New device gives caregivers another eye
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
James Riley didn't want to send his elderly mother-in-law to a nursing home, but her Alzheimer's disease was proving difficult to handle.
Often during the night she would awaken, begin wandering away from her bed and fall because she was disoriented.
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This device called The Caregiver's Third Eye, alerts a caregiver when a person exits a room."I slept on the couch, but by the time we got to the bed she'd be on the floor," Riley said.
Frustrated and concerned for his mother-in-law's health, the head of Springfield Jarco Instruments and his daughter, Tami Randall, invented a device that rang an alarm every time his mother-in-law attempted to leave her bed.
The instrument, dubbed the Caregiver's Third Eye, uses an infrared beam and a reflector to trigger a shrill alarm unit that can be placed up to 100 feet away and in a separate room such as the caregiver's bedroom. The beam, placed across a doorway or along side a bed, will set off the alarm when its path is obstructed.
Randall said his invisible watcher will warn people when an elderly parent with physical disabilities or Alzheimer's has left a room or a bed. It also gives the patient a quick way to call for help.
"We know what it's like to worry," Randall said. "We know how stressful it can be. You loose sleep and that can lead to health problems for the caregiver."
The Third Eye also can warn people if a young child is crawling toward a staircase, a sleepwalking spouse is on the move or if a pet has entered a forbidden room in the house, Randall said.
It took the father-daughter team several years to perfect the warning system, which received its patent in December and is now manufactured in Germantown, Ohio.
Randall said six homes have used the device for three years, and, with the patent, she and her father are ready to sell the Third Eye on the open market.
The device costs approximately $200 for a standard unit, or $500 to $600 for a large unit with an alarm that can be placed up to half a mile from the beam and is designed for use in nursing homes.
A Web site for the Caregiver's Third Eye is still a work in progress, but inquiries about the instrument can be sent to springfieldjarco@att.net.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374 or eschmautz@coxohio.com
