INFANT MONITORING PROTECTION SYSTEM (IMPS)

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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS - ‘cot death’) kills thousands of infants worldwide every year between the ages of one week and twelve months. There have been many research projects and many more that are still ongoing concerning the causes of SIDS but none have reached a definitive answer. This report examines the probable causes of SIDS and tries to answer the possible solutions, both in the realms of more awareness by parents and the use of modern technologies which could provide an early warning system. The modern baby monitor has advanced dramatically in the last ten years but there is still room for improvement; the advances in technology are so profound that yesterdays electronic products are soon discarded for today’s latest models. An insight into the causes of ‘cot death’ would be an advantage in determining the course of action to take that could prevent, or at least diminish, the effects of this syndrome. Unfortunately there are no definitive answers. Parents of new born babies have choices. Do nothing, as probably their parents did, and hope the baby reaches an age at which the problem becomes non-existent, follow the published guidelines and hope that will be sufficient, or use modern technology in order to monitor their child while it sleeps. Cot Death is very unforgiving, it can happen at any time, minutes after putting the baby in the cot, sometime during the night or just before the baby wakes. There is no warning. A baby that dies due to the cot death syndrome does not cry first. With this in mind it would seem that a standard audio baby monitor, which was very popular in the 60’s and 70’s, will be totally ineffective. Since the recognition in the late 1960’s of the cot death syndrome, the monitoring of babies has changed dramatically. The audio monitor has been supplanted by a more effective system which employs movement monitors, video monitors and ambient room temperature monitors with audio and visual warnings in the event of the baby suffering distress. Investigations into the monitors available today, and the loss of a close friend’s baby due to cot death, led to the need to design a baby monitor that would be more effective in trying to prevent this loss of life and the grief caused by the loss. IMPS is a monitoring system that may, or may not, be totally effective in the saving of lives but, the idea of a monitoring system that measures every aspect of an infant and his/her environment tries hard to be that totally effective system.Certain aspects of this design may not be able to be realised but, the advancements of technology mean that the realisation could soon be a reality.The cost of this design could be a significant barrier for most consumers but, if the cost of all the different monitoring systems used in this design were bought as separate units, the cost of those units would most certainly be greater.