Keeping kids safe is a vital concern for parents. We want to make sure they’re well fed, happy, and healthy. Soon, there may be a way to keep track of all this with technology.
Fuhu, manufacturer of the popular nabi kids tablet, wants to offer parents IoT solutions to help keep tabs on our kids’ every move. Fuhu plans to create a complete 24-hour monitoring system by providing out-of-the-box, plug-and-play kits equipped with sensors, monitors, and services to simplify parents’ lives. Nothing’s available yet, though the devices would be around $49 to $99, according to USA Today.
The kits would be age specific. For the parent who wants to hook up an infant, the company hopes to offer a Peace of Mind Kit. The kit would use Wi-Fi and be controlled by any smartphone or wireless device. It would monitor feeding, changing, and sleeping data. A nursing monitor would track times and duration of feedings, then pair that information with other monitoring tools that assess a baby’s nourishment levels.
For parents who often fear for their baby’s safety in the crib, Fuhu will provide small wearable devices that operate on low-energy Bluetooth to monitor SIDS symptoms, oxygen levels, heart rate, skin temperature, and sleeping patterns.
Another component of the company’s baby kits is a nightlight that acts as a temperature sensor, humidity sensor, and has dimming capabilities for appropriate mood lighting. Another lighting device is the Spotlight, which can track diaper changes and sync up to other apps for automated diaper ordering.
For children in the three- to five-year age range, Fuhu would offer sleep, health, and location monitoring kits. For example, a Wi-Fi-synced alarm clock would have two-way communication, and a child wearable would have GPS for location updates. As the kids get older, room-monitoring devices will check the air quality and detect asthma-related threats.
A lot of this data seems like something anyone might want to know about their children, while some might be information overload. For some parents, though, there’s no such thing as TMI when it comes to their children.