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Ask Slashdot: Panic Button a Very Young Child Can Use
First time accepted submitter Zotonian writes My wife is epileptic. Her seizures have been well controlled by medication until recently. My concern is that we have a toddler and infant at home. I've set up cameras so I can monitor the house, but I'm looking for a solution that my 2 year old daughter can hit a button to tell me to look at them if necessary. Most of the options I'm finding off the shelf notify first responders and I'm concerned of the number of false positives a toddler might initiate. Other solutions like cellphones or wearables for kids are too overloaded with unnecessary options like GPS, phone, games, etc. I'd rather have a simple 'push button' solution I can wire into my router that would send me a text or chat message that alerts me to check the cameras. Then if there is an actually emergency I can take the steps from there. I'm looking for cheap and simple. Any suggestions from the Slashdot community?
How about a smartwatch for the wife. Make a little app the detects erratic arm movements and sends you a text message from her phone when that happens. Then you check in on the camera .
Get a trained dog instead
It's a bit heavyweight, but SmartThings has a panic button and via an IFTT integration can SMS you when it's pushed.
This product may be what you are looking for
http://bt.tn/
A big red button connected to the net that can do whatever you want
http://www.instructables.com/id/Desk-Panic-Button/?ALLSTEPS
Nobody on these forums can offer you legal advice but what you're asking sounds like a good way to get your kid taken away.
A spot messenger is fairly simple and enables you to locate them wherever they may be.
http://www.findmespot.com/en/i...
Wire it through a light switch (to an outlet) at a height your toddler can comfortably reach. Your home may already have a switchleg-activated plug for table lighting.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Get a hub and a door/window sensor or the starter kit. Put the door / window sensor on a cabinet door and tell your daughter to open that door if mommy has a problem (you could put a teddy bear or something in there that she should take to mommy ONLY if mommy is having issues). Then, using the smart app, you can have that alert you anytime the cabinet is opened. Should be less than $150 or so and now you have the start of home automation as well.
Two year olds are going to take naps and such. You cannot count on the two year old. You won't be very effective away at work if you are always worrying and checking in on the home situation.
You could get a seizure dog that could alert the wife that a seizure is imminent and/or the dog could alert the two year old to contact you. What happens when the wife has a seizure, does she fall down? Perhaps you could use a smart phone app with the wife, when the app is active it monitors the orientation of the phone, if your wife changes from vertical to horizontal then the app could message you. I don't know how much I would trust that but it might work. Finally, you could have another responsible individual at home, a friend, mother in law, etc. Good luck.
Comes with a 0-4G vibration sensor, can be extended with other sensors in the future if you want to repurpose it later.
You're asking for a kind of button that will make it possible to rely upon a 2-year-old child as a caretaker. This is not a technology problem, and unless someone finds a way to accelerate human development of children to an alarming rate, it's not a solvable one either. And I have to say, what you're proposing seems like an inherently risky situation...to your wife and child both. Your wife runs the risk of your not being alerted, and I can't even guess what it would do to a child to have that kind of responsibility, especially if she doesn't hit the button for whatever reason, and ends up haunted by that for the rest of your life.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Make it a device your wife can wear instead. Accelerometer, gyroscope, etc, built in and made to alert you if she has an episode. If these are even applicable, I know not all seizures are the kind where you collapse and shake. But if they are, then you can deal with some false positives from normal activity and try to fine tune it. then maybe even market your own version of such a device to others.
Been wondering lately why these devices are still push-button user-triggered things. Detecting a fall, activating a microphone and connecting to a base station to contact emergency assistance is definitely in the realm of current technology.
Maybe you can be the guy who gets that idea out of the 80's and into the modern age.
I assumed he is a good man but a shitty engineer, so he asked here for help from people who are good engineers but shitty human beings.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
It really depends upon the nature of the seizures. Rigidly locked in space or extreme spasms. So a motion detector that your wife can wear that can detect say laying on the ground rather than being vertical or detect rapid motions indicative of an attack. Greater care needs to be taken when holding the child or say cooking and how that is treated. These is also devices for detecting changes in blood pressure, breathing and pulse rate, so a more automated response is likely to be preferable, with a signal sent to you so that you can attempt contact to confirm conditions. Wiring up every room in your home with internet enable cameras might not be the safest choice in terms of security. If you really want the internet enabled video, an internet enabled bot would likely be the safest choice, aside from of course closed doors and internal versus yard access.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
What's the problem? I often have my 2 year old toddler housesit when my 98 year old grandfather would otherwise be home alone. It works well. If anyone asks I just tell 'em the big one is watching the little one.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
I designed one that was activated by a tank filling with fluid to a certain height. It then texted the delivery guy to come take the fluid. I can't give you my solution, it was very low level and simple based on local tech, and it wasn't a neat portable thing for your toddler to carry although it could be a panic button in the middle of the house. However, any competent hacker, er, I mean local technician, should be able to rig something together like this for you. A two year old can learn a lot and be quite responsive.
How about a z-wave controller like a Vera and one of the many z-wave remote controls out there. Out the the box the vera can email and text.
Yeah, I have a suggestion. Chill the fuck out. Watch your 2 year old, and when he/she's asleep, don't worry about it.
While you can probably delay the situations with the highest risk factors (e.g. baby's bath time) until both parents are home, there's a lot of things that potentially could go wrong while unattended. For example, A sudden onset seizure could cause the wife to drop the baby, or hit her own head on the coffee table, or who knows what else. Having a way for the 2 year old to call for help on her own in such situations could make a tremendous difference
This was a reasonable question looking for help mitigating very real risks -- don't be a dick about it.
