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IEMI Labs
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SensingDesign complete (stages 1–6), not built; regulatory position needs counsel review

CareWatch

Camera-free room activity and check-in prompts for care staff

Tells the on-shift carer which room to check and why (too long in the bathroom, no movement, not up by the usual time) using 60 GHz radar, with no camera and nothing to wear. Not a medical device.

Who buys it
US assisted-living and memory-care operators (director of wellness) and non-medical home-care agencies that sell a remote check-in add-on.
Why it pays
About $9–14k/yr of targeted night-check time for a 40-unit building (est.), and a $39–59/month check-in add-on for agencies against $12/month to IEMI (est.).
Target price
$129 per room (Wi-Fi) or $159 (LTE-M) + $8/room/month, or $12/client/month for agencies (target)
First-minute wow
A carer's phone shows "Room 12: in bathroom 20 min (usual 6). Please check." with one-tap acknowledge, and the director sees every response time.
See the CAD designConcept page
CareWatch concept: the idea and where each part goes
The concept. The CAD design is below, under Printable CAD.

What the research found

And how this design answers it

  • Fall/medical claims were uninsurable → non-medical intended use, radar fall flag switched off, "please check" wording, claim rules in DESIGN §8
  • Vayyar (~$240 + $19.99/mo consumer) and Nobi (~$2,500/apartment) → $129 + $8/room/month, bathroom-time and routine prompts, self-install
  • Aqara FP2 at ~$58 sets a hardware price floor → the product is the fleet layer: rosters, escalation, acknowledgement audit, offline supervision
  • Bathrooms have no socket and are wet → listed 5 V adapter outside the room, flat cable, 2 Ah ride-through cell, vents on the lower edge only
  • A silent dead sensor is the real liability → 60 s heartbeat, offline alert in 5 min, daily self-test email

Use case

Long bathroom visit at 3 am

ResidentNight carerShift leadDirector of wellness

  1. 01Trigger: at 03:10 the resident goes into the bathroom; the room's usual night visit is 6 minutes and there is no shower humidity spike
  2. 02Detection: at 20 minutes the puck raises bathroom_long
  3. 03Alert: the carer's phone shows "Room 12: in bathroom 20 min (usual 6). Please check."; with no acknowledgement in 3 minutes it goes to the shift lead
  4. 04Action: the carer checks the room, taps Attended and records the outcome; the response time goes into the weekly report

Outcome: The right room is checked about 20 minutes in rather than at the next 2-hourly round; about $9–14k/yr of targeted night-check time per 40 units (est.)

How it works

Architecture

  1. 01

    Sense: 60 GHz radar module (presence, motion, zones) plus SHT40 humidity for showers, in a 90 mm puck

  2. 02

    Decide: ESP32-S3 runs zone dwell timers on the puck; the cloud applies 14-day per-room baselines

  3. 03

    Send: MQTT over TLS on facility Wi-Fi, or LTE-M (nRF9151) in client homes; events and 1-minute bins only

  4. 04

    Tell: carer phone app with acknowledge and escalation, director console, weekly counts report

Hardware

Real parts, buyable today

Bill of materials: about $59 per Wi-Fi puck, $90 LTE-M, at qty 100 (est.).

BlockPartWhy this part
RadarSeeed MR60FDA2 60 GHz moduleRadar processing on the module, UART out, $30 kit for the pilot
MCU + radioESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8Wi-Fi/BLE install, secure boot, zone logic
HumiditySensirion SHT40Shower detection stops false bathroom prompts
PowerBQ24074 + TPS63802 + 2 Ah LiPoUSB-C power with about 6 hours of ride-through
Cellular (home SKU)Nordic nRF9151 + 1NCE SIMClient homes often lack Wi-Fi the agency controls

Mechanical

Printable CAD

6 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.

See the CAD parts render
CareWatch printable parts, rendered from the CAD
Render of the printable parts from the actual CAD. Not yet printed or photographed.

Loading the CAD…

Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways

Open risks we are working on

  • Operators may want fall detection and not settle for "please check" prompts (validate with 10 operator calls)
  • Regulatory boundary: bed-exit fall-prevention alarms are FDA Class I (21 CFR 880.2400); counsel must approve the wording
  • Single-source radar module; field of view and current draw not yet measured
  • False prompts from pets, fans and two-person rooms until baselines settle

Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.