In an effort to combat an alarming 740, and climbing, child-related vehicular heatstroke deaths that span nearly two decades, two engineering students and a business student have announced a technological invention to completely solve this nationwide dilemma. This patent-pending invention, appropriately named Vehicle Integrated Kid In Emergency (VIKIE^tm), is a system that detects children according to weight and other factors and subsequently begins to monitor said child if left alone in the vehicle.

As of late, it has become commonplace, summer after summer, that we are constantly bombarded with tragic news of kids and/or pets dying in cars. VIKIE^tm seeks to remedy this by using proactive and reactive system design that in essence functions like an electronic guardian for kids, pets, and any feeble passenger (disabled, elderly, injured, and others) that cannot fend for themselves when left trapped in a hot vehicle.

VIKIE^tm is an unseen and embedded system that can detect when children are present in a vehicle and subsequently can detect when children are left alone in the vehicle. The system begins monitoring the temperature, it's own timer, and / or if the child is removed before dangerous levels trigger VIKIE^tm's alarms. The alarms, which initiate once a child is left alone beyond a predetermined time (which is dynamic according to temperature and other factors), include a door dash alert upon exit, a text to the driver within minutes of exiting the vehicle, horn activation, flashing lights, sounding of a public address system alerting passersby of child in distress, and if all else fails, it texts 911 dispatchers the GPS coordinates and car information.

The VIKIE^tm system is dynamic and can encompass a bevy of installation implementations. One common implementation that will be the most popular (Fig. 1) is simply a microcontroller, motion detector, thermistors, load cells, seatbelt triggers, a public address system, and GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular capabilities, among a host of other various patent-pending implementations.

Also, with the VIKIE^tm system, there is absolutely nothing to do for the vehicle operator other than operate the vehicle as normal; buckle up, commute, and exit. With this invention, it is hopeful that future summers (possibly as soon as 2016) will no longer be sprinkled with news of kids and pets suffering or dying in hot vehicles.

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Person of Contact: Derek Scarborough

Contact info: derek@vikie.net