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Opportunity for Mass Media? Tech to save children in hot cars.

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Joe Cassandra

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Hey guys, we had a thread going here [https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...tory-i-felt-bad-for-this-guy-at-first.53203/] and I had mentioned that there should be a product that sensors if there are kids in the car to alert the owner and authorities. @MJ DeMarco gave some quick,helpful tips that got me thinking. Many people here and friends say it's a fantastic idea and it would HELP people as well as bring awareness.

I was working on before looking for opportunities in older industries [per my convo with @JackEdwards], I had started looking through private companies in old industries looking for opportunities [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ac_-eb0ZUKMc1jD0Q0rQ7Bmr7MUO08nK6B0Vci9Mex8/edit#gid=0], but since this is an ongoing problem and seems like a big need, I want to try out this idea and see if there's any traction that can be gained LICENSING it.

So far what I've done, (I'm going to copy over from the other thread):
1)I cold-called the Toyota Technical Center in Detroit and asked for the VP of safety (by name of course, found him on Linkedin). Immediate transfer without question [the power of using names not titles].

I talked to the guy from Toyota, he said they are trying to get cameras externally (which is already out there) and cameras internally. I pressed him more on the issue as cameras wouldn't help with kids in the car. He said an idea he heard is when you put your kid in the car, take your left shoe off and put it next to your child so you'll never forget.
I almost thought he was joking but contained my sarcasm and said "That sounds great in theory but you think Americans are going to take off their shoe every time they put their kid in the car, especially if they leave them on purpose?"

He finally said, "What you're trying to do with the sensors is product development and I'm just in charge of safety, sorry." I pressed him further to get a name for a product development VP, but he wouldn't budge.

2) I was thinking of calling Ford, but MJ suggested I try and manufacture and patent the idea myself and license it out.

I started right away , and first did a quick patent search in google.

Unfortunately, it looks like the exact idea was patented almost 10 years ago [https://www.google.com/patents/US7348880]. I haven't reached out to them as maybe someone on here has a suggestion i.e. has experience with patents.

PATENTS:

I put this on the outside as there are already many patents for this idea, thus who cares if you steal.
There seems to be many patents relating to "Sensing a human occupant" "Infant safety device" etc.
Would I have to pay royalties to all of these patents if I pursue this idea?

Perhaps if my design is completely different, I could file my own patent, may need to consult a patent lawyer [don't have those funds at the moment.]​

Potential funding:

MJ mentioned, and others, that this could be a huge media play and actually Kickstarter could be the way to go. I know I'll need to hire a a mechanical engineer for the bones of it, as well as probably patent fees and such.

Some friends mentioned trying to make it a retail item for old cars, I was thinking of just going B2B and installing it straight into new cars. Your thoughts?

Action Steps:

1) Research materials needed
2) Search and vet mechanical engineers to consult on construction and car installation (could take a while to figure out integration)
3) Reach out to news outlets that covered recent deaths from heat and show what I'm creating. They would love it as a follow-up.
4) Create Kickstarter? Use these outlets to drive traffic to it to gain funding

These are all major steps with many little steps intertwined. I'll try and keep this updated as it goes along and any pitfalls that come about.

GOAL:
1)Get this in as many cars as possible. Kids /Pets dying from this is torture (don't you hate a hot car) and we have children being left for hours in tortuous heat [I live in texas, it gets hot!].
2) Fastlane potential: License it to car manufacturers, collect licenses per each car installed.
 
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Mrs. BRKb

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DaRK9

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Smart kid inventor:

Local boy invents device to remind parents of children in hot cars (video)
http://www.wkrn.com/story/22872890/local-boy-invents-device-to-stop-children-being-left-in-hot-cars

The EZ Baby Saver (how to directions for his invention)
Stops Parents In Their Tracks, Saves Kids From Being Left In Hot Cars
http://www.ezbabysaver.com/p/how-to-make-ez-baby-saver.html
I would LOL so hard if I saw that in a brand new car.

Awesome story though. Glad he won.
 

