Warning Light Protestor Riot Shield

For my protest object I've gone for an approach that's less satirical but more practical, the warning light riot shield. I think that's is an object that could be tied to a lot of social issues but I think paramount among those issues are social justice and the rise of American fascism. The shield itself is fashioned after DIY shields used by many social justice and anti-fascist protestors meant to help them withstand attacks by both police and white supremacist/fascists groups. The added wrinkle is that the microcontroller is attached and used as an accelerometer, when the shield is struck the accelerometer reads the force applied to the shield. For a standard strike a yellow light flashes and for a strong strike a red light flashes, what this does is gives the protestor a warning that they might need to retreat or cycle out to avoid injury to their shield arm or damage to the shield. It can also alert other protestors behind the shield bearer to warn if someone is under additional distress and taking extra hits or extremely forcible hits.

For construction I started with a storage container lid as the base for the shield, although any flat thick plastic or foam could be used. I then used a tile grout float as a handle and used construction adhesive to attach it, but also used duct tape as a clamp to maintain pressure because the adhesive takes 24+ hours to cure. I then used a strap from an old back pack to make an adjustable forearm strap which was secured by super gluing it to Velcro strips so if under extreme duress or to evade arrest the wielder can un-velcro themselves quickly from the shield. Finally the micro processor and battery are velcro'd to the shield so batteries can be quickly changed if needed and the board can be retrieved if the shield needs to be abandoned.