It’s safe to say that being the parent of a newborn can be an exhausting task to undertake. Parents will search high and low for any product that can help them earn a few more minutes of relaxation during the day.
Stress no more as the Sproutling baby monitor, now available for pre-order, looks to help keep parents constantly updated on their baby’s status and ease some of their worries along the way. “We’re really trying to eliminate that helicopter parenting. If you have a baby, a lot of your free time is actually when they’re asleep,” Co-Founder Chris Bruce tells VentureBeat.
Because the band and base are monitoring a variety of elements, the tracker aims to give parents a fairly complete view of how the baby is doing. To alleviate the constant hovering, the Sproutling combines a wearable band, a room sensor and a mobile app to provide a constant stream of insights around a baby’s sleeping habits and status.
A small band is worn around the child’s ankle that can monitor heart rate, skin temperature, motion and position. The monitor — which is encompassed in medical grade silicone and shaped in a way that prevents it from being a choking hazard — straps onto the baby’s ankle and communicates with a nearby base and the mobile app. In unison, they track heartbeat, body temperature, the noise level in the room, the baby’s motion and other factors that indicate how well a baby is sleeping. Over time, the device will learn the baby’s patterns and behaviors.
The benefit of the app’s simplicity is that it doesn’t overwhelm parents with the abundant information it’s gathering — it only tells them if there’s really a problem, Co-Founder Mathew Spolin explained to TIME. “For a new parent, they’re not going to know if 130 beats per minute is better than 90, and without the context to really interpret vitals data, it’s just going to create more anxiety and more fear.”
The team also built in some forward-thinking functions of the Sproutling, as it comes in three sizes so that it can grow with your baby. It also miraculously charges wirelessly so that the child doesn’t come in close contact with any wires. Even better, the charger itself doubles as an environment sensor. The stylish unit can measure room temperature, humidity and light levels.
The unique device can even go as far to predict when a toddler will wake up from a nap. As trivial as that sounds, any new parent will tell you that free time is worth its weight in gold!
There’s little doubt that the Sproutling will help a frenzied parent catch their forty winks. Sproutling is currently accepting pre-orders for this connected device. For more details, head over to their home page.
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