Joe Cassandra

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I would LOL so hard if I saw that in a brand new car.

Awesome story though. Glad he won.
Agreed, but I know I wasn't thinking of that kind of stuff at 11.

I'll see if I can top him :D
 
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firmwear

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Another way I can see it working is to invent a car-seat that does the same.

I like this idea very much (stand-alone product). Car manufacturers are heavily regulated and, as I am sure you found out from your phone call, very bureaucratic.

Cons of designing your product for direct integration to a car:
1) I think adding sensors to the car directly will open the manufacturer up to liability should the system fail.
2) Wrongful-death lawsuits will be an added incentive to dirtbags intent on committing infanticide.
3) Integrating some kind of safety-system will probably be more difficult than you first imagine. These days every system on a car is integrated with the main vechicle ECU in some way (ie they add a processor and software to the component).
4) Car manufacturers will not want to raise the unit cost on a car unless they have to. Things like rear-view cameras and tire-pressure monitoring systems were mandated by law, beancounters rule the large car companies like you would not believe.

One more thing I would like to suggest is writing out some kind of engineering specification for your product before moving forward. Depending on what you are sensing and what your planned countermeasures are, you can then determine what kind of connectivity, sensors, &c you will need.

A manufacturer would be more willing to go for your idea if you had sales for a stand-alone product beforehand.

Good luck.
 

Joe Cassandra

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I like this idea very much (stand-alone product). Car manufacturers are heavily regulated and, as I am sure you found out from your phone call, very bureaucratic.

Cons of designing your product for direct integration to a car:
1) I think adding sensors to the car directly will open the manufacturer up to liability should the system fail.
2) Wrongful-death lawsuits will be an added incentive to dirtbags intent on committing infanticide.
3) Integrating some kind of safety-system will probably be more difficult than you first imagine. These days every system on a car is integrated with the main vechicle ECU in some way (ie they add a processor and software to the component).
4) Car manufacturers will not want to raise the unit cost on a car unless they have to. Things like rear-view cameras and tire-pressure monitoring systems were mandated by law, beancounters rule the large car companies like you would not believe.

One more thing I would like to suggest is writing out some kind of engineering specification for your product before moving forward. Depending on what you are sensing and what your planned countermeasures are, you can then determine what kind of connectivity, sensors, &c you will need.

A manufacturer would be more willing to go for your idea if you had sales for a stand-alone product beforehand.

Good luck.

Thanks a bunch Firmwear! It sounds like you have some expertise in the area, tell me more.

I'll PM you to see if you want to talk offline, love to get your opinions on it.
 
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G

GuestUser113

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I like this idea very much (stand-alone product). Car manufacturers are heavily regulated and, as I am sure you found out from your phone call, very bureaucratic.

Cons of designing your product for direct integration to a car:
1) I think adding sensors to the car directly will open the manufacturer up to liability should the system fail.
2) Wrongful-death lawsuits will be an added incentive to dirtbags intent on committing infanticide.
3) Integrating some kind of safety-system will probably be more difficult than you first imagine. These days every system on a car is integrated with the main vechicle ECU in some way (ie they add a processor and software to the component).
4) Car manufacturers will not want to raise the unit cost on a car unless they have to. Things like rear-view cameras and tire-pressure monitoring systems were mandated by law, beancounters rule the large car companies like you would not believe.

One more thing I would like to suggest is writing out some kind of engineering specification for your product before moving forward. Depending on what you are sensing and what your planned countermeasures are, you can then determine what kind of connectivity, sensors, &c you will need.

A manufacturer would be more willing to go for your idea if you had sales for a stand-alone product beforehand.

Good luck.


http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...lley-inventor-child-car-deaths-abrk/11939743/
http://avisoreminder.com/how-it-works/
 

Joe Cassandra

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I like his chime idea. I didn't realize a car heats up that fast [thinking about it now, having sat in parked cars, it does get stuffy quick] , I may have to alter some of my initial plans for it. if the product is alerting authorities at all, it might be an issue if after only 10 minutes the authorities are contacted. 911 wouldn't like that, but that's a later stuff.