That said: perhaps the easiest way would be to have a very basic speaker phone set up somewhere with a one-push button to actually CALL dad in case of emergency. A benefit of that over a silent email/sms/whatever setup is that it could give the 2-year old instant feedback that help is coming if there really is a problem, and depending on the verbal skills of the kid dad can save precious time as well: "mom fell and isn't moving!" vs. wasting time to try to remotely view your cameras first and see what happened.
(Although a possible downside is that she may just start hitting it anytime she wants to talk to dad during office hours)
Sandman has some one button dialers, as "call out on off-hook" phones. Program it with the number you want it to call, and it dials when you pick it up...
Instead of relying on a two year old that may not be capable (or even napping) of understanding the implications, you do this:
Rig a system, perhaps a fairly short lanyard on your wifes non-dominant wrist that pulls a pin switch that is nearly certain to get pulled during a seizing event. Sure it is annoying, and prone to false positives, but she can cancel the false positives if she is okay.
Silence is a state of mime.
Then write an app to monitor the accelerometer. Make some noise, connect to your wifi and send a chat message of some kind. False alarm? Take the opportunity to have a conversation with your wife ;).
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
I wrote a big post but slashdot is buggy and ate it. I didn't feel like writing it again. It was essentially keyfob + receiver + Rasp Pi or whatever. Should get range typical of a garage door opener.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
But I can suggest that the best technology for this sort of thing is a stand-alone cellular modem, preferentially one that is on the same network as your cell phone. Wire the button into that and have it send a text message to your phone and to your gmail address.
There are certainly cellular modems that work over a serial link and I assume there are devices you can buy off the shelf that will integrate the whole thing into a panic button type of interface. But I haven't researched all-in-one solutions so I can't point you at one. We use cellular modem / texting for alarms and alerts for telemetry systems (replacing satellite paging systems which died out many years ago).
The message will flow through the fewest number of networks possible to reach its destination (typically just the telco's own network) and texting protocols are quite robust on the telco side. It's the most reliable solution possible. If you run the message through your home router it is likely traversing four or five completely different networks to reach its destination and that just isn't as reliable.
But frankly, still not at the level of quality needed for a serious medical condition.
-Matt
I dropped some money towards the Flic indigogo awhile back, which is a simple "one click" remote button that is tethered to a smartphone, and you program it to do anything you want... send an email, call a friend, take a photo, etc. etc. Flic.io
The single function and customizability may be what you are looking for.
You're looking for the wrong thing. You want your two-year-old and a toddler to be responsible for telling you when there's an emergency?! Are you fucking nuts? The solution here is not some unreliable piece of tech based on a homebrew solution susceptible to all the failures of internet service, IP cameras, and routing equipment. The solution here is nursing care or other medical devices. You need to talk to your doctor, but a bunch of IT nerds on the internet.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
There are technical solutions that your wife could press (if she is capable of some kind of "last action" when she feels the onset) or something that could even sensibly and automatically react to certain stimuli (like not being upright, i.e. lying on the floor, irregular heartbeat, motion sensors that can identify seizures, etc), but whatever you do, DO NOT put this burden on your kid.
You are essentially asking for something that would allow you to make your kid the caretaker of your wife. That's something you might want to consider in, say, 40 years, but most certainly NOT when the child is actually still a child! What this could lead to is what's generally known as parentification. Read the link if you want to know why that's a BAD idea.
And that's even ignoring the worst possible case: Your wife getting seriously injured and your child feeling responsible for this. I think I don't have to dig up a link for you to know why that would be damaging to your child.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I am guessing that he did not look very hard...
http://www.amazon.com/LG-Veriz...
first hit after googleing "Cellphone for a small child"
a child can easily learn that press 1 for daddy, 2 for mommy, 3 for grandma and if mommy needs help press the big red hand and tell the lady on the line our address.
Otherwise for his wife there are a TON of systems that are panic buttons designed for people who have siezures.
So, what does the question asker have against all the existing options?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This means you don't have to snoop on your family using remote cameras. Certainly you must have cameras in the bathroom just in case she seizes while taking a leak, right? And the bedroom, too (sleeping or changing clothes, not taking a leak, d'oh).
That one button will be so much better at teaching your kids about the concept of "privacy" than 24 hour video surveillance of their, and their mother's, every movement (B or otherwise).
It's very difficult having a spouse with a chronic illness. (I know.) Even harder when you have children.
As much as it sucks, have her in child care as much as possible. Yes, it's horrifically expensive, it's not ideal, it's not what you envisioned (I assume, as much as you want to let her stay home with mom). But it makes sense.
If it's your wife that you are primarily worried about, then you need to figure out what can help her. Can a neighbor check on her fairly frequently? Another family member? Also, I've seen devices advertised (primarily to elderly) which claim to be able to detect falls.
For both - child and wife - check with local social workers about what is available. You may be eligible for subsidized child care due to the situation. Your wife may be eligible for some kinds of help.
Hang in there, and don't be ashamed to reach out for help.
You can do this on a Mac easily enough, even easier on Windows. Let's presume Windows:
Buy a USB "big red button" on Ebay for a few bucks. Not the "easy" kind, just the plain button. Plug it in to your computer, install the software that lets you script what the button does.
Subscribe to one of those services that will send an SMS from your PC.
Do a few minutes of scripting to get the button to send an SMS to your phone.
Program your phone -- also pretty easy -- to blast an alarm when it gets that particular SMS.
Job done. Cost: maybe $5.
Your epileptic wife is having attacks, and you want a TWO year old to be not only alone in that situation, but responsible for a panic button? Dude, you are sick and need to get a frickin clue. Fast! Someone should seriously turn you in for child endangerment bordering on abuse!
Yeah, I honestly had to consider whether or not this was an early April fools gag...
You seem to have misread his situation, it's not that he *wants* that situation, it's a situation he wants to avoid. Yet, he also wants to prepare for it.
