Babycare alert system for prevention of child left in a parked vehicle

Abstract

As science and technology has advancing to be part of our lives, most of everyday applications are now connected to each other virtually. By incorporating the IoT technology into child safety division, this part is worth investigating into. With hectic lifestyle, some parents have a tendency to leave their children inside the parked vehicle. The research is to design a notification or an alert to parents by using the most essential device that everyone has at least have one, smartphone. The design consists of two main parts which are safety pad and keychain alarm device. For the first part, the safety pad consists of load sensor to sense the presence of child inside the child car seat and notify parents through smartphone. For the second part, the keychain alarm devices use Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver that will act as backup safety features for children in case when the parents' smartphone is missing or run out of battery. This device will activate the warning alarm when parents walking outside the RF signal range of the safety pad. The system was successfully used the most important tech gear and indirectly adds this BabyCare safety function to the smartphone.

Full text

VOL. 10, NO 22, DECEMBER, 2015 ISSN 1819-6608
ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
©2006-2015 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.
www.arpnjournals.com
17313
BABYCARE ALERT SYSTEM FOR PREVENTION OF CHILD LEFT
IN A PARKED VEHICLE
K. N. Khamil, S. I. A. Rahman and M. Gambilok
Centre for Telecommunication Research and Innovation (CeTRI), Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Universiti Teknikal
Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Hang Tuah Jaya, Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia
E-Mail: nisa@utem.edu.my
ABSTRACT
As science and technology has advancing to be part of our lives, most of everyday applications are now connected
to each other virtually. By incorporating the IoT technology into child safety division, this part is worth investigating into.
With hectic lifestyle, some parents have a tendency to leave their children inside the parked vehicle. The research is to
design a notification or an alert to parents by using the most essential device that everyone has at least have one,
smartphone. The design consists of two main parts which are safety pad and keychain alarm device. For the first part, the
safety pad consists of load sensor to sense the presence of child inside the child car seat and notify parents through
smartphone. For the second part, the keychain alarm devices use Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver that will act as backup
safety features for children in case when the parents’ smartphone is missing or run out of battery. This device will activate
the warning alarm when parents walking outside the RF signal range of the safety pad. The system was successfully used
the most important tech gear and indirectly adds this BabyCare safety function to the smartphone.
Keywords: arduino, vehicle, hyperthermia, sensors, IoT.
1. INTRODUCTION
Recent developments in Internet of Things (IoT)
have led to a renewed interest in child safety division.
Time magazine's Techland division has directed a huge,
captivating worldwide survey on 5,000 people from
different countries, and discovered thechance that you've
been subconsciously fall after mobile phone enslavement
iswhen you are not able to just leave the cell phone in their
pockets. 84 percent of respondents said that they could not
go a day without their mobile phones[1]. Since people in
these days are increasingly connected to their personal
smart device, incorporating a safety device that might safe
a child’s life is worth investigating into.
There are a great deal number of cases that
identified with the death of kids that are left in a vehicles
because of heat stroke and hyperthermia [2]. Hyperthermia
is an intense conditions that happen when the body retains
more heat that it can deal with [3]. Kids appear to be more
inclined to have hyperthermia than grown-ups when the
vehicles is stopped and window shut closed [2]. There are
two elements make kids more inclined to experienced
hyperthermia than grown-ups: kids have a more prominent
surface range body mass proportion contrasted with
grown-ups and their thermoregulation is less proficient
than grown-ups [2]. Studies have demonstrated that the
temperature inside a halted vehicle can rapidly rise to a
hazardous level for adolescents, pets and even grown-ups
[3]. Based on Figure-1, the yellow wave that
transmitted directly to the window’s car will heat the air in
the car adjacently via conduction and convection. This
circumstances will added the air caught in the vehicle to
heats up rapidly [4]. Even the window is partially close
cannot decrease the warming rate of the vehicle’s internal
air since the bodies of babies or toddlers warm at quicker
rate than grown - ups [3].
Figure-1. Temperature's reading for a tight and closed
vehicle in 60 minutes [4].
The implication of this study will kept from these
unfortunate occurrence happens where the vehicle need to
be equipped with a system that alert the parents or
caretaker from leaving their kids behind in the car that can
jeopardize their lives.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
According to the statistic in the US, 10% of
child’s deaths are caused by heat stroke due to negligence
caused by parents or caretaker. A lion's share of the cases
happen when folks get diverted from their hectic lives and

