According to statistics provided by the World Health Organization, the number of deaf and hard of hearing around the globe is about 400 million people, and this number is constantly growing. Every day they face difficulties in communicating with the hearing society in which they live; they don’t feel safe and cannot phone their friends just to talk or call emergency services whenever in trouble. 

That is why a deaf developer and his team created the BeWarned app aiming to unite deaf and hard of hearing people all over the world in a single platform.

1.Sound Monitor detects sounds of possible danger in real-time. Should a dangerous situation arrise, our app inform the user about it with the help of flashing lights and vibration signals. With Sound Monitor, you will always feel safe and will never have to worry about the lives of your loved ones ever again.

2.Connect helps the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with the society they live in. Users can chat to each other via special dialog and create an unlimited number of templates to reach someone really fast. 

3.Dance will let users enjoy their favorite tracks that are converted into vibration signals or flashing lights and feel the rhythm of the track with the help of a visual equalizer on the screen of user's smartphone.

4.Emergency Call is useful in any instance where the user needs to inform his friends about an emergency situation he is in at the moment.

BeWarned is a non-profit startup funded by its Co-Founders and users’ donations. The app is absolutely free of charge for all the users. You can download it right now for Android and iOS.



BeWarned History

In 2013, founder and CEO of BeWarned project, Sergei Maliukov, was walking down the street late one night when suddenly he heard a car behind him honking. While Sergei immediately stepped out of the way, a couple walking just in front of him did not move, as if totally oblivious to the car that was now bearing down on them. Sergei then realized that this couple were deaf, and communicated with one another through sign language. 

From that day on, Maliukov started searching the market for solutions that were able to ensure deaf and hard of hearing people’s safety, but he found none. He then put forward the idea of creating an application to his friend, Ivan Verenych, who was an iOS developer at that time. The idea was to develop a unique app that would recognize sounds of possible danger and warn a deaf person of them.

Back then, Maliukov had his own business. However, he had to quit in order to work on the project he really believed in. While he was negotiating with potential users and investors, Ivan Verenych was developing a sound recognition algorithm for BeWarned which was later called Sound Monitor. Within the first year, two friends released at least a hundred test versions and conducted dozens of beta-testing to get users’ feedback on the product.

At the end of 2014, they released the first prototype of the BeWarned application with the Sound Monitor feature that was used to recognize sounds of possible danger in real-time. Within a couple of weeks, a thousand users downloaded his app and sent hundreds of reviews. That is when the BeWarned team realized that their app resolves only one problem deaf and hard of hearing people face every day, while there are many more they did not help them find a solution to.

In 2015, Evgenii Okhrimenko and Andrei Dividenkov joined the team to help with business development and legal services. Based on the feedback given by the users, the BeWarned team decided to create a platform consisting of several must-have features that fit the needs of users in matters like safety, communication, and entertainment. Back then, the team also needed technical employees, and on the recommendation of a Professor from the “Kiev Polytechnic Institute,” Sergei Maliukov met with Vitalii Potapchuk. Vitaliy had thought previously about the development of special software for deaf and hard of hearing people. At the young age of two, Vitaliy almost completely lost his hearing. Vitaliy soon became a partner in the project and took over the responsibility of development process including the creation of a bot and development of sounds of possible danger algorithm based on the neuronal nets.

Thus, the BeWarned Team amounts to five co-founders that want to make a difference to the lives of deaf and hard of hearing people. As a result of their efforts, you can now meet BeWarned platform with its four technical assistants for the deaf including Sound Monitor, Connect, Emergency Call, and Dance.  Sound Monitor helps the deaf and hard of hearing stay safe with the aid of sounds of possible danger recognition (screams, car honking, dog barking, alarms). In an instance where danger is detected, the app warns users with the help of vibration signals and flashing lights. Connect helps the hard of hearing improve communication with people around them, by converting speech into text and text into speech. Dance was created to let the deaf feel their favorite tracks: this app converts music into a combination of vibration signals and flashing lights along with pulsebeat of the visual equalizer. Emergency Call lets users ask their hearing friends for help, should they find themselves in danger

In the summer of 2016 the team conducted beta-testing of the platform in the USA. As a result, 88,9% of those who took part in the testing stated that they would recommend the app to their friends. Deaf and hard of hearing people are all involved in a tight-knit community that shares all the technological solutions they find useful with each other. That is why the BeWarned Team is sure that the platform will become very well-known in just a short period of time. At the moment, they continue their work on platform improvement and development.