How about a one-button waterproof cell phone?
I've read about phones where you program which number the phone calls, but I can't find any now. Maybe they are no longer sold.
But here's a phone that calls some sort of operator, who can then decide how to handle the situation. You need to pay a monthly fee for the operator but I think that's better for a 2-year-old than a phone that just dials 911.
http://www.greatcall.com/products/greatcall-splash
If you could find a 1-button programmable phone, and program it to call you, that might be ideal.
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I kept it for a while, because it seemed like /. happily accepted it. First time that has happened to me in a decade on slashdot. It makes me sad.
And thanks, but let's not assume my posts are really worth saving :)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Clearly OP has a less than ideal situation, but additional data vectors (child or not) are always good. 24x7 at home nursing care is prohibitively expensive to all but the five richest kings on earth. Do you have a constructive solution?
Mod parent troll or flame bait.
/* MAGIC THEATRE
ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY
MADMEN ONLY */
Set up an application/device that requires your wife to confirm that she's okay every n minutes. If she fails to confirm, it alerts you.
http://www.usbbutton.com/
Sounds like you always assume the best in people and can't see the whole equation played out. Optimism is good, but in this case there is a 2 year old in the equation that seems to be constantly overlooked in this thread. Web cams don't make good baby sitters, in fact I'd be curious to know if he would be guilty of a crime if something was to happen to his wife given he knew the current medial needs of her.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
My wife is epileptic. Her seizures have been well controlled by medication until recently
An infant, a toddler, and mother whose seizures are no longer under control.
There are no technical solutions for a problem like this.
You can not and must not ask a two year old to be caretaker for her mom. She is not there as a backup for your webcams or to care for your baby. This is a huge red flag for child protection services.
What you need is are licensed home care aides or nurses, with full time coverage when you absent from the home. If you want to avoid institutionalization for your wife and kids this is your only option.
Epileptics are fine most of the time, particularly if they control their seizures with medication.
But her seizures aren't under control. It's there in the first line of his post.
The dog will warn your wife when the symptoms of a seizure are about to come on. This will give her enough time to act to ensure her safety & even call for help. Yes, ADA dogs are pricey, but since you post here, I am going to guess you can afford one to keep your wife safe. Plus it will make a good playmate for your 2 year old.
Sometimes the old solution that just works, is the best solution.
Name one!
And your infant is there too, while your 98 year old grandfather is prone to forgetting what his name is and his medication is not working any more? Come on now, you have to try and make it apples to apples.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I think it is you that have misread the summary. I think the "until recently" is the real deal
breaker for me. If his wife was epileptic but had things under control then having a panic button
for the kid and/or a sensor for the wife makes sense but only in the same way it makes sense to
teach a kid to dial 911 in a fire. If she is having frequent episodes then there probably needs to be
someone else present in the house.
Since I am one of the biggest mouth pieces against what you are doing, I'll chime in and attempt to clarify a few points. Your follow up is not going to change my opinion very much, but since you took a great amount of time attempting to clarify I will try and return in kind.
when my wife unexpectedly had her first seizure in more than NINE YEARS.
If you married an epileptic person you are already brave, so hang in there. One of the many things that you should already know is that it's a very unpredictable condition. That she was seizure free for 9 years is great, but it's not relevant to my concerns. What is a concern is that you have an infant and 2 year old, and your wife seems to be in a flux with control medication.
Teaching your children what to do in case of a fire doesn't mean you are making them responsible for fire fighting.
No, but we are not talking about teaching your kid to dial 911. We are teaching your kid to dial _you_ and then you having to dial 911.. or you are trying to teach the kid both. Further, this is not a fire. This is "mommy" and the 2 year old _WILL_ panic if mom has a seizure. If you were there for her last one, you would have already seen it. At 2 years old a kid probably would not be able to dial 911 either. The expected capacity for something like this is maybe 4 years old, and that is really pushing the border.
Second, the cameras I installed have motion and noise threshold alerts, so I get automatic notification from them...[snipped because it does not matter]
What is your drive time from work to home? I'm assuming that is what is going on, you are at the office and mom is at home. Mom is holding the infant for feeding and has a seizure, how long does it take for you to get home and pull the infant to safety? Toddler goes to hug mommy and make her feel better, how long for you to be there to prevent harm to the 2 year old when that happens? If it's not a 2 minute drive, you are too late and may have two dead kids. Reality sucks, but that is reality.
Third, this is not the only solution in place. We have neighbors, friends and family who check in regularly and I expect that will greatly increase since this episode. But that doesn't guarantee that someone is going to be there when an episode occurs, or even that they would arrive in a short period of time. Again, I'm trying to prepare for worst case scenarios.
Knowing her current situation, that is called negligence. Sorry, but this is not about how fast someone can get your wife to the hospital. It's how fast can your infant and toddler be pulled out of harms way. You know the current situation, and you have two very small children at risk.
Day care or private nursing is not an option unless someone else is footing the bill. Day care is not even a money problem, it's more a problem of "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't."
I provided a few solutions above, but will repeat. 1) Exchange Student/AuPair. 2) Call a Government Social Welfare person and see if there are any programs to assist you. 3) Plenty of foundations for Epilepsy, call and see if you can get a grant 4) Find a Church and see if there are volunteers (less worry about devils this way *I'll save offending certain religions, but most are actually good*)
Back to what I said above, the "devil" you currently have is a wife with a medical condition that puts two very small children at risk. Make friends and have her make friends, bring in other parents with kids about the same age. In person company is much better than Facebook and WebCams, and playmates for your kids is extremely beneficial.
