SBIR Phase II: Advanced in-home technologies for infant thermoneutrality

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Phase II project will be to empower and educate caregivers to make scientifically guided decisions that enable safer and optimally nurturing sleep environments for infants. Every year more than 130 million babies are born and over 4 million of those are born in the U.S. Due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), 300 babies every month may not live to see their first birthday. SIDS remains the leading cause of death for babies aged one month to one year. Infant mortality rates in the U.S. are higher than in the 20 wealthiest nations. Innogized Technologies has developed a transformative Internet of Things technology (IoT) that combines hardware and analytics to enable caregivers to make better sleep-time decisions, avoiding overheating, a known stressor for SIDS. The technology guides caregivers to deliver optimal conditions for safe, regenerative and developmental growth for their infants anywhere and anytime, while at the same time relieving anxiety. This technology is poised to immediately capture a sizable portion of the rapidly growing $1 billion US baby monitoring solutions market. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will support the development of a novel consumer product that works with caregivers to proactively mitigate the risk of under/overheating events in newborns. Sleep-time clothing choices are thermodynamically matched with environmental conditions to create baby-specific safe sleep environments. The temperatures are maintained by leveraging the inherent connectivity of the IoT platform. The technology integrates thermal resistance measurements, thermal models and maps, advanced algorithms, and predictive monitoring. The research objectives of the project tackle the most important remaining technical challenges driving towards successful commercialization and adoption of a product that is essentially an intelligent system, capable of understanding context and tracking and managing complex interactions while anticipating requirements. The technical product of this research will advance caregiver knowledge and increase understanding of the applied thermodynamics leading to the advantageous state of thermoneutrality as well as increase infant wellbeing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.