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they don't realized that the child was in a death-defying
situation. Busy folks that tend to position their child in the
back of the car and could make them overlook that they
are carrying their child along. They could possibly go
about their routine and leave children secured in the shut
window’s vehicle. The impacts from work stress
relatedare one of the reason why most of people tend to
forgot [2]. This clarifies that individual's day by day life
could influence their conduct and contribute to one’s
decision toleave their child unattended in the vehicle
because of distressing and work load. There are numerous
research work on this subject [5]-[9], in the recent years.
Table-1. Details of numbering in Figure-3.
No
Details
No
Details
110
child safety seat
124
a restraint
112
a child
134
seat belt of
vehicle
114
presence sensor
150
wireless
receiver
116
proximity sensor
154
proximity
sensor
118
a transmitter
156
an alert
120
wireless signal such as
radio frequency, micro
waveor infrared wave
signal
158
a speaker
In the patented design by J. Morningstar [10], the
warning system will notify the parents immediately when
the children were left inside the vehicle.
Figure-2. Block Diagram of the warning system [10].
As shown in Figure-2, after the driver releases the
seat belt, the system will check the pressure pad or a
secured child seat lap belt, whether the child is still remain
seated in his car seat. If yes, it will notify the caregiver
instantaneously. The alarm would include a calm audio
output such as a lullaby, a song, or a story. The system can
be integrated into the OEM features to provide an alert
escalation process using a local alert, a vehicle alert, a
Wireless alert and specifically a 911 alert.
For C.Owens [6], the operation for this design is
using the presence sensor that check on the presence of
child in the safety, while the proximity sensor will check
on the range distance between wireless receiver and
child’s seat. If the proximity sensor sensed the distance are
out of range and the child is still on the car seat, wireless
signal will alert wireless receiver to produce an alarm to
notify parents or driver. With a temperature control unit
and thermoelectric added in the design, it detects the
temperature of the child whether the temperature is safe or
not. This advantage can reduce the risk of heatstroke
among child.
Figure-3. Layout of child safety seat system equipped
with sensor and notification setting proposed by
C. Owens [6].
In the paper of S. Davisson et al [12], the system
is designed to a baby seat occupant detection that alerts the
caregiver when the baby is still in their seat, the caregiver
has travelled to an unacceptable distance from the vehicle
and the internal temperature of the vehicle is increased to
undesirable temperature range.
The baby seat occupant detection system includes
a remote unit for a caregiver and a base unit fixed to a
baby seat which communicates with the remote unit. As
the distances are out of range, the alarm activated the
remote and the base unit. The base unit and the remote
unit can be programmed to identify and communicate with
at least one remote unit or with multiple remote units.
Same with previous design, a temperature
detector is added into the design to monitors the internal
temperature of the vehicle. The alarm will activate at the

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ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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remote unit and base unit if the temperature at warning
range. This design is portable, light weight, and can be
easily moved from one vehicle to another.
Figure-4. Block diagram of the baby seat occupant
detection system consist of one remote unit and
one base unit [12].
Based on block diagram in Figure 3, the system
has at least one remote unit and base unit. The base unit is
portable, light weight, water resistant and can be moved
from vehicle to another and can be place under the child’s
car seat. The remote unit is usually attached to car keyor
any other accessible place.
In N.M.Z. Hashim et al [13], the system was
design to detect any sound and movement in the car when
the children are left behind in the car and gave and alert
through Short Messaging system (SMS).
Figure-5. Detection system flow diagram [13].
According to Figure-5 above, this system
involved two parts of theoperation; hardware and software
development. A microcontroller, a motion detector and a
GSM module are the main component used in this design.
The alerts were given once there are motions or
voice detected. The microprocessor automatically received
the signal from the sensors to give an instruction to the
GSM module where the caregiver will get the warning
SMS. It may however be noted that most of the studies
were aimed on the alert system using sensorsthat detected
the child presence in the vehicle. In addition to these
primary data [5]-[13], the incorporation with current
technology that user friendly and portable has not been
thoroughly investigated.
3. METHODOLOGY
To accomplish this aim and to respond to a recent
call for research, an alert system using the current
technology such Arduino and also smartphones are
designed. The system consists of two parts, safety pad and
keychain alert. Each of this part can be divided into
hardware and software.
Figure-6. Block Diagram for the safety pad.
The flow diagram above shows how the system
worked after the weight of the baby is detected. The Safety
pad is proposed to be placed under the baby car seat’s
cover. There are three main components in the safety pad
which are the load sensor, Arduino UNOTM and 1Sheeld.A
load sensor is used to converts a load or force pressure on
it into an electronic signal. Depending on the type of load
cell and circuitry used, the electronic signal received can
be either a voltage change, current change or frequency
change [14]. However, changes in voltage produced are so
little, hence it required to use an instrumentation amplifier
to amplify it into an appropriate value. For this research,
TEM01052B type of load sensor is used where it ranges
up to 50kg. Since it is a half-bridge type of load sensor,
when it is being stretched, the signal will be send via the
red wire [14]. After the signals are amplified, Arduino will
serves as platform that compiled the coding and read the
analogue values from the sensor itself.
Next, is 1Sheeld. It acts as an interpreter of the
signal received from Arduino to the Android Smartphone.
When the baby is placed on the seat, the voltage
changeswhere Arduino will forwardthe information to
1Sheeld and give notification to the phone indicating that
the baby is inside the car.