Once your wife is back to stable, not much _should_ really change. The randomness of epilepsy is probably the worst thing about it (I don't intend that as cold, none of it is good). If you are not there, it is always going to be safer t
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
If you've got some simple electronics knowledge, you could use one of these wifi modules: http://rayshobby.net/first-imp...
$3, wire up a switch, and write some software to monitor it. You could use one to make an accelerometer monitor for your wife too.
"The Epilepsy Foundation", and of course they have branches in every State and many geographical regions within States (LA has a branch, Eastern Pennsylvania, Michigan, Northern Cal, Idaho, etc..). Need me to Google that for you or can you do that all by yourself?
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I am not the US Department of Social Services, and if GP has time to make a few Slashdot posts he sure as hell can call them.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Day care or private nursing is not an option unless someone else is footing the bill. Day care is not even a money problem, it's more a problem of "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't." A seizure is something you can plan for and come up with options. Day care has a hell of a lot more unsavory potential variables. Read the news sometime.
Maybe all those people with kids in daycare are delusional, compeltely out of touch with the dangers they are placing their children in. Or mabye you are. Which is more likely?
Yes there are problems and challenges with daycare, and infant daycare spaces may in fact be unobtainable in your area due to high demand, but to think that "a seizure is something you can plan for", there seems to be something wrong with your world view. If your wife's seizures are unpredictable enough that you need some sort of monitoring, and you are able to afford care for your children to take that burden away from her, then not doing so seems strange.
Epilepsy is generally not associated with any other mental issues is it? What is your wife's position on all of this? Does she want to remain primary care giver in this situation? Does she think that this planned monitoring system would be safe enough? How is she coping with this sudden change in her previously well controlled affliction? This type of relaps can lead to major phychological distress - how is she coping with that? Being the primary caregiver of little kids is tough enough for anyone - can she handle the extra burden now that she's no longer confident of having seizures under control? How about you? Is your stress level such that you are maybe in need of some additional support? Are both of you getting enough sleep?
Are there perhaps five friends or family members who could take one day each week to spend the day with your family? Members of the local mom's group? People in your birthing classes? Church members? If the expected frequency of seizures is so high that it feels wrong to burden friends or family with the issue (perhaps monthly, weekly or daily?) then it is clearly too high to rely on tech solutions and panic buttons - your wife needs more help than that. If the expected frequency os seizures is low enough (I don't know how low this would be - maybe once a year seizures?) then maybe it would not be so difficult to provide good social coverage durring work hours, and rely more on the kids when they got older, but unless you work within a hundred meters of your home, I cannot imagine how you can think that any sort of remote monitoring would provide the type of help that you are going to need.
If mom has a seizure and you get alerted to it, what are you going to do about it? How long is your response time to get home? Are you really comfortable that the toddler and the infant will be able to handle things until you arrive? And that you can get home in time to assist your wife with her seizure issues? Are you expecting to call the ambulance to get there before you? What do you expect them to do with the kids? I imagine that the systems in place to care for families in the community might view such a situation as an unfortunate rare accident, but if this type of seizure happens again, do you think social services will be happy with leaving the children under the care of you and your wife? While there are news stories of children being left in awful situations with terrible parents, there are also cases where children are separated from parents who maybe don't seem so bad - would this type of situation fit into that characterization?
True. And a few other things.
People keep mentioning. "Why don't you have the kid run next door to the neighbor and get them to get help?" Last time I checked, if they're smart (and independent) enough to go next door for help, they're more than capable of hitting a panic button. Secondly, hitting a panic button, dad checking the cameras, and dad reacting, is all probably going to happen a lot faster than kid running next door, kid ringing door bell, talking to neighbor, neighbor coming over, neighbor deciding what to do.
On the same token, the panic button ->dad ->calls neighbour chain would likely get the nearest adult to the scene a lot faster than having the kid heading outside. Safer, too. Much better to have the kid inside with an epileptic than outside running around in a panic. What if the nearest "friendly" house is their friend's house across the street? In a panic the kid's not going to be looking both ways.
From the sounds of things, his wife is perfectly capable of taking care of things 95% of the time. If she was having daily seizures, he probably wouldn't be leaving the house. You don't need live-in care for something that may well only happen once a week or less. Instead of viewing this as an attempt at delegating all caretaking responsibility to the kid, think of it as establishing multiple fail-safes.
We know he's got bunch of cameras that he watches on a regular basis (but not continuous). Given that he's technically inclined, and that, from what I gather, many people with epileptic seizures can recognize onset symptoms, (not all sufferers, definitely not all the time, but at least sometimes) there's probably decent chances that they've rigged up something that the mother could use herself. Maybe just a speed dial, but possibly other things. If not, then the various ideas of using exercise bands and accelerometers might make a very good layer of redundancy there, too.
Personally, the idea of having a sensor-rigged cupboard with a big stuffed animal in it, and telling the kid to take mom the stuffed animal when she's in trouble sounds like a great idea too. Great padding to have between an epileptic and any potentially hard surfaces, although unlikely a kid would be placing it optimally.
Frankly, giving one's kid a panic button that sends a message to Dad seems like a really good thing to have, no matter what the situation at home is. Honestly, it isn't exactly that rare of an occurrence for the sole responsible adult at home to have some kind of accident where it would be *very* useful for the kid to have some way of summoning a responsible 3rd party, whether it be a neighbour or relative or whatever.
Lastly, just because he hasn't laid out every last precaution and detail of his family's life is no reason to assume that they're being negligent, that she's having daily severe seizures, or that they're pinning all their hopes of safety on the kid. We don't need to know all that. He simply asked for advice on a single, specific solution to a specific element of his situation. Let's help him out on that, shall we?
