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  • Author Author: mahmood.hassan
  • Date Created: Date Created
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  • Comments 3 comments
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Smart Little/Special Child Safety Watch

mahmood.hassan

Problem

We all have little kids in our homes and every parent want to make sure that their kids are safe whenever they go outside of their homes. At the same time we also have little kids in our homes or around us how are special or little enough so they cant remember home address or their way back to home if they accidentally leave home and go little far away. And its very tough situations for parents if they cant find their little/special(mentally unstable etc) kids. Also if kids are in any sort of bad situation every parent want to help them but if they don't have any means to call for help or they don't have cell phone or unable to use it then there is no way to help/protect them.

 

Solution

To solve such issues long range of LORA module come into play. Design and built a smart watch using Arduino MKR 1300 equipped with GPS for the kids. And Other MKR module at home connected with display and alarm. Also internet connectivity is a plus point. Parent can set a Geo fence for the kids so whenever they go beyond that area it can alert the parents with there live Geo location. Also kids can alert their parent about any emergency/dangerous situation by simply pushing a button. Biggest advantage of using MKR module over GSM based is cost effectiveness and low power consumption. To built a Smart community we can also add multiple control modules at different public places and connect all these to one main server. In case of emergency MKR can connect to any of the available control module and alert their parent or law enforcement for timely action and to take preventive measures.

 

Hardware

  • Arduino MKR1300
  • Relay board
  • Display
  • GPS module

 

I haven't used Arduino MKR 1300 or any LORA module. But did a little research about its range and find out its 10KM+ in open line of sight but in real life application we don't have clear line of sight between 2 modules. So according to Murata forum its tested for upto 7KM and it worked fine. (not sure about the antenna + power amplification they used) 7KM is enough range to monitor little/special kids if they go outside or forget there way back to home. And by building a community to MKR modules range can be extended. Each home module will be connected to main server through internet. So information can be transferred between any 2 nodes.

 

Another possible application is building a mesh network of multiple MKR1300 based smart watches for ski resort/hiking etc so it will be easier to find out anyone who is missing during landslide/avalanche.

 

All the project details can be found here: tinyMonster - Smart watch for kids with SOS and RT Tracker

  • in reply to hobo

    You have asked pretty good questions.

    You have talked about wifi connectivity. yes for me it is also a good solution but there is a one major problem in this system that you dont know in which direction you kid is gone. what if you are living in a high rise building or a flat? or if you are on a trip than the same device will not work there. second thing you told about cell phone based tracker and also told about its free alternative lora solution. I want to add one more thing about cellular based devices that these will only work if you have cell phone coverage in that area but lora technology can work anywhere in the world. If you move to other country ur old cellular based device become useless or if they offer roaming or something like that on these devices then it will be very expensive to track your kids. so we can say only lora is a universal solution for that problem.

    Now someone can ask how it will work on a trip to a beach or somewhere in the mountains or any off grid place where is no lorawan gateway. one solution i have in my mind is parent also having a control/master smart watch with extra admin capabilities. so now where ever the family will go, parent can keep an eye on there kids.

    you have also talked about its range and GPS accuracy.

    So for example lets suppose max achievable Lora Long Range is 1KM. And accuracy of GPS is 10 meter.

    now with 10 meter accuracy you cant tell if kid is really outside the home or not. there are few solution we can use to solve this problem especially to detect if kid left the home or not.

    one is integrating a imu into a watch and other possible solution is taking help from community network of lorawan gateway devices.

    So now question arises how this can help in finding the position of any device. So the answer to this question is using signal strength received by each community lorawan gateway to calculate the kids location we can do this without even using GPS. but for that we need to know the exact location of each gateway device and kids device should be within the range of minimum of 3 devices. its the same way how cellular companies can find the exact location of a cell phone.

    Yes its far from becoming the reality at the moment and i except that its very difficult to do it on a large scale right now but someone has to take first step in making out community smart and making our kids safe.

    As we are talking about making our community smart so lets take it to next level. The lora module that will reside at home can also be used to automate/control/monitor the entire home like IOT etc.

  • Admittedly a good idea, however I see a couple of issues. Of course as with any tech there are advantages and disadvantages.
    First of all having better range could be a negative if not designed properly. If fencing is inaccurate the kid could be pretty far away, still has connectivity and the system could assume it is still within the premises. If it was good old shitty WiFi it would simply loose range and alert the system. So it will be imperative to have a really accurate GPS perimeter.

    Secondly I like the idea of the public places with LoRaWAN gateways where you can also use it for free. This is the whole idea behind LoRaWAN and stuff like TTN for example. However one problem could be that you really need a very dense coverage cause if you loose connectivity you have no way to transmit the GPS data, so for example if god forbid the kid gets kidnapped there will be no way to track it I guess. Not that taking the watch out wouldn't kill any system, LoRaWAN or not image
    Anyways just wanted to give feedback, the idea is good, has potential, but the the big bad telecoms already have their grabby hands on this segment with cheap cellular kid tracking watches. I would love for someone to give them the middle finger with a free LoRa solution. But to be honest I do not see it happening. Still I am rooting for you bro.I hope I helped more than I was annoying image

  • Hi Mahmood

     

    Sounds like an incredibly useful project. Looking forward to reading more as you develop it.

     

    Best wishes

     

    Neil