I was up early today thinking about the design and researching the tech and was wondering: Could this might just be a seasonal type product? I know we all stress the importance of evergreen products, and so this might not fall into the category as during the Fall and Winter seasons, news outlets wouldn't cover kids trapped in hot cars [as it is not as hot]. In my mind, I won't have a working prototype until probably September maybe October when Fall creeps in, so this might not be out into the public until 2015 when the "kids in hot cars" media gets picked up again as that's when it would be prime for sales and/or licensing.

I'm thinking too far in advance at the moment [thinking about step 10 before 1], right now I'm researching the tech involved and trying to build a rudimentary model involving a thermometer, sensors and electricity.

Perhaps in the Fall and Winter, after building a MVP, I can focus on finding a company to license etc., but again that's a step in the future, but want to use this as a brain dump.
 

Joe Cassandra

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UPDATE:

Did research on some of the tech needed. Talked with @firmwear off the thread and he had some great ideas to help move it along. Very generous with his time.

Another secret weapon, I posted here https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...to-get-access-to-experts-and-maybe-vcs.52376/ didn't get any response to it, but I utilize all the time.

YOU WANT ACCESS TO EXPERTS, GET ON QUORA.

Think about it, quora users use their free time to give quality answers to strangers. So when you reach out to them, they're more than willing to give of their time and some.

I found a mechancial engineer on there who I told the idea, he liked it , and we discussed different ideas on implementing it. He has a friend who has some prototype equipment and is going to try and build a quick mock-up. He's a Quora power user [not an anonymous face if you're wondering]. So I trust him.

All that came about through some research and crafting the right message.

Haven't set up a website or even thought of a name yet. For me, if i set that up, I would be falling into my wantrepreneur inclinations, so I'd rather build a cheap prototype, try to license it first before doing that stuff.

More to come.
 
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Joe Cassandra

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I've been doing more research and curious what the people on here think. Much of my research I've found has me worrying about patents and such.

The situation is: There's tons of patents out there for sensing occupants in car, problem is, no one has used them for good products. Getting patents done and such are tedious and expensive.

I'm thinking now, since I won't have a prototype for a month or so [as it'll take some time for me to learn the engineering and for the engineer I found who is interested in the idea to test] that the "media-worthiness" of the idea won't be ripe again until Mayish of 2015.

I'm thinking: Use the fall/winter to reach out to car companies to try and license the tech and process. I've already found 5 execs at very specific auto manufacturers that I'll reach out to to pitch [and others in the organization around them]

Since there are already a ton of patents out there, could I trust to reach out to these execs, tell them the key points and tech of the idea with just a provisional patent or none at all without them just building it themselves after a time?

@MJ DeMarco [you had told me to patent and license], do you think it's safe to do that considering the amount of patents out there i.e. it's a minefield for them to develop it themselves? Would they rather license from me than try and do it themselves at risk of patent infringement on others?

I've just heard good arguments for both sides: Patents are worthless as they are easy to sidestep, or YES you do need for sure especially for approaching a large company..

I'd love to hear the forums thoughts, should I make a big deal about this?
 

Mike.B

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Not sure how I missed this thread. I've been working on a similar idea for a couple of weeks. Mine is using a weight sensor that can be retrofit to existing car seats with a proximity sensor. So if the child is in the seat and you get more than 6 feet from the car a key chain buzzer sounds.

Still a work in progress.
 
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Joe Cassandra

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Not sure how I missed this thread. I've been working on a similar idea for a couple of weeks. Mine is using a weight sensor that can be retrofit to existing car seats with a proximity sensor. So if the child is in the seat and you get more than 6 feet from the car a key chain buzzer sounds.

Still a work in progress.
Keep us updated! Mine wouldn't be a separate product but would go into the manufacturer process. This could be an uphill battle as I don't know the auto industry well and bureaucracy and red tape rule , but I want to try.

Keep it up!
 