Some quick links that a google search turned up:
First one is an instructables video, the last two are commercial options, one for phone software, the second for an actual device.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Desk-Panic-Button/
http://www.blacklinesafety.com/solutions/loner-mobile/
https://www.alarmgrid.com/products/honeywell-5802wxt
Z
Having a way for the 2 year old to call for help on her own in such situations could make a tremendous difference
Unless of course it is the two year who gets hurt when Mom has a seizure.
Her seizures aren't under control. That is in the first line of the post. Once you admit that, you need to go with a care plan approved by her doctor, and the pediatrician who cares for your kids.
There can be nothing harder in the world.
If you worked a bit harder than a cursory glance you would find things like this: The Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization leading the fight to stop seizures, find a cure and overcome the challenges created by epilepsy.
We direct information, resources and support toward the over 140,000 Northern Californians living with epilepsy.
infant and 2 year old != "small children" by any rational definition.
Do they provide in home assistance? I don't know, GP asked me to find "one" site for support. I found that in a quick Google Search. I don't have epilepsy so have never had to search for their services. If you really care about TFA and are not just trolling, why not call them and see? Oh, I know.. you can't even read the information box in a web site so I'd be expecting miracles. It's much easier to troll and claim impossible
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
To answer your technical question minus the classic /. judgement I second @klek in suggesting Flic.io.
It sounds like it will do exactly what you're looking for.
Unfortunately they're still in development but it sounds like exactly what you're looking for.
In theory, theory always works in practice. In practice, theory rarely works. <><
Perhaps your wife could wear some sort of device (bracelet, etc) that itself would be capable of detecting that she was having a seizure, that could be setup to trigger whatever notifications were desired. Here are a few things I found alone these lines:
http://www.epdetect.com/
http://www.healthline.com/heal...
http://www.gizmag.com/embrace-...
I'd get a raspberry pi, and write some code to use one of its GPIO pins as an input. (which would then send your chat/text/email message, etc)
Then you can connect whatever kind of button or switch to it that you find most appropriate for your toddler to puch.
It's your wife and children you're talking about, look for the best solution, even if expensive and complex. It will not be worse than all the cameras you already set up.
A hydracontrolfreak box with a Phidget and a big panic button. The HCF can read the video in a loop and mail you a link to the video except at the time the button was pressed. It can also trigger prowl, boxcar whatever other alerts you want, but if you use a hotmail account you will get a push notification anyway.
I read that as: there was probably a recent event that now causes him to doubt or worry that the condition might not be fully under control.
So it could be a useful thing to have a panic button available to the child, but surely there should be a panic button available to the wife as well.
Also, my greatest concern would be that the panic button fail, so it should be quite reliable and not solely dependent on an internet connection.
I'm not sure why the author thinks it should not contact first responders.
I say rubbish.... the buttons should set off an alarm, and a monitoring company should attempt to make immediate contact with the wife; if no response, then start making a phone call to all the emergency contacts.
>Pro-tip: When posting to Slashdot, or any other website, write your post in an off-line text editor, then cut-and-paste it into the textarea. That way if their buggy JavaScript, or you fat fingers, delete it, you can just re-paste.
OR you could just install Lazarus and let technology handle the grunt work for you.
http://getlazarus.com/
Purchase a security system (ie Burglar alarm) which has GSM dialout and 24 hour panic button facility. Make sure the system has a standard input for the panic - you don't want one of those silly systems which puts "panic button facility" on the label, and then expects you to push two keys on a keypad. Wire up a simple pushbutton which you can buy at radio shack if you are extremely quick. You may have to put an End-Of-Line resistor across the switch - consult someone who knows if that is the case. The rest is pretty straightforward. (GSM dialout means it calls your mobile/cell, 24 hour panic means a button which will send a signal even when the alarm is disarmed)
I had epilepsy for 30 years, about one seizure every two weeks, before finally getting brain surgery last year. The seizures were deeply hallucinogenic, physically severe, often lasted 10-20 minutes, and they left me with a huge hangover; afterwards I had to sleep about 12-18 hours in one go, maybe wake up for maybe four hours, then go back to sleep for another 12-18 hour stretch. I was like my brain was rebooting like Windows after a blue screen. If I wasn't able to sleep, I would become really sick, get intense migraines, and start throwing up, and recovery took several days longer.
A big problem was people instantly making 911 calls. I was routinely being dragged off to an ER all the time, waking up in one at least once a month. They all knew me there, and realized after a while what the deal was, so I would be wheeled into a corner and left behind a curtain while they tended to more serious cases. I had to wait there for hours staring up at fluorescent lights and struggling to keep from vomiting and choking to death (since they liked to strap me on the bed face up). It usually took six to ten hours to get out of there- I had to wait for the lab to finish their ritual of drug assays for PCP, LSD, THC, cocaine, methamphetamine, and all kinds of other shit that they knew were going to come back negative. And this was before the ACA, so with a huge preexisting condition I couldn't get insurance from anybody, and had to pay out of pocket costs for meds which I couldn't afford half the time because this shit made it hard to get a job in the first place. When seizures came, I had about ten second warning from a visual aura. If I was outside I would quickly jump underneath nearby bushes or hide behind parked cars just so no one would see me and call the ER. I would wake up and stagger home bleeding, getting lost, and trying to stay out of sight. I did have a bracelet that said DO NOT CALL 911, along with my wife's number, but no one ever took it seriously. I wanted her to know so she could come pick me up, but I always wound up in the jaws of an ER instead.
Don't assume this guy and his wife want a 2 year old calling 911. That may be the last thing they need. I can see why he would want to know, right away. He's lived with her and is going to be better equipped to handle her than the paramedics will. if they can't get any clues from a toddler, the emergency responders have to figure out what's going on themselves, and that makes it a painful mess. There isn't a lot that an ER can do with a seizure anyway except strap the person down so they don't thrash around and get bruises. There's always the possibility of status epilepticus (which I've had many times) but you should wait until a seizure lasts for more than five minutes. They look scary, maybe like the person is dying, and of course there's the danger of thrashing around and hitting things. But in general a seizure doesn't do any lasting damage to the brain.
