Almost everyone has a story about a time they were worried about their parents or grandparents. I know my family has several, which is what inspired us to start CarePenguin.
My great aunt lived alone well into her 80’s and unfortunately passed away from a stroke alone in her house. Then, months later, my grandma who also lives alone, wasn’t answering any of our phone calls or text messages. We grew increasingly worried, especially after what had happened to our aunt, and eventually sent security to go check on her.
It turned out that she left her landline off the hook to somehow “stick it” to the telemarketers and her cell phone was in her car all day.
We thought that there had to be a way to keep tabs on our elderly loved ones that didn’t involve calling them everyday. Don’t get me wrong, we love Grandma, but she can easily kill an hour or two on the phone. Other solutions included motion sensors and cameras but those felt too invasive and really expensive. So, we came up with our own solution: CarePenguin.
CarePenguin is an IoT device and service that non-invasively monitors the well being of a senior citizen.
Our product is an activity sensor that attaches to the hot water pipe output on a water heater and simply takes the temperature of that pipe. Anytime someone turns on a faucet anywhere in the house, water runs through that pipe, making the temperature spike up, indicating that the senior citizen is up and active and going about their normal daily routine. If CarePenguin detects a lack of activity, it alerts you, encouraging you to check in and make sure everything’s okay.
Whether they’re brushing their teeth, rinsing a dish, making coffee, washing their hands, taking a shower, doing laundry, etc, CarePenguin detects it. Water use is an excellent proxy for activity! The best part is, we’ve made CarePenguin affordable for everyone. Other solutions can cost hundreds of dollars for the hardware alone, plus a hefty subscription fee. CarePenguin is a fraction of the price of competitors.
It is our mission to have CarePenguin in every senior citizen’s home to keep them safe without being invasive of their privacy and bringing peace of mind to their families.
CarePenguin could have been useful in both my aunt and my grandma’s situation. CarePenguin would have detected a lack of activity in my aunt’s home and alerted her kids. Who knows, maybe they would have discovered she had a stroke and taken her to the hospital in time to save her life. On the other hand, with my grandma, after worrying that she hadn’t been answering her phone all day, we simply could have looked at the CarePenguin app and seen that she had been active, and not had to have sent security to her house.
CarePenguin is now available exclusively on our website! Get peace of mind today by signing up for CarePenguin.