Israel – Trying to prevent the next tragedy. Two Israeli innovators developed a new system for preventing parents from accidentally locking their kids in the car. The invention has already been registered as an international patent.
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The principle is fairly simple. If you have opened the doors and have left the child in the car seat, a verbal warning will remind you to take the child out of the car.
The system is very sensitive to any weight, such that even if you left a milk carton in the seat, it will give you a warning.
“This is a very inexpensive system that is compatible with any car seat and can be installed yourself,” explained engineer, Idan Nahami, 26, who developed the new invention together with his brother-in-law, Moshe Attias.
“Unfortunately, we need a device like this in Israel. Our patent includes a special light bulb that must be screwed into the car’s light fixture instead of the regular bulb. This light bulb, in addition to acting like a regular light bulb, sends out an infrared signal as soon as the door is open and the internal illumination is automatically activated.
“The second part of the system includes a cushion installed underneath the car seat or booster seat the child sits on, or on the back of the seat. This cushion is activated as soon it detects that something is sitting on it, and initiates a ‘dialogue’ with the infrared light.
The cushion also has a buzzer that goes off as long as the door is open and the child is sitting in the seat.”
Nahami, a communications engineer who works at Cisco Israel, started thinking about developing such a system two years ago. Even though he is a bachelor and doesn’t have any children, he was horrified when he heard about the one-and-a-half-year-old toddler, Ophir Balilti, who was accidentally left in the car by her father.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was a painful, unnecessary death and a trauma that will follow the parent for the rest of his life.
A test that I did revealed that the temperature in a car left in the sun for 20 minutes increases from 98 F to more than 116 F after 40 minutes, the temperature can reach more than 136 F. These figures aren’t etched strongly enough in the minds of parents who forget their kids in the car, or worse, who knowingly leave them in the car ‘for just a minute.'”
Nahami contacted his brother-in-law, a real-estate agent by profession, and the two invested their money in the project with the initial thought of creating a connection between the car’s lighting system and the children sitting in their car seats.
“If a car can give a warning that you left the lights on when you open the door, why can’t it do this for a child left in the back seat as well?” said Nahami.
The two are currently waiting for the system to pass consumer standards boards. They are also in negotiations with various chain stores who will market the new system.
Nahami estimates that the system will be priced around NIS 100 (about $25). The system will be transferable from one car to another. Tests that have been carried out on 90 different types of vehicles have proven the system to be highly consistent and effective.
i dont think its a good thing, people will rely toatly on this it might become the oposite outcome, lets say if its broken
THet should then make it mandatory in all cars.
No, people with children won’t rely on this alone. Children are demanding human beings and one can not that easily “just forget” about such a strong responsibility.
Having on numerous occasions taken young infant children in my car, I personally find it inconceivable that one would actually forget that they are leaving the baby in the car. But, it seems, there are some who have pitifully poor parenting skills.
Those who need it should, of course, use it, but if Big Brother makes it mandatory, then it will eventually become impossible to drive out on a simple errand without having to spend an hour setting up the car seat and the warning devices and everything else.
And, of course, there are those who need devices to remind them to wipe their own toochases.
Why cant people just learn to be responsible for once? If you cant take care of them, DONT have them!
didnt cso radio from lakewood have a similiar patent?
good intention “””unthoughtout””” idea
how can it work?
1. when you have an alarm buzzing in your ear while you tend to the normal loading and unloading of a car (remember when you have a baby you always have more gear)
a. you can start to tune out or ignore the signal because you are tending to your baby
b. you can shut it off because you are tending to your baby and its loud and disruptive
2. if it shuts off when your motor is off how can it be productive?
how about a voice message or beep sent to a charm on your key chain (of course with a spot for a photo of your child) after the key is removed from you motor for a certain amount of time or if the child/weight is still detected…
to me that makes more sense than having “a call go out for the wolf ” every time the child is in the carseat. its just not productive…
Baruch Hashem. It is fantastic news . Let’s all have a positive outlook. This device should be looked at as a Pikuah Nefesh. Some of you may argue about that, but think about it first. And it is Nais from Hashem that Israelis invented this product.
They should make it that the car alarm goes on if u leave the in the seat. Meaning that when u exit the car and lock the doors, if there is a kid in the seat the alrm buzzes. What is a light in the car gonna do!
It’s the parents who forget their children in the car that’s the problem. It’s the parents who are just running into a store for a “minute.” Those parents should have their children taken away from them. To intentionally leave your child in the car is by far worse than any other scenario. And those who say they are only dropping the mail in the mailbox, or forgot something in the house, these individuals are JUST as wrong as any other parent who will leave their child in the car for convenience purposes.
Shame on the parents who are being so selfish like that. I for one would not hesitate for a second to call the police, call an ambulance, get the plate number, the car type and year, and break a car window open to save a stranded child.
This device may help prevent tragedies in the case where a parent forgot, but it wont solve the problems with those who do it intentionally.