The problem isn't that I failed to read the summary, it's that you failed to comprehend the summary.
A camera is a method of monitoring - it is not a system for providing notification. These are two very different functions. (Something I would have thought Slashdot would grasp intuitively.)
It is, you should try it sometime.
No. I asked for an agency that could help with the suggested home care and or quit working situation. You now admit that you have no idea if the one you named will or will not do so and in the process had to brush aside that they suggest exactly the measure you claim to be irresponsible.
You then rant about the poster not doing what you obviously didn't do.
Not a great showing there.
It turns out they are a fine organization that provides a good bit of support including education, funding research, doctor referrals, and help getting compassionate discounts on the prescription drugs, but it doesn't happen to include help in this situation.
TL;DR version: BZZZT!
Take the child out of the equation. Get your wife to wear a compact mobile phone that is dialled-activated by a mercury switch-so that when she falls over/goes horizontal you are called instantly-maybe on loudspeaker or camera on mode.
You... do know that epileptic seizures are in most cases non fatal. As in the initial position is most important. It happens suddenly, when you hit a chair, table, whatever, you could get (seriously) injured. Everything after that depends very much on the length of the seizure and how quickly one regains consciousness. You simply can not call the hospital every time it happens. I am an emergency response officer (damn that sounds cocky in English) and first rule during an epileptic seizure is when you recognize it (the person should make it known they are epileptic) and help them to the ground. If you have the time push away anything that might hurt them (sharp objects, furniture). Ideally you drag them to a 3 meter radius free spot. Remember though. You will probably will be to late in most cases. And just FORGET anything about trying to stop the shaking or help someone in anyway (NO you do not force ANYTHING in to their mouths. The force of the bite is so great they can shatter teeth or the object you embed adding shrapnel of debris to the whole mix). This is a neurological condition that either stops by itself or can be negated with special medicine only a doctor can prescribe (dependent on the type of epilepsy) and carried by the person so they can instruct people to help them out with this. The most important is the aftermath. - If it is the first time and it is an unknown condition to this person: ambulance or at least off to the hospital with them. - If shaking takes more then 10 minutes or the person does not regain conscious within that time period. Call the ambulance (just in case). - Check if the person is breathing. Which I hopefully don't need to explain why and what you need to do. Everyone even a toddler can just raise the 'I think something is wrong' alarm. The point is; not a whole lot of things can accurately trigger on a seizure. As far as I know you heart rhythm doesn't even have to be affected. And the 'flailing' can't easily be found by the watch. If you are laying on your arm while having the seizure that's the only limb that will not move. While under normal circumstances you might flick your wrist and set off an alarm. People in your neighborhood are your best friend. Always, period. When you wake up you feel like you walked the marathon. Everything hurts, you feel disoriented (in most cases) and are prone to feel 'alien' as you have been 'gone' for X minutes. Yes I think a button is the right choice for given use case.
I think, that's the problem. He doesn't have any adult relatives to take care of this problem, and a private nurse would cost a lot. It seems a common problem with nuclear families.
I have epilepsy. Sorry to be hard, but if you apply the "Worst case analysis" that engineers use, all your wearables / toddlers / gimmicks are trash. Is your toddler going to pull your patient wife off the cooker that's setting her on fire? Stop her bleeding? Decide when to ring for medical help?
Most epileptics know when they have issues coming. If your wife does, have an effective strategy to deal with that. If not, rethink your career. Can you take less money and work from home? Cut some deal with your boss? Take less money and work nearer home?
There is also a little known perscription drug called Epistatus. It never seems to get approval, but is available on perscription. It is absorbed through the cheek, and can be administered while unconscious. There's a youtube video.
I hear a lot of YOUR opinions, but nothing of your wife's opinions. What does she want you to do?
So what are you saying -- epileptic people are broken subhumans and it's irresponsible for them to try to live independently? It's one thing to ban them from driving or operating heavy machinery, it's another to suggest that they can't bring up their own children.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
tags or usetags for new lines.
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
Ah I see, thank you. I didn't expect the thing to need HTML tags to function. However, I will keep that in mind.
yeah, it is a bit backwards
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
You may want to look into getting a dog. They're more reliable than a 2 year old with a panic button. I get what you're thinking and it's good that you want to watch out for your family, but, I think a proactive approach may be wiser here.
I read about these guys, it may be something you want to look into. These dogs have the ability to detect a seizure is coming before it happens.
http://www.epilepsy.com/get-he...
When your wife has a seizure, does she fall to a horizontal position? if so you may be able to use a man down type tilt sensor on her waistband or upper arm. It would seem a simple tilt switch oriented properly could sense when a person has fallen. Man, I'd hate to make a 2 year old responsible for mommy.... if something went wrong (ie *really* wrong), it could do emotional harm to the child.... the guilt of knowing you didn't do what you were supposed to to save mommy for example. Tough spot.... de ai4px
Hello, I am living in france and my mobile phone provider is "Free" (the brand www.free.fr). Among the included services, I have the possibility to send myself SMS from any computer for free (no charge). The api is very simple: curl -k "https://smsapi.free-mobile.fr/sendmsg?user=108xxxx&pass=J2xxxxx&msg=Je%20Rentre%20!"
Your wife is surely not the only parent who has siezures.
Surely there's more comprehensive advice available from organisation that actually know the first thing about this than Slashdot.
Look on-line for places that sell the same kind of fire/burgler alarms that are usually installed by alarm companies to homeowners. Personally, I bought an "ELK M1" along with a receiver that picks up signals from the Honeywell/Ademco alarm sensors and panic buttons. The programming model for these is a bit arcane, but they are rugged and reliable.