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Since I work in IT we had been looking at ways to get rid of the RSA security key fobs, which of course has been done already.
RSA converted their Hard token to a software based APP.

Who forgets their smart phones these days?

The baby app!
 

Joe Cassandra

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The dude I discussed earlier is still working on a prototype. I've reached out to other experts on Quora getting their thoughts on the engineering of it. Many say it shouldn't be too hard, but then go on to use engineering jargon I don't fully understand. Since, they are already taking free time of theirs to help, I try not to over-step their kindness by bombarding them.

I'm not one to easily give up control especially of the main prototype [weakness of mine] but I also realized I need to understand the tech myself and how it is engineered. If say this guy builds the prototype and drops out, I'll have no idea how to work it if I don't understand it. Many people I talked with and on here recommended building the prototype with an Arduino board. I found a new set on Amazon for $65. I may be able to make a mock-up prototype for it. I'm not going to spend 100's of hours learning how to build it, I'll try for a week or two then if there's a dead-end, will put out an ad on Craigslist asking for help and see what happens.

I've created a google doc with much of the information/ideas I plan to use. I'll be updating it regularly so you'll be able to see it.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I8DM2MijD62MWQ8SPxrArvLT0jqzj5Tl6HBT8y23Gvs/edit?usp=sharing

One issue many have voiced is that the sensor needs to work 100% of the time if there is going to be notifications to people's cells and/or the cops. If there are enough false alarms, it could trigger a recall on the product, which would be a disaster. That's a worry after prototyping and talking with potential car manufacturer execs, but just one I've heard regularly and it makes sense.

1) Learn tech/engineering with arduino board and/or the prototype built by the engineer I found
2) Get a good enough working prototype to then show execs over the fall/winter - drum up interest, pitch them on marketing it spring-time when temps rise and awareness is at its peak again.
3) Start a kickstarter - Pre - kickstarter, as you'll see on the spreadsheet, find mom blogs, safety blogs, car blogs, all the above in podcast form, news outlets that have covered child in hot cars in the past [drafting technique - derek halpern], local news. Learned from my friend who raised 30k in 30 days on kickstarter that pre-buzz is what counts.
4) The talks in the fall/winter may be a failure which is why the kickstarter would show the manufacturers there is demand and sales potential.
 
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nzerinto

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I was up early today thinking about the design and researching the tech and was wondering: Could this might just be a seasonal type product?

Keep in mind the Southern Hemisphere (particularly Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) is in the middle of heat-waves etc when the Northern Hemisphere is trudging in 2 feet of snow..... granted, not big populations (approx 77 million combined), but can still keep things "ticking over" so as to speak. If you start including South American nations ie Brazil, Chile, Argentina etc (another 255 million combined)......
 

Joe Cassandra

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Keep in mind the Southern Hemisphere (particularly Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) is in the middle of heat-waves etc when the Northern Hemisphere is trudging in 2 feet of snow..... granted, not big populations (approx 77 million combined), but can still keep things "ticking over" so as to speak. If you start including South American nations ie Brazil, Chile, Argentina etc (another 255 million combined)......

Good call, I'm thinking like an American as if the US is the only country on earth. I'd have to check which companies have southern hemisphere headquarters and find execs there [who speak English].

I'll need to check what type of weather Japan gets throughout the year to find their hot periods [due to large manufacturing in Japan].

Thanks @nzerinto!
 

nzerinto

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Good call, I'm thinking like an American as if the US is the only country on earth. I'd have to check which companies have southern hemisphere headquarters and find execs there [who speak English].

I'll need to check what type of weather Japan gets throughout the year to find their hot periods [due to large manufacturing in Japan].

Thanks @nzerinto!

I lived in Japan for 7 years. Their weather cycle is the same as North America (cos still Northern Hemisphere). Tokyo gets quite hot and humid during summer - I'm talking anywhere from 80-100 degrees (28 to 36 Celcius), although it feels a LOT hotter - probably because of the concrete jungle etc, so would also be a prime spot to sell in. You'd definitely need it translated to Japanese though - although English is taught for 6 years in school, I'd say 90% of the population can't carry a sentence in English.
 
