Use Occupancy Sensors at Home Automation Systems for Making Your Home Even More Smart!

Using modern devices and home care products with unique features provides new possibilities for a higher level of comfort and security at home.

NanoPulse contactless sensors, which are effectively used in various home care products, can solve a number of pressing issues in the household.

Supervising Newborns and Infants

NanoPulse contactless sensors provide immediate, useful information for parents.

Traditional audio- and video- baby alarms send a message to parents that their baby is awake or moving. This information is given after the event; the baby makes an action first and then the parents become aware of it. Sometimes it can be too late... Imagine your baby didn’t move or make a sound for some time. In that case you wouldn’t know what is really happening to your child.

The Baby Sleep Guard monitors the movement and respiration of your child, as well as continuing to monitor sound. Even if your baby is not moving and is silent you will be aware of how it is breathing. You will know whether his breathing is fast or slow, whether it is regular, or there are pauses between breathes known as apnea. And of course, you will know whether your baby is asleep or awake. The latter conditions are so different that the device is able to determine the movement your baby makes on waking. The mother will get a message before the baby is fully awake and starts crying, which it might do if it finds itself alone. The mother may therefore be present before the child is fully awake, and this can keep a child happy while saving the mother extra stress.

The Baby Sleep Guard “knows” how to measure the breathing rate of a baby, and is able to immediately detect apnea - thus preventing the occurrence of SIDS The Baby Sleep Guard is easily mounted on the cot wall and does not disturb the baby or the parents in any way during its operation. The parents are provided with a parent unit which is connected to the sensor unit over the radio link. The parent unit is easy and intuitive to use. In addition to displaying your baby’s condition, it will show you the temperature and humidity of your baby’s room, as well as let you turn on the night-light or set an alarm-clock.

Supervising Bed-ridden Adults

There are obvious scenarios where certain conditions require monitoring. Firstly, when a member of the family has a condition which means they are bedridden or unable to leave bed frequently. In this case, it is helpful for the relatives or nurse to know about the relative’s condition, and particularly, whether he/she is asleep or awake, or for some reason not in bed.

In such cases, The Baby Sleep Guard is a helpful device. It can easily be converted into an Adult Sleep Guard. To make the conversion you just have to update the firmware of the device which you have already purchased. The need to update the firmware is due to the fact that the parameters of adult and infant respiration differ, therefore algorithms between adults and babies are different. Updating and converting the Baby Sleep Guard, “teaches” the device how to measure the breathing rate of adults. The Adult Sleep Guard has the same advantages as the Baby Sleep Guard. It can help you determine when a person is asleep, and when he/she is awake. With bedridden patients there may be the additional possibility of falling out of bed. If this happens, The Adult Sleep Guard will immediately inform the carer and may prevent possible further complications resulting from such events.

Elderly Care Devices for Supervising Seniors

Sooner or later people arrive at a point in life when they or their spouse and loved ones are left at home alone. In these situations they may require some additional help. This may come in the form of elderly care devices, which provide a safer and more secure environment. In addition to regular communication with that person, they are also given a means of sending an alarm when they do not feel well. There are two possible solutions. The first one assumes that a single person, who is feeling ill, clicks on an alarm button, and thus calls a family member or a nurse to visit him.

The main disadvantage of this approach is that the alarm button may not be reachable by the caller / user at the right moment or the user may not have enough time to react to the changes occurring in his / her body, and therefore may not be able to press the alarm button in time. In such cases, the situation may go unnoticed and lead to undesirable consequences. The second solution provides a system of sensors that detect movement in the living area. In a case where no movement is detected over a specific period of time, the system sends an alarm to the supervisor either by SMS, e-mail, or via another communication channel. The problem here may be that the sensors do not have the degree of sensitivity needed to detect a person sitting calmly in a chair or sleeping in bed, and therefore result in false alarms being sent to supervisors.

We therefore offer a device called the Bed Watcher, which detects motion and respiratory activity of a person from a distance of up to 4 meters and transmits an alarm signal via a communication channel selected by the user. We can confidently determine whether a person is in the room or it is not there, even if the person is sitting still. In the latter case this is determined by movement of the thorax. In addition to the standalone mode, the Bed Watcher can be used in combination with other security and home care devices which are cheaper and thus have less sensitive sensors. It is important that the Bed Watcher be placed at a location where the person usually spends time quietly, for example near his/her bed or near the TV or sofa. These are the places where it is difficult to use the other sensors because of their lack of sensitivity.

Effective Light Control

There are many different light control systems already on the market. However, the sensitivity of many sensors currently used in home care products is not able to recognize from a distance, whether a person is standing or sitting still.

With a special modification of the Life Watcher sensor, users can build an efficient light control system, creating light paths and dim lights to watch TV comfortably. These will not be turned off even when the user has completely stopped moving.