You can set up a smoke detector to automatically call a monitoring center (less than $10/month) and have them send the fire department and you can similarly use all of the standard burgler or adult-panic-button features to call police and medical help. This is all very configurable.
For your child, you can program the child's "look at me" button as a "Non Alarm Zone" so that it doesn't trigger the alarm immediately but causes the system to call you (or text you or email you) or take whatever additional action you want. (In my case, I also added a Universal Devices controller that does even more automation stuff).
You also may consider having the child's button trigger an actual panic alarm after buzzing for a while in the house. So, if the child hits the button and neither you nor your wife cancel it, professional help would be called.
Many of these systems are very configurable and a good monitoring center can have special instructions for different alarms (call house, then call you, then call help). They are a pain to program (designed for non-programmers) but surprisingly flexible.
Maybe a Panic Button is too abstract, but a year ago I saw somewhere a WiFi enabled Plush Toy that a kid could press to send (and receive) a message to an absent parent anywhere on the net.
I guess that a device like this could be used even before a kid can clearly speak and the kid would be used to it being a means of contacting daddy.
Having a bad day or are you just an asshole in general? Do you need emotional support, more sleep or professional help to prevent you from making obnoxious comments to people in a tragic situation?
How dare you judge someone to be a terrible parent based on the mere fact that they don't want their kids in daycare or perhaps can't afford it? You want to sic social services on them and raise the possibility of having the kids taken away just because the wife has a medical condition? You're asking personal questions about their psychological well being? WTF?
The guy is in a tough spot and he's asking for a technical solution to a given problem from the computer geeks on Slashdot. He doesn't need a fucking lecture from you on how to best manage his family situation and his wife's medical condition. Nor does he need you to run down a list of worst case scenarios for him and raise the specter of Big Brother taking his children away. I'm sure that he and his wife have gone through the "what ifs" 1000 times already.
The fact that seizures are "unpredictable" does not mean they happen on a regular basis and it doesn't mean they will always be so severe as to constitute an emergency situation. Suppose the frequency is 1-3 times per year? You demand that they pay for daycare and insist that the wife sit around doing nothing because there's a 0.3% chance she might have a seizure on a given day? And that not doing so makes them terrible people?
Perhaps the OP is too polite, so I'll be the first to tell you to stick your judgements, personal questions, opinions and implied threats up your ass.
I see no mention of whether the person has or does not have a landline or VOIP phone, but here is a possible solution: http://www.vtechphones.com/pro... It is a phone that can be programmed to have hotbuttons. Some of the buttons can even have pictures inserted behind the button so an ailing parent or small child can simply push a button and the phone then dials the corresponding number. That number can be 911, a parent, etc... It also has a panic button dongle that can be worn and used in case of emergency. Good luck. That is a tough situation.
Nope.
Regular old new lines work just fine.
Dunno what happened to your post.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Perhaps I am an asshole. Likely I am suffering from lack of sleep, a poor family life, and lack of fulfilment in my daily existance. Perhaps my raising potential difficulties in the manner I did makes them difficult to understand or even hear. That does not change the validity (or lack thereof) of those issues.
Raising kids is hard. Taking care of infants and toddlers can be extremely difficult. Dealing with a colicky baby at 3am with a toddler who cannot sleep due to a fever and whatever crap has happened in your life that day and the fact you haven't had a decent night's sleep in three weeks can be almost impossible. Having the additional stresses of your own illness or that of your spouse does not make it any easier.
Of course, we are all the products of unbroken lines of parents who "successfully" raised kids to breeding ages, so it clearly is not impossible, and there are uncountable number of people who have made it through much more difficult situations, but there are also huge numbers of people who have been in less difficult situations and have failed miserably. Giving some thought while not in the middle of a desperate situation on how to handle that situation can be very useful. Knowing the phone number of the local crisis hotline, the on-call "tele-nurse", or other available resources can be very useful. Taking seriously friends' offers to "call at any time" is also important. Realizing that the stresses we are talking about can and do have serious mental health effects, which can have very real long term effects even if everyone comes out completely physically fine. "Nobody died, but the divorce wasn't pretty" is not the optimal outcome.
You are right that the spectre of child services swooping in is probably not a useful addition to the discussion. If we assume that the original poster is focussing on family safety to the extent that they think they are mitigating the risk of outcomes that would we catastrophic, then involvement of child services is a non-issue. However the way things have been presented were not along the lines of "I think there is a million-to-one chance that we may have a problem, and I want to provide some extra protection to increase my peace of mind". This felt more like a "There is a 1% chance that we are going to have a problem", and in my opinion those sorts of dangers cannot be reliably addressed by the types of technical measures being considered.
The day I got my Beaglebone Black I connected an arcade button to it to test the GPIO with the onboard LEDs. Took only a moment to set up and when the button is pressed the LED lights up. Scripting an event to contact you when the button is pressed would be trivial, and it can also host an additional on-board cam for you, among other things.
I'm sure a local church would have people that may volunteer,
No there aren't. Most churches are stretched thin as it is. Very few could provide in home personnel for 40+ hours a week to someone who's dying. Even fewer even offer daycare facilities, much less in-home daycare.
I'm sure there are foundations he could apply for assistance with
Even the poor and seriously ill have trouble finding anyone to provide them care in this country. The few non-profits that offer this kind of assistance are already overwhelmed. They can't provide enough care for the seriously ill poor, much less for a middle-class guy whose wife has occasional epileptic attacks.
how about a Ou pair or exchange student?
Even at minimum wage for 40 hours week--that's about $1,200 a month. Pretty major cost for someone whose spouse already isn't working. Even I couldn't afford that easily, and I make significantly more than most.
