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Kenneth Shinozuka the 17 year-old founder of SafeWander steps on to the New York Launch Pod to discuss his new product to help caregivers monitor dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. SafeWander detects when these patients wander or fall with an innovative way to provide smart phone alerts based off of a ‘one twist’ motion sensor that is securely worn by the patient.
Kenneth, currently a senior in high school at the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, first began developing the SafeWander system at age 14 out of love for his grandfather with whom he was very close. Watching his aunt try to take care of his grandfather, Kenneth had the idea to develop SafeWander. What began as a sock sensor several years ago, now consists of a button sensor worn by the patient, a gateway that connects to a WiFi network, and an App, that sends a beeping alert to a mobile device as soon as the sensor detects the patient getting up.
There are over 5.3 million Alzheimer’s patients in the United States alone and over 44 million dementia patients worldwide. It’s estimated that 60% of these patients wander and 1 in 3 seniors overall, suffer from a fall risks.
Unlike anything else currently on the market, SafeWander has been tested at a number of care facilities and Kenneth has won the Scientific American Science in Action Award at the Google Science Fair, been invited to the White House, and received numerous other awards.
Hear the steps Kenneth took to make this incredible invention while balancing high school, his conversation with Bill Nye the Science Guy, what he plans to do with the product to help people, and what other inventions he plans to make!
Transcript of the episode available here: http://nylaun.ch/SafeWandert
More on SafeWander: http://www.safewander.com
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