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Milkanic

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Would I have to pay royalties to all of these patents if I pursue this idea?

From the patents you listed, I would say no. I am not a patent expert but the claims on those patents are very specific and all seem like overkill.
good article on the subject:
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2012/03/29/patent-claim-drafting-improvements-and-jepson-claims/id=23580/

As MJ said in the previous thread, all you need is a temperature + motion sensor + alert of some kind.

controller - Arduion Pro Mini 3.3V
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11114

Lipo Battery
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/341

Lipo charge sensor and charger
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10711

Lipo USB charger:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10217

Motion sensor
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8630

Temperature sensor
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10988

Alarm TBD (radio waves, bluetooth, roll down windows, etc)

P.S. Do your own research on these parts - I didn't look at the data sheets or anything to see if these are all compatible with voltages, etc.

Psuedo code:
Poll the temp sensor every ~30 seconds (to conserve battery power)
If Temp > 85 F, Check for motion for ~5 seconds.
If Motion, trip alarm
 

Mr. Thomas

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I have 3 children and I have given this some thought too. The first thing that comes to mind, if it is something you have to install as a consumer there is a good chance the people who would buy this product are not the type of idiots that would leave their children in the car! So to me this would have to be a product that would come as standard equipment in either the car-seats you buy or the car or your smart phones. I know there are exceptions and accidents do happen but take it from a loving father, my children...and wife are the most important people in my life. I would never......EVER...leave them in my car, un-attended, weather hot or cold!!!!

Now, when it comes to standard equipment like the op is trying to pursue my first though is something like the weight sensor for the front passenger seat of a pick-up or van. It senses weight down to a certain limit to which it will dis-able the passenger air bag if the passenger is too light. My thought is the manufacturers could easily adapt this technology to the back seats only it would sense weight up to a certain point. When the ignition is turned off it will sound an alarm until the sensors do not sense the weight....like those annoying seat-belt alarms when the car is placed into drive! A good safety feature could to be to have an automatic air circulation system the would kick in after a set time and temp is reached...if the idiots that do this crap decided to ignore the warning buzzer....at the very least it could automatically open the windows a certain amount to allow for circulation. I would think an app could be set up to compliment such a system, for older non-equipped cars maybe.

Another possible avenue could be to reach out to car seat manufacturers and see if they are working on anything like this....think smart seat. The car seat could be a self contained unit that only needs an ac outlet. My feeling on something like this is it would not save the children that are at highest risk though, unfortunately.
 

Joe Cassandra

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From the patents you listed, I would say no. I am not a patent expert but the claims on those patents are very specific and all seem like overkill.
good article on the subject:
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2012/03/29/patent-claim-drafting-improvements-and-jepson-claims/id=23580/
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2012/03/29/patent-claim-drafting-improvements-and-jepson-claims/id=23580/

Definitely good to hear that, will probably need to talk to a patent lawyer at some point, but of course, due to how expensive they run, would need to hustle that together first. I'm one to look at 50 different steps at once and so I'm trying to focus and just work on the prototype now and worry about the patents later.

As MJ said in the previous thread, all you need is a temperature + motion sensor + alert of some kind.

controller - Arduion Pro Mini 3.3V
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11114

Lipo Battery
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/341

Lipo charge sensor and charger
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10711

Lipo USB charger:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10217

Motion sensor
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8630

Temperature sensor
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10988

Alarm TBD (radio waves, bluetooth, roll down windows, etc)

P.S. Do your own research on these parts - I didn't look at the data sheets or anything to see if these are all compatible with voltages, etc.

Psuedo code:
Poll the temp sensor every ~30 seconds (to conserve battery power)
If Temp > 85 F, Check for motion for ~5 seconds.
If Motion, trip alarm

Thanks for taking the time to look all those up, that probably saved me a couple hours :)D, literally). I'll do my own research but you gave me a good starting point. I may run some thoughts by you later when I start getting some pieces together. Rep$$ transferred for the help and work!


