Looking for an advanced and affordable personal monitoring solution for yourself or a loved one? Wellcore Corporation, which unveiled its Mobile Personal Emergency Response System product at CES in January, recently spent time with Senior Housing News providing a demonstration and talking about the rollout of its new Personal Activity Monitor (PAM) system. Unlike other Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS), Wellcore’s technology automatically detects falls through its patent-pending technology and sends help immediately without the need to press a button but also maintains the same push-button notification system found in other PERS products. Upon notification of a fall, Wellcore’s service contacts the wearer to assess the level of emergency and can send emergency services or other care givers dependent upon the contact with the system’s user. The base station has a range of several hundred feet and the monitoring device has a fall detection accuracy detection of almost 98% according to Wellcore once the system learns a user’s activity profile.
In order to remind users to wear the product, the Wellcore system sends friendly reminders through the base unit, asking to be worn, and a notification that appears on the online dashboard. If the sensor is left unworn for an extended period of time, an email message is sent to a designated caregiver or family member. The waterproof, brushed aluminum device is small enough to be worn on a belt and has the shape and feel of an IPod Shuffle and was designed to be functional and discreet. The battery is designed to operate for 2-3 days on a full charge and notifies the user when the battery life is running low. The device also has the ability to be paired via Bluetooth technology to compatible cell phones that will allow monitoring outside the range of the base station. When a fall is detected, the cell phone summons emergency responders to the exact location of the fall using the cell phone’s GPS, and caregivers are alerted. Alerts from the system can be live phone calls, based station messages, emails and text messages to all interested parties required to be notified as part of the system’s configuration.
The system incorporates use of a web-portal to track motion, learn patterns and provide statistic and analytical data to help users and caregivers by providing a means to see & setup notifications and alerts. The customizable alerts can be emails or text message to multiple caregivers and a text to speech interface allows portal users to send message to the base station for reminders and other notifications. The portal allows users and caregivers to monitor daily activities and track statistics for various analytical purposes.
Wellcore, based in Silicon Valley, recently received a new round of venture capital funding to continue developing and marketing the product and service. The company is currently selling the system from its website and select retail e-commerce stores in April 2010. The PAM is set to ship in April with pricing for the base package and one monitoring device for $199 and additional devices are sold separately for $99. The monthly service’s introductory pricing has been set at $49.99. For those looking for a PERS product, Wellcore’s entry is a sophisticated product with a reasonable price point with many unique features compared to other PERS products in the market.
