Startup Idea: Domestic Violence Prevention Software for Home Voice Assistants

Startup idea to develop software for home voice assistants like Echo, Alexa or Siri, designed to monitor and detect heightened levels of verbal aggression or potential domestic violence situations. If the system detects elevated decibel levels or suggestive language, it might trigger a friendly but firm automatic warning advising individuals to temporarily separate and suggesting professional counseling. The aim is to potentially deter harmful situations or actions and promoting a preventative instead of a reactive approach to domestic violence and abuse.

The risk for domestic violence and domestic abuse is a very real issue in homes across the USA. However, with the introduction of Amazon's Echo & Alexa and Apple's Siri almost every home has the potential to have a built in family safety monitor that is not necessarily providing surveillance data to the authorities, but instead acts to reduce tension and risk-factors for anger, verbal abuse, and violence in a domestic environment.

I believe that the appropriate software in Echo, Alexa, or Siri could be used to detect increased elevation in audible decibels, which would then trigger a feedback mechanism which would alert family members:

If Alexa detects loud screaming in the home, it might repeatedly state a friendly yet authoritative message, such as: "Mr and Mrs. Smith I have noticed that their is elevated stress patterns in your communication with one another, I recommend that you both temporarily separate from one another and move to different locations. Research has shown that individuals communicating with your voice stress patterns have a 70% likelihood of engaging in domestic violence, or 50% likelihood of verbal abuse. Therefore, it is in your best interest to seek counseling and temporarily suspect communication with one another until you have calmed down."

That is one example of a preventative domestic surveillance software that can be used to help reduce verbal abuse and violence in home environments. Research demonstrates that effective warnings and public service announcements can be effective at reducing harmful and risky behavior if it is appropriately dosed and implemented at the right times.

Currently we have a very reactive system to domestic violence and abuse, that forces the police and criminal justice system to get involved after an incident has occurred. Instead preventative software that can detect collective elevated stress patterns in vocal communications between adults can be used to reduce the likelihood of violence, verbal, and psychological abuse. No I do not possess the technical competency to pursue such a project. But I have many SCI FI Dreams!.