I have 3 children and I have given this some thought too. The first thing that comes to mind, if it is something you have to install as a consumer there is a good chance the people who would buy this product are not the type of idiots that would leave their children in the car! So to me this would have to be a product that would come as standard equipment in either the car-seats you buy or the car or your smart phones. I know there are exceptions and accidents do happen but take it from a loving father, my children...and wife are the most important people in my life. I would never......EVER...leave them in my car, un-attended, weather hot or cold!!!!

Agreed, I may have mentioned it above, I wanted to try and steer away from an actual "physical smart product" because people would pretty much have to idiot-proof themselves. Not very good for marketing. Smart seats out there right now for kids run $200+ which is hefty as most middle-low class families would not buy that separately. It's easy to tack $200 onto the price of the car though due to the Contrast Principle by Cialdini [if the car is 10,000, paying $200 extra for something is a breeze in your mind].

Now, when it comes to standard equipment like the op is trying to pursue my first though is something like the weight sensor for the front passenger seat of a pick-up or van. It senses weight down to a certain limit to which it will dis-able the passenger air bag if the passenger is too light. My thought is the manufacturers could easily adapt this technology to the back seats only it would sense weight up to a certain point. When the ignition is turned off it will sound an alarm until the sensors do not sense the weight....like those annoying seat-belt alarms when the car is placed into drive! A good safety feature could to be to have an automatic air circulation system the would kick in after a set time and temp is reached...if the idiots that do this crap decided to ignore the warning buzzer....at the very least it could automatically open the windows a certain amount to allow for circulation. I would think an app could be set up to compliment such a system, for older non-equipped cars maybe.

Another possible avenue could be to reach out to car seat manufacturers and see if they are working on anything like this....think smart seat. The car seat could be a self contained unit that only needs an ac outlet. My feeling on something like this is it would not save the children that are at highest risk though, unfortunately.

I like your idea about the sound going off like when a seatbelt isn't attached, it may actually be easy to implement for manufacturers making what I'm working on moot. Weight sensors could also work, they would need to be hyper sensitive though for children >15 lbs, but the sensors I'm talking about would have to be sensitive as well. Appreciate your thoughts, thanks!
 
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Joe Cassandra

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Wanted to do an update to keep myself accountable. I rec'd the Arduino board on Wednesday. Past couple days been mostly coughing up repairs to the house, which inspired this thread (INSIDERS: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/ine-bidding-lead-gen-for-pests.53489/) and taking care of my pregnant wife :D. However, been spending each night until 1:00am plus teaching myself electrical engineering with tutorials and plenty of google searches.

For those who complain about not knowing something, I know minimal programming (the board required C programming) and knowledge of circuits, sensors, Ohm's law and the like. None of which I knew before [I was failing part of high school because I sucked at any sort of science] Again, a guy on Quora I reached out to said he should have a prototype by end of July [doing it out of the goodness of his heart for now...], I told him I got a board to understand the tech, so not sure if he's going to go ahead with prototype or not [not sure how to bring that up]. May need to motivate him by offering to purchase a prototype from him or offering him a small equity. But I don't know, I may feel more empowered and motivated if I build it myself from scratch even if it isn't as pretty ..still mulling that over.

Anyway, here's a pic from 30 minutes ago, what's going on is:

1) Board sends a volt to the breadboard (white thing on right)
2) Temp sensor is located where the blue wire is
3) Some electrical engineer stuff: grounding it etc.
4) LED light is the yellow light, I don't have a sensor yet so this is acting as a sensor that when the temperature sensor reaches a certain degree, it will activate.
5)Then, the code is fed to the board telling it "at this degree, turn on the LED or keep it off". Alot of googling and tutorial help to get the code down.

As MJ says, I'm not passionate about electrical engineering or programming. I actually would kill myself if I was one of those facebook coders who went on 100 hour coding binges, but there's a need for this so I'm becoming passionate about filling this need, the engineering is just the tools to fill that passion I have of filling the need. The electrical engineering is a little fun.

