- Rick Danzl/News-Gazette
- Nishana Ismail and Tim Deppen, creators of Shadow
Last year, when Tim Deppen and Nishana Ismail’s friend and classmate was mugged at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the story was all too familiar: as she was walking through campus in broad daylight, two men came up from behind her, snatched her purse, and fled. Without access to her phone, the woman had to find a random stranger who was willing to call for help.
Eventually, the solution evolved into Shadow, a small, covert piece of hardware small enough to fit in your palm or on your key chain. When pressed, the one-click device delivers a subtle buzz—no lights or sound, as not to alert your attacker—and activates a companion app on your smartphone via Bluetooth, which then sends a customized emergency message to friends, family, or police, along with your location.
