Aura Sentinel 🛡️

A Hands-Free AI + IoT Personal Safety Companion for Women & Girls

Aura Sentinel is a calm, modern, consumer-grade safety companion designed to help women stay connected, aware, and in control when it matters most. During an uncomfortable or potentially unsafe situation, a user may not be able to safely pull out their phone, unlock it, and find an SOS button. Aura Sentinel provides a hands-free safety layer using computer vision, hand gesture recognition, Google Gemini AI incident summarization, and IoT hardware.

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🌟 Product Architecture & MVP Features

• 🌸 Soft Wellness & Safety UI: Designed with a calm, modern visual identity (soft warm cream, deep plum, muted lavender, soft rose, charcoal text, rounded cards, and clean typography).
• 🛡️ Guardian Mode Session:
  • Clear Guardian Mode State Switcher (OFF / ACTIVE).
  • Large central safety status card displaying: ⚪ NORMAL, 🟢 GUARDIAN MONITORING, 🔴 SOS ACTIVATED.
  • Real-time status indicators for Camera, Gesture Detection, Voice Trigger, IoT Device Connection, and Location.
• 🖐️ Hands-Free SOS Flow:
  • Detects predefined hand gesture (Palm Fold Signal for Help) hands-free.
  • Enters SOS ACTIVATED state.
  • Activates visible IoT hardware response (RGB emergency lighting, siren buzzer, servo camera pan).
  • Server-side Google Gemini AI generates a concise, factual incident summary based on objective context.
  • Triggers a formatted Trusted Contact Alert (clearly labeled "Demo Alert" flow).
• 👁️ Look Around (Camera Direction Controls):
  • Physical servo panning controls: Look Left (0°), Center (90°), Look Right (180°), and "Look Behind Me".
  • Explicitly checks WebSerial hardware connection before attempting physical movement.
• 🤖 Remote Area Check (Rover Inspection):
  • Remotely move rover a short distance (MOTOR:FORWARD, LEFT, RIGHT, STOP) for area inspection.
• 👥 Trusted Contacts & Demo Alert:
  • Configure trusted contact details (Name, Relationship, Phone, Email, Contact Method).
  • Test demo alert preview displaying structured incident details and Google Maps link.
• 📋 Incident History Log:
  • Session history logging Date, Time, Trigger Type, Status, and factual Gemini Incident Summary.

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🛠️ Hardware Setup (Arduino Pinout)

Component	Arduino Pin	Function
Servo Pan Motor	Pin 9	Camera Pan Motor (0° to 180°)
Motor Driver IN1 / IN2	Pin 4 / Pin 2	Left Wheel DC Motor
Motor Driver IN3 / IN4	Pin 11 / Pin 12	Right Wheel DC Motor
RGB Status LED	Red=Pin 3, Green=Pin 5, Blue=Pin 10	Status Indicator & Emergency Strobe
Siren Buzzer	Pin 8	Emergency Siren

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🔑 Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env.local:

# Optional: Google Gemini API Key for AI Incident Summaries
GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key_here

Note: If no API key is configured, Aura Sentinel gracefully falls back to a local factual incident summary generator.

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🚀 Running Locally & Vercel Deployment

Local Development

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

Vercel Deployment

1. Push repository to GitHub.
2. Import project into Vercel Dashboard (Next.js framework detected automatically).
3. Set GEMINI_API_KEY in Vercel Environment Variables.
4. Deploy!

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⚖️ Responsible Product Principles

1. Aura Sentinel is designed to assist and inform—it does not claim to guarantee personal safety or prevent attacks.
2. The system does not claim to automatically identify dangerous people.
3. Emergency contact alerts are demonstrated via a clearly labeled "Demo Alert" flow.
4. All API keys remain protected on server-side API routes (/api/gemini).