4 days ago I couldn't tell you what any of these wires did or what the hell the code did, but with some dedicated time and plugging away, I've learned it and now it's on to the next step.

Hopefully there are some electrical engineers on here [@firmwear] that might enjoy a simple project like this
upload_2014-7-20_0-10-4.png
 
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pro

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Designing both hardware and software is quite impressive. You are smart but I think you can do something better than this.

You're serving a market that you think is mass but it's not if you segment it properly. Of everyone that owns cars, not many people want this feature.

The manufacturers won't pay for this.
Most people won't pay you money for this.
 

Brentnal

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Designing both hardware and software is quite impressive. You are smart but I think you can do something better than this.

You're serving a market that you think is mass but it's not if you segment it properly. Of everyone that owns cars, not many people want this feature.

The manufacturers won't pay for this.
Most people won't pay you money for this.

He is taking action, what are you doing?
 
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Joe Cassandra

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Designing both hardware and software is quite impressive. You are smart but I think you can do something better than this.

You're serving a market that you think is mass but it's not if you segment it properly. Of everyone that owns cars, not many people want this feature.

The manufacturers won't pay for this.
Most people won't pay you money for this.
Might be right. Least I can do is spend a little bit of time making a cheap prototype, pitch to car execs and see.

So far, feedback has been pretty positive from strangers and family alike. Everyone acknowledges there is a problem and it is easy to say , "that wont work" because it hasnt been put in the car yet. Hey, maybe this isnt the solution but Im sure it is step in the right direction. If it saves one kids life, it works and would take off.

This is a solution that would require some sort of quick demonstration, as I mention, after getting a toyota exec on the phone with just an idea, turned out to be weak sauce. But if you show people you put some sweat into it, turns more heads .

In the end, how I position it to execs might be the difference maker. If I show them not just how it could save lives, but the organic marketing it could do, if I can get a strong mom backing that might influence a decision. If this issue touches close to just 1 of the decision makers, its in. Even down the line maybe there are other uses, hey there are sensors overhead, what else can we do? Maybe the sensor can detect "this person is most comfortable at this temp etc."

Id rather spend some weeks making syre it is a bust then wonder if it couldve been a hit for the rest of my life. If you have an idea, make something quick, teach yourself like MJ did, fail fast and move on.

Remember also this is a prototype, it wont look anything like this when it is manufactured into the car, just working on tech for demo showing.

Love the feedback, good and bad(I needed at least 1 person to say im wasting my time:D), keep it up!
 
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pro

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Most people would rather be nice than tell you the truth since being honest gives you heat. Most people can't stand the heat ...you need this tolerance to succeed.

Ask them to invest in you and you'll quickly see more truthful feedback as to why they wouldn't invest

Focus on who will pay you
 
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Joe Cassandra

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Most people would rather be nice than tell you the truth since being honest gives you heat. Most people can't stand the heat ...you need this tolerance to succeed.

Ask them to invest in you and you'll quickly see more truthful feedback as to why they wouldn't invest

Focus on who will pay you
Thats the plan when I talk with execs. They wont take me seriously just spitballing an idea, putting some sweat behind it would turn more heads.

Since this is a licensing play, not looking for people to invest. There isnt much to invest in right now as it is still in infancy.

I do agree most people would rather die than be in uncomfortable situations. I can gauge non verbal movements pretty well to tell some people thought it had some merit. A random guy I reached out to offered to build a prototype which is way more than I expected. Dont know his motives yet, but he must have saw some value to put up his time.

I dont mind spending the time to build a prototype as it is cheap, will not take long but could have a good upside. If it fails, at least I learned a new skill and the gumption to try.

If I was fronting thousands of dollars, building a website and tons of other things, yes it might be worth getting some validation with money with investors.

But this isnt a product you would sell in walmart as I already mention, but part of the manufacturing process for autos, thus need to go after the decision makers in the auto industry.

Thanks for taking the other side @pro need that. Helps me think of the obstacles I might face later.
 

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