Research & innovation
Imagining new technological responses to today's gaps.
Public-interest association · Switzerland
Making technology a shield against closed doors and impunity.
3CH0 is a Swiss public-interest association dedicated to combating domestic, family and sexual violence. SentrIQ is its first project: a discreet, autonomous alert device, designed to give survivors back a voice and admissible evidence.
76.8%
of victims experience psychological and physical violence and coercive control
70.1%
of recorded domestic violence victims are women
26 min
average interval between police interventions for domestic violence in Switzerland
+80%
of complaints dropped for lack of admissible evidence
01 — Mission
Designing tomorrow's protection solutions
We place people's safety and the legal validity of evidence at the heart of every research effort.
Protecting survivors
Silent alert mechanisms, designed for the field and usable under duress without alerting the abuser.
Security by design
Hardware encryption, medical confidentiality and compliance with Swiss data protection standards from the very first line of code.
Forensic integrity
Tamper-proof timestamping and a sealed chain of custody, ensuring the immediate admissibility of evidence before the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Closed doors, the blind spot of evidence
02 — The problem
76.8% of victims experience psychological and physical violence and coercive control.
Federal Statistical Office, 2023 · domestic violence statistics
One and the same shield
Coercive control cannot be fought on a single front. To protect people effectively and lastingly, technology, law and frontline social work must act as one and the same shield.
Challenge 01
Technological abuse
Digital tools and smartphones are exploited for surveillance, which significantly hinders survivors' access to help.
Challenge 02
Converging needs
An alert is not enough if it produces nothing before the judge. Life-saving protection must instantly seal the integrity of digital evidence, without depending on a compromised network.
Challenge 03
Coordinating stakeholders
No single stakeholder can act alone. Effectiveness relies on a direct bridge between social workers, advanced engineering, the police and the judicial authorities, to prevent cases being dropped.
03 — The platform
A technology innovation hub for the public interest
3CH0 operates as an uninterrupted research and innovation platform. Its projects are designed to evolve and multiply, delivering concrete and lasting responses to the gaps in the protection system.
Focus 01
SentrIQ Hardware
The autonomous miniature infrastructure: a hardware alert that depends on no personal device.
Focus 02
Sealed forensic chain of custody
Timestamping, cryptographic sealing and preservation guaranteeing admissibility.
Focus 03
Institutional gateway
A direct link with the police, the justice system and victim support services.
A lasting vision, an immediate first impact
SentrIQ is our first emergency response, but 3CH0's commitment goes further. Because surveillance technologies keep evolving, our association is building a lasting R&D hub to continuously anticipate new threats and adapt our solutions to realities on the ground.
04 — First project
SentrIQ: moving beyond the smartphone trap
Current emergency solutions rely almost exclusively on the victim's personal phone. That is precisely the object the abuser controls.
A.
SOS apps
Unusable under duress. They require unlocking the screen, opening an app, and leave visible traces in the history.
B.
Bluetooth alert buttons
Illusory range. Inoperative as soon as the phone is switched off, out of range or confiscated; easily detected by the abuser via Bluetooth settings.
C.
Manual recordings
Almost systematically rejected in court. Highly risky to trigger in a crisis, files easily challenged for tampering and inadmissible for lack of forensic sealing.
D.
Safety phones
Identifiable objects, vulnerable to physical destruction.
SentrIQ's technological architecture: the device's three pillars
01
Alert
A silent, autonomous alert that can be triggered under duress, entirely separate from the personal smartphone.
02
Transmission
A secure, sovereign transmission channel, operational even if the phone is confiscated, destroyed or spied on.
03
Evidence
Cryptographic sealing and certified timestamping, guaranteeing an unalterable, court-admissible chain of evidence.
05 — Scope
From applied research to operational deployment
The association upholds the independence of ethical R&D, while the industrial phase relies on our startup and certified partners to guarantee sovereignty and manufacturing security in Switzerland.