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ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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17316
Figure-7. Block diagram of Keychain Alarm device.
For Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver, its work
with the Keychain alarm device via RF signals as shown
in Figure-7 above. Based on figure above, the key
components used are Arduino Pro Mini as the main
controller along with NRF24L01 transceiver that will
work as proximity sensor that will result as backup
security when they their particular RF signals are out of
range (which means the parents away from the particular
RF transmission range). Arduino Pro Mini is selected
because of due to the little sizing to add inside the
Keychain alert device. As for UART HARDWARE
converter is used for compiling codes from the Arduino
purposes. The keychain alarm will a security device for
this project that aid to alertthe parents by beeping the
alarm when a child is left inside the car.
Figure-8. The overview of safety pad’s design.
Figure-8 presents,
a) The input signals as discussed earlier will from the
load sensor and Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver
that goes into the Arduino platform
b) The system will be activated as the child placed onto
the car seat.
c) Primarily, the presence of the child is continuously
checked by Arduino. As the load sensor detected the
load of child, the alert are send to the parent’s
smartphone via 1Sheeld communication in every few
minutes. While RF signal from the transceiver
checked any signal that comes from the transceiver of
Keychain alarm device still in ranges.
d) When destination is reached and the parent start to
leave the car without the child, the load sensor will
still detecting the load of the child. Hence, the
notification will alert to the smartphone.
e) But when the parent start walking away from the baby
itself, the RF signal from the Keychain Alert device
will lost its signal and start beeping to alert that the
baby are left behind.
f) The keychain alert system are also as backup system
if the parent’s smartphone are either out of battery or
left behind as well.
The overviews of the notification system are
shown in Figure-9.
Figure-9. The overview of the notification system.

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4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
To demonstrate the potential of this approach and
its suitability for the application, the systems are
investigated into two parts, hardware and software.
4.1 Hardware
In developing the hardware for the safety pad,
two load sensors, INA 125P Instrumentation Amplifier
and few resistors and Arduino UNO are used. The
modules used are shown in Figure-10 below.
Figure-10. Components for the Safety pad circuit.
Figure-11. (a) Equivalent circuit (b) Schematic circuit
design for the Safety pad.
The reason INA 125P Instrumentation Amplifier
is used, to intensify the output of the load sensor and
become readable to Arduino.
Figure-12. The constructed Safety pad circuit using
breadboard.
As for the keychain Alarm’s hardware, the
module consist male to male jumper and UART to USB
converter is used for coding compilation purposes as seen
in Figure-13.
Figure-13. Connection of keychain alarm device (client).
Figure-14. Connection of Safety pad (server).

VOL. 10, NO 22, DECEMBER, 2015 ISSN 1819-6608
ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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Figures 13 and 14 shows the connection between
NRF24L01 transceiver from the keychain and the
transceiver at the safety pad. As mentioned earlier, the
buzzer will alert the parent as they walking away from the
vehicle without the baby.
4.2 Software
For software analysis, both programming for
keychain and safety pad are made using C programming
written in Arduino IDE software. The system has
incorporated with a 1Sheeld system which comprise of a
shield that is physically attached to Arduino board.
1Sheeld handling dataand it serves as wireless medium
between Arduino and any Android smartphone via
Bluetooth [15].
Figure-15. (a) 1Sheeld's notification apps (b) 1Sheeld
hardware that connected to Arduino.
The software platform on 1Sheeld helps connect
the Arduino to 1Sheeld’s own apps on Android
smartphones where it manages the communication
between the any sensors from Arduino to the smartphone
itself. For this system, ‘Notification Shield’ is used as the
load sensor detect any weight on the safety pad. This
notification feature will keeps giving alert for every few
minutes as long as it detect any weight on the safety pad.
As for the keychain alarm, NRF24L01
transceiver is used with Arduino Pro Mini. The coding for
NRF24L01 transceiver will always check whether the
weight from the load sensor is still detected on the safety
pad. If yes, when the parents still moving out of range
from the transceiver, the beeping alarm will alert the
parent through the keychain.
Figure-16. Notification received when the baby is
detected on the safety pad.
5. CONCLUSIONS
In this investigation, the aim was to design and
implement a wireless device that will triggers an alarm and
send an alert to notify the parents if the child was left in
the car. The system was successfully used the most
important tech gear for people these days which is the
smartphone. This project indirectly adds this BabyCare
safety function to the smartphone.
This alert system will warn the parent via
smartphone and alarm the parent using keychain alarm
device when they leave the car without the child. There are
three main components for this system which are load
sensor, 1Sheeld and RF transceiver.
The results here may facilitate improvement in
previous design presented in earlier literature review but it
also provide the following insights for future research. The
enhancement for the battery used for this system can be
change to piezo-electric effect. This weight detected from
the safety pad can be harvest to generate electrical energy
in response to the applied mechanical stress given to the
piezo material. This will lead towards battery-less design
that is much more environmental friendly.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Author would like to thank to Kementerian
Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia, UTeM, ASeCs Research
group and CRIM, UTeM for the funding and help given
throughout the research.

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