Mood-Predicting Baby Ankle Monitor Brings “House Arrest” Couture To Your Crib
Want to know if your baby’s been drinking, er, we mean sleeping? Sproutling’s new monitor promises to keep parents in the know when it comes to their unpredictable child.
Babies are unpredictable; they cry for every reason under the sun: dirty diapers, cutting teeth, just because they want to mess with your psyche. A new high-tech baby monitor that collects vital signs and purports to predict a baby’s mood could either be a hovering parent’s dream or a hypochondriac’s worst nightmare.
The new Sproutling baby monitor claims to learn and predict a baby’s behaviors, vital signs, sleep patterns and moods, sending alerts to adults through a mobile app if any abnormality occurs, The Washington Post reports.
The main component of the $300 system is a wearable band that fits around the baby’s ankle. Although it sounds more like an ankle monitor you’d see on someone under house arrest, the maker assures potential buyers that the sensor in the device collects data such as heart rate, skin temperature, motion and position, rather than alcohol or illicit drug intake.
Over time the band will customize itself to the baby’s habits (what habits do babies have?) and measurements. We’re not exactly sure on how long the baby should wear the device, one would assume that at a certain age the baby could probably tell you his or her mood, right?
Either way, the data collected by the band is compiled to give you a heads up on events like when it will take a nap. All of the information is available to parents – and anyone they grant access to – on the system’s mobile app.
Alerts can also be created by the data, including if the baby’s heart rate spikes or drops lower than normal or if the baby rolls over. Unfortunately, it doesn’t remind you to grab your camera to capture the special moment; maybe that’s something they can work on in the future.
Officials with Sproutling say the data will also be collected anonymously with the signed permission of a parent and used to analyze and improve the monitor.
If the monitor is accurate in predicting babies’ mood, we might be interested in a similar product to predict to predict my mood. I’m sure my fiancé would like one of those as a wedding gift.
New wearable baby monitor aims to make life easier for new parents [The Washington Post]
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