Identifying the problem
Frontline diagnosis: identifying vital requirements with specialist associations, legal experts and medico-social professionals.
Fundamental and applied research
Interdisciplinary research: modelling protocols resistant to coercive control, with evidentiary sealing.
Development and prototypes
Hardware engineering: developing functional prototypes with HEIG-VD, 100% independent of the smartphone.
Validation and pilots
Real-world testing: technical and legal validation, followed by preparation of institutional pilot phases.
Production and operational deployment
Secure industrialisation led by our dedicated entity and certified industrial partners, guaranteeing sovereign manufacturing in Switzerland.
Research, prototyping, validation
06 — Division of roles
Scientific rigour and operational sovereignty
3CH0 carries the public interest, upstream research and the initial patent. The operating entity takes on the industrial legal obligations and public-sector deployment.
3CH0 — Research & public mission
- Initial R&D risk — funding research and design costs with HEIG-VD.
- Public interest & frontline — co-designing protocols with medico-social and judicial professionals, to guarantee the safety of the people being protected and the admissibility of evidence.
- Development & prototypes — designing the first hardware and software architectures resistant to coercive control.
- Ring-fenced intellectual property — filing and holding the seed patent within the association, guaranteeing its independence.
Operating entity — Sàrl & scaling up
- Legal liability — assuming the legal framework and manufacturer's liability insurance required to deploy a safety tool in the field.
- Manufacturing & certification — overseeing series industrial production and guaranteeing compliance with Swiss and European standards.
- Institutional rollout — handling sales and contractual follow-up with public authorities, and coordinating the confidential handover of equipment through protective support networks.
- Commercialising the innovation — a fair transfer of patent exploitation rights, whose proceeds go to the association and are reinvested in public-interest research. A share of the Sàrl's profits is also paid back to it every year to fund its frontline work.
Laboratory validation
07 — Ecosystem
An interdisciplinary alliance serving the frontline
Four pillars of expertise brought together to guarantee the project's technological, legal and human rigour.
Frontline
Specialist association network
Co-designed with the specialist association network (including FAVA), psychologists and medico-social professionals, to respond to the realities experienced by survivors.
Academic
HEIG-VD
Haute École d'Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud: applied research, dedicated hardware engineering, network resilience and digital forensics.
Cybersecurity & tech
Forensic specialists
Hardware encryption, strict compliance with the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP), and chain of custody, under the guidance of forensic specialists.
Institutional
Authorities & justice
Ongoing dialogue with the police and federal and cantonal bodies, to ensure the direct admissibility of alerts and evidence.
08 — Tomorrow
SentrIQ: the first milestone in a lasting commitment
Technologies of oppression keep evolving. 3CH0 is building a lasting innovation hub to anticipate new cyber-threats and design future protections.
01
Early detection
Modelling the early warning signs of coercive control and abuse patterns to alert and protect before critical physical escalation.
02
Forensic evidence
Continuously adapting cryptographic and forensic protocols to the evidentiary requirements of Swiss and international courts.
03
Coercive control
Technology watch and countermeasures against stalkerware, spy trackers and the misuse of connected devices (domestic IoT).
09 — Reach
A Swiss technology, designed for protection without borders
While our first pilot deployment is rooted in Switzerland with our academic and institutional partners, 3CH0's architecture and forensic protocol are designed to expand internationally, in response to the universal challenge of coercive control.
10 — Take action
Joining forces. Protecting victims. Making justice possible.
Researchers, legal experts, the police, frontline associations and partner foundations: 3CH0 brings together those who refuse impunity and work so that evidence triumphs over silence.
Innovation only matters if it protects the most vulnerable. Join the alliance that is transforming victim protection.
In case of emergency & support
24/7 · free & confidential 142 Victim support for violence — Switzerland
117 Police — immediate emergency response
144 Medical emergencies — ambulance
143 The Helping Hand — listening and psychological support
147 Youth helpline
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