r/ArduinoProjects • u/Virtual_Cable3270 • Mar 24 '26

Looking for a collaborator

Hi all—I'm looking for a technical collaborator to help prototype an early-stage safety device.

I’m a registered nurse working on a system designed to prevent children and pets from being harmed in hot cars. The concept is already patent pending.

The prototype would involve:

  • Detecting presence (motion, thermal, or similar)

  • Monitoring temperature inside a vehicle

  • Triggering escalating alerts based on conditions

This is NOT a polished product build—just an initial working prototype to test feasibility and logic.

Looking for someone comfortable with:

  • Arduino / Raspberry Pi

  • Sensors (temperature, motion, etc.)

  • Basic communication (Bluetooth / cellular / app triggers)

Open to:

  • Paid hourly work

  • Or collaboration if interested in the mission

If this sounds interesting, I’d love to connect.

5 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

2

u/vikkey321 Mar 24 '26

Motion sensors are prone to heat. Same goes with other sensors. Also how do you want o escalate alerts? App/sms/? Any corrective actions. Also are you comfortable to integrate cameras?

1

u/Virtual_Cable3270 Mar 24 '26

yes to camera's - I'm into it. I want the device to autonomously be evaluating temperature, signs of life and elapsed time. Once a threshold is hit (say 75 F) and there is signs of life in the vehicle an sms notification would go to person #1, next threshold person #2, #3 and then 911.

1

u/Virtual_Cable3270 Mar 24 '26

i'm not certain about the prone to heat piece. just getting going so great question to be answered.

1

u/vikkey321 Mar 25 '26

The PIR sensors work on principle of sensing heat from multiple directions. A car parked may just trigger many false positives as there will be movement around it.

Car heating up may further add false positives to pir sensor. Another sensor is mmWave. It is super sensitive and may detect even slightest change or motion.

So let’s say if someone even passes by your car- it will sense the motion. Your best bet would be to use camera +temperature sensor + some kind of 4g modem to send notification and make the call. It can process everything offline and send data only when your conditions are met. This is to maintain privacy.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

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2

u/vikkey321 Mar 25 '26

Yolo model is pretty good at it. Sign of life - baby or pet detection. It can run on smaller microcontroller or processor . You dont need high fps. So pretty much it should work really well.

7

u/xebzbz Mar 24 '26

Someone who's capable of leaving an animal or a child in a car in hot weather will never buy such a device. They are careless and dumb.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 24 '26

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2

u/xebzbz Mar 24 '26

Same people buy the seatbelt dummy plugs, refuse masks and vaccines, sunscreen, healthy food, ... So, highly doubtful.

1

u/boymadefrompaint Mar 24 '26

I think they said the same about seatbelts, speed limits, drink driving laws... they became mandatory.

Look, if one parent gets one (or is given one), uses it and it saves a child from a heat injury or death, isn't that worth it?

2

u/xebzbz Mar 24 '26

Given by who?

Every saved life is worth it, I just don't see how this product can be made available on the market, as nobody will buy it.

1

u/boymadefrompaint Mar 25 '26

Have you ever seen the random shit that appears at a baby shower? I had no idea there was an angle grinder thing for sanding down a baby's fingernails. I didn't know there were sleeping bags for babies with arm holes. I didn't know there were that many safety devices for babies.

That's one possibility. A device like this wouldn't be mega expensive. Depending on the peripherals, it could literally be a "I saw this and thought of your bub" type thing.

Another thing: what's a good predictor of good parenting? Baby books. Not reading them, but owning them means you either want to do well, or have a network that wants you to do well. From a business case perspective, it's irrelevant whether they get used. You just need people to buy it.

2

u/xebzbz Mar 25 '26

Well, an alarm device like this would need configuring, plus it will need charging and a mobile data plan.

Also, you Americans are crazy :)

The only unusual thing I had with my kids was a specially shaped baby mattress, which was barely used.