Going on Government aid
WTF government aid are you TALKING about? You think the government provides free full-time nanny service for epileptics? Hell, they don't even provide free drugs for them.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Some of you guys and gals are being way to rough on this man. He obviously cares about his wife and kid enough to risk asking his question here, but damn, give this guy a break. While the panic button may not be a great idea at least he is thinking about solutions for what is a tough situation. I appreciate those of you who have offered suggestions of a wearable for his wife, a service dog and additionally a panic button for his child.
I don't know on beta, but on non beta, you go to your preferences (the gear next to the post anonymously checkbox) and choose "Plain Old Text" for your "Comment Post Mode". This gives you the bastard child that is forum style posting, where you can write HTML if you feel like it or you can write whatever and as long as it doesn't look like HTML it will just work but as soon as you want to write < you better break out your html entities guide.
Also remember, two enters is a paragraph.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Problem solved.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Not really. It all falls under the category of "things you need to avoid because of a handicap." It's not an insult to people with epilepsy; it's just facing reality. There's no shame in admitting something is beyond our reasonable capabilities. In fact, it takes more strength to admit it, in many cases. What if she's carrying the toddler down stairs when a seizure occurs? Suddenly it's on par with being behind the wheel with the kid wearing no seatbelt.
Being responsible for one's own life is one's own responsibility, and if someone wants to do that, and can do that, then more power to them. But being responsible for someone else's life -- especially one's own child -- is something else altogether.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I remember reading about a smartphone app. for people to monitor their elderly parents that would monitor an individual for being inactive for x amount of time and then sending a text to someone to check on them if x time elapsed. I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the app.(I'm sure you can Google it) but it sounds like it might be a possible solution for you.
Good luck.
So what are you saying -- epileptic people are broken subhumans and it's irresponsible for them to try to live independently? It's one thing to ban them from driving or operating heavy machinery, it's another to suggest that they can't bring up their own children.
What do you expect from a bunch of people who have a distorted view of the real world because they spend so much time away from it that every problem needs to absolutely have a 100% perfect technical solution? According to their world view, the mother is a bug. Bugs must be eliminated. Ergo ...
All I can say is it must be nice in that world, where every people problem has a 100% solution rate and nobody is competent if they have a physical or mental illness ... of course, their black or white distorted thinking would also disqualify them as they probably have borderline personality disorder, since they can't recognize that life has at least 50 shades of grey.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I would get an esp8266 (banggood.com $5) and an arduino nano. You can build a little sealed box with just a single switch and a LED on the outside. Kid flicks the switch, the light comes on and they know Daddy will look at the webcams. I'm happy to help you with the arduino code if you choose to do this.
Given the wording from the submitter and his follow up (anonymous) post, I am assuming the worst. With the information at hand, I believe my assumption is fair.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Go to RatShack buy a large button, wire it into an autodialer that uses your landline to dial you and possibly someone else. This way you could say have a neighbor, friend or family member notified as well.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I'm sorry for you and your wife's situation, as well as the hostile, non-constructive way that many posters have replied. Then again, this is slashdot ... You might want to check more than one place that provides service dogs, because it's not like they only start training them when someone needs one - there are always dogs in the pipeline, partially because some dogs turn out not to be suitable, but more because people who need a service dog of any sort simply can't wait a year or two to get one. You might even want to look at nearby states or provinces.
In the meantime you might want to try borrowing an ordinary dog during the day from a neighbor is isn't home during the day. Any dog can bark a LOT when something is wrong. You'll hear it if you're monitoring pretty much any room in the house, and your neighbor will appreciate having the dog not being left alone all day. Then when you get the service dog, you don't have to "abandon" the other dog - just give it back to the owners. Or keep having it over for daytimes, even if it's just once in a while. Probably not all that practical, but you never know.
Good luck to the 4 of you, and maybe you can find some way to keep us up to date :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
You know, a lot of the posts have been cruel and maybe a bit trollish, but I think that so far, you take the cake.
Are you genetically, physically, and mentally so perfect? I doubt it - at the least you seem to be in need of an empathy transplant.
She hasn't had a seizure in 9 years and her doctors were even thinking of weaning her off the medication. Do you ban everyone who "might" produce a child who has a chronic disease? And who decides? Before the discovery of insulin, type one diabetes was a death sentence. In 50 years, we'll probably have a permanent cure. 20 years ago there was one type of cancer that had a 100% fatality rate in children. Now - 5%. In the future - who knows?
You might want to consider your own future - because you are at risk.
The incidence of epilepsy increases dramatically beginning at age 60 years and the elderly are the fastest growing segment of the general population in developed countries.
Based upon the LR (lifetime risk) calculations in this population-based study, 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy during their lifetime. Men have a higher risk of developing epilepsy (1 of every 21 males) than women (1 of every 28 females). This approach is more accurate than cumulative incidence, and it is better comprehended by most people who are accustomed to similar statistics provided for cancer.
Now throw in mental illnesses:
The projected lifetime risk estimates suggest that approximately half the population (47-55%) will eventually have a mental disorder in six countries (Colombia, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Ukraine, United States)
And lets not forget chronic physical diseases - heart, kidneys, diabetes, eyes, cancer, bladder, colon, etc.
If you look at the stats, it's pretty much impossible that anyone on the whole planet is "perfect" and will never develop problems.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Everyone is at risk of sudden death, an unexpected fit or whatever. Some people are slightly more prone to it than others, some are extremely prone. Where do we draw the line?
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
How about one of those devices designed for seniors ("fell and can't get up" call device) -- I gather some connect directly to 911, others to a preset phone number. They're designed for a person possibly incapacitated who only has enough remaining steam to push a button. Basically they're single-function cell phones.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?