that we hope to find a way to address.