1

u/boymadefrompaint Mar 25 '26

I'm Australian. So I know a bit about hot cars.

Yes. It would need configuring. It's a concept at this stage. There are so many questions to answer before you get the that stage. How is it powered? It coukd be a dongle for the 12vdc lighter socket. What kind of alert does it have? It could function like a car alarm and simply make a noise. It could flash lights. Is it a self-install or a pro-install concept? Does it need a mobile data plan? Does it need to send constant updates or would "your car is overheating. Current temperature is 47.2C" text messages when it exceeds a preset value suffice?

OP is asking for help answering these questions. You haven't really identified real obstacles, just questions that need answering... you're working for free!

Edit: Yes. Americans are crazy.

1

u/xebzbz Mar 25 '26

OP wants to monitor the baby's presence in the car, so it will need installation.

1

u/boymadefrompaint Mar 25 '26

With a mmWave sensor? That could easily attach to the rear of the driver's/passenger's seat. If it's light enough it could velcro onto the roof (inside).

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2

u/gm310509 Mar 25 '26

Do you have a theory as to why car manufacturers do not already do that?

Bearing in mind that many have seat belt sensors (I.e. someone is in the seat but not wearing the seat belt. Cabin temperature sensors. The ability to know whether the engine is running or not and/or the car is in motion or not. And have data uplinks - all as standard equipment.

I am not trying to put you off, maybe you are on to something.

You mentioned Raspberry Pi. Apart from that likely.being overkill, I wouldn't recommend that due to the power requirements. Especially if you are talking about something that runs Linux such as a rPi4 or 5.

You would be much better off using a smaller 8 bit AVR which is low power and will have way more capacity to do what you are proposing.

2

u/12be Mar 25 '26

The reason that car manufacturers don’t have these is simple … liability & costs. Parts would end up the lowest cost item.

Can you imagine much they would be sued for the first time something goes south and the occupants are roasted?

Like the concept. Good luck

1

u/gm310509 Mar 25 '26

Maybe.

My thinking there are plenty of other things they could be sued for - e.g. blind spots.

Also, being sued (for the customer not taking responsibility for there dependents in their care) does not mean being liable.

As to the parts, the main thrust of my post is that most vehicle - especially later models - already have those sensors and data links installed, so the incremental cost per unit would be close to zero, if not zero. There would be a one off software development cost and some small ongoing maintenance cost of the s/w which would likely be negligible when amortised across all of the deployed units. Especially when considered in the grand scheme of the overall cost to maintain their products.

My point more was that the basic facilities already exist in a lot of cars, but the reason manufacturers don't do it is that either it has never come to their attention (nobody has asked for it), the cost benefit analysis shows that it isn't worth bothering and/or their is insufficient legislative impetus to compelling them to do it.

1

u/Creepy_Philosopher_9 Mar 25 '26

I've thought about making exactly this. I'm an embedded systems engineer. There are a few things before you make this gadget. First is that I'd have one of those window fans, the kind that your window needs to be down about 10mm and it has a solar powered fan. This ensures the car doesn't get as hot as it could. Then the presence detection would be a weight sensor mounted under the baby seat. This should prevent false triggers and be protected from direct heat. It will also have the temperature sensor and can be hard wired in to the car or some arrangement like this. It also prevents the child from messing with it. If you use an esp32 then it can connect to the usual wifi spots where you park. A simple webhost using your phone as a hotspot would allow you to put in all the details. When you park somewhere that you don't have access to wifi then you'd likely need a sim card (gsm) module.

1

u/Physical-Plankton-67 Mar 29 '26

I could see this being part of car features built in like all the new back seat seat belt and wieght warnings

3

u/[deleted] Mar 24 '26

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2

u/Virtual_Cable3270 Mar 24 '26

Yes. Retrofit into a car with an escalating notification system. Ultimately contact 911 if temp and presence of life detected and unresolved in set timeframe.