‘Smart Diaper” Will Send Phone Alerts To Let Parents Know When The Kid Needs Changing…
Whatever happened to the good old sniff test?
Parents will soon know when a diaper needs to be changed — before all the crying starts.
Scientists from Penn State University have created a “smart diaper” — a nappy with a built-in sensor that will send an alert to a phone once it gets wet.
The sensor will send a message to a phone, alerting the person that the baby’s diaper needs to be changed.
It can even provide information about how wet the diaper is, which could let parents decide if the diaper needs to be changed immediately.
The sensor can also be used in hospitals or nursing homes — and can even help discover some major health concerns such as cardiac arrest or pneumonia.
“The sensor can provide data in the short-term, to alert for diaper changes, but also in the long-term, to show patterns that can inform parents about the overall health of their child,” says one of the inventors.
Researchers also tested the device in a face mask and found that it could determine three breathing states — deep, regular and rapid — and could potentially provide data that could detect the onset of a heart attack or when someone stops breathing.
While the device and phone app are both still in the developmental stage, the scientists hope the smart diaper will soon be made available to the public.
