Raybaby tracks your baby’s breathing from a distance

Indian startup Ray has launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to create Raybaby, a non-contact breathing tracker for your baby. That means it can monitor how your baby is breathing from a distance, without the need to strap anything to the baby.

Bangalore-based Ray is supported by Johnson & Johnson, the baby products company, and the HAX Accelerator, a hardware startup accelerator that is supporting companies in India. The two entities have a joint consumer health device accelerator program.

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The monitor uses Ultra-wideband (UWB) radar technology to measure minute movements in a baby’s chest. That allows it to measure breathing patterns and send alerts when necessary.

According to medical research published in the Medical Journal of Australia, respiratory rate is considered one of the most important medical markers. Disruptions in breathing can be an indicator of respiratory illness, such as asthma and bronchitis. Alterations in respiratory rate can be used to predict potentially serious clinical events, such as cardiac arrest and respiratory issues.

“Using a non-contact method of tracking respiratory rates means doing away with batteries and wearables on the baby’s body,” said Ray cofounder Ranjana Nair, in a statement. “This is of vital importance with children, as comfort, hygiene, and accuracy of recorded rates become top priority,” she added.

The device is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It can be wall-mounted or placed on a table top. The baby isn’t going to rip the unit off the wall. The company said that UWB radar technology operates at a distance and can measure the breathing with 98 percent accuracy.

With clinically tested and FDA approved components, results are comparable to those produced by medical-grade, gold standard polysomnography sleep studies conducted in hospitals to monitor sleep, the company said.

“The built-in sensors and camera capture precious moments and then provide highlights to parents via the app,” said Ray cofounder Sanchi Poovaya, in a statement. “They get the best of two worlds: vital monitoring and video monitoring all in one device, all of which is securely stored using Amazon Cloud Services.”

With the accompanying app, parents can also track when their baby is awake, sleepy, or sleeping and can get tips and notifications on how to optimize their baby’s sleep routine.

“Parenthood is tough. It’s wonderful, exhausting, and yet somehow, richly rewarding to bring up tiny versions of ourselves,” said Ray cofounder Aardra Kannan. “But in all the madness, sometimes new parents tend to forget just how much technology can ease up their lives.”

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Ray’s Kickstarter campaign runs from January 31 to March 17, 2017.