Mother invents drone to help track her autistic child

Nonni is a sphere-shaped drone which has a camera that transmits a video feed to a parent's smartphone. This drone is programmable, which means that the parent can instruct the drone to set boundaries for what is considered a safe space for the child — like a backyard or a playroom.

“It's sometimes just a challenge to do laundry or get chores done because you feel like you need to be there all the time,” Christine explained, saying that she created this device because there was nothing like this on the market. Nonni aims at monitoring children within the home.

The drone is customizable, and interacts with electronic signals that set those boundaries. Those signals could be wires buried in a backyard, similar to the electronic fence that some pet owners use, or they could be on posts.

According to the inventor, Nonni uses facial recognition technology to monitor the child from a distance. The drone would be stationary unless the child strayed from the safe space. At that point, the drone would hover toward the child and use a recorded voice message from the parent to prompt the child to go to a safe area.

The mother said that there are some devices to help monitor autistic children, like AngelSense, but they are not completely satisfactory because they lack a video camera.

Christine has a provisional patent for the design and intends to bring her product to the market, since she believes it can also be useful for monitoring Alzheimer’s disease patients.

She is now looking to pitch her product to investors and run some tests.

“I may not be selling a ton of products or making a lot of money, but it makes me feel good to be able to help if I can,” she concluded.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2B9wx0U