Sensor alarm system for hot cars wins award

The idea was to use a sensor to tell if a child was in a car seat, as well as a temperature gauge to alert parents of any overheating danger. Photo / iStock

The horrifying image of a distraught mother returning to a hot car with her dead baby inside spurred a team of creatives from Auckland's AUT University to come up with a solution.

Students Praveer Srivastava, Tom Davies and Ben O'Connor beat 50 other students to take out the inaugural AUT Kickstarter Award at the weekend with their idea for a sensor-based alarm system for hot cars.

The idea was to use a sensor to tell if a child was in a car seat, as well as a temperature gauge to alert parents of any overheating danger.

"It was reading the stories of people who are very well-educated, very in their right mind, but still just on that off-day, that one mistake, and the cost of coming back to your car and realising your child is in there and it's too late. That horrified us," Mr Srivastava said.

"It's almost like a fire alarm but for your baby, in the car. You never really know it's there until that one day you need it, and that's when you need it the most."

Earlier this year, heartbreaking news of a Whanganui health professional whose son died after she accidentally left him in her car surfaced - and it was an example used by the AUT students during their project.

The mother had intended to drop the child at a nearby childcare centre one morning but only realised she had left him in the car later in the day.

She began crying at the first mention of the boy's name in court and was discharged without conviction after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Mr Srivastava said while there were statistics of the occurrence happening overseas, the tragic story was vital to the development of their sensor.

"Because this was close to home ... we all felt an emotional connection to it. I think the problem almost surprised us, even though we knew it was a problem when we actually looked into it we were really taken aback by how much it is.

"If you were that one in a million ... if that's your child it doesn't matter if you're one in a million or one in one hundred. That's what motivated us. There's an actual need there."
And consumers should expect to see the sensors on shelves in the near future, possibly for as low as $50.

It was important to keep costs down because parents had a "long list" of products they need to buy for their kids, particularly newborns, Mr Srivastava said.

The sensors work on a tri-alarm scale - an initial, soft warning would initially be sent, possibly in the form of a text, then a phone call to the parents' phones before a full-scale emergency alarm would emit from the car.

The creative trio were thrown into the deep end with the business side - but they have high hopes of getting the sensor on the market as soon as possible, Mr Srivastava said.

Mr Srivastava and Mr Davies are both third-year product designers at the university, while Mr O'Connor is in his second year as a creative technician.

"We're quite passionate about taking it further. As creative people or as designers that's the best thing that you can ask for, that you make something that has an impact.

"You got to see how far your products could go outside that creative concept scope and take it to a real world situation ... Could you sell it? Would people buy it?"

Senior lecturer Dr Stephen Thorpe said the Kickstarter event was a major success.

A whopping 87 per cent of students who took part had never engaged in an entrepreneurial workshop or activity before, he said.

Other leading ideas ranged from a GPS-based driver learning app, a peer-to-peer delivery service and a service to match the elderly with students willing to work.

Head judge William Smale, QSM, said it was a challenge to pick the winner.

"I'm impressed at the maturity of outcomes that the students were able to achieve in just two days."