Gujarat start-up in talks with watchmakers to produce safety gear

Ahmedabad-based Intellovate Technologies is in talks with major watchmakers for mass production of FearSafe, a wearable gadget for personal safety. The start-up’s international patent for the gadget was published in this year’s Patent Cooperation Treaty.

“The independent device does not need to be connected to any smartphone and can automatically sense and send data regarding several parameters such as pulse rate, body temperature, oxygen count and location coordinates through a SIM card embedded in it on real-time basis,” said Rasesh Shah, founder director of Intellovate Technologies.

According to him, these parameters are constantly processed by a smart algorithm to assess whether the person will need help. The start-up has been jointly founded by Shah with his cousin Tejas.

The company had filed an international patent for its ‘Intellosense Technology’, which automatically senses several parameters and triggers distress signals based on real-time processing of data. The device also enables the wearer to press a button to ask for help or simply shout for help.

“There have been individual attempts at creating devices that have either AutoSense or AutoTrigger. This is the first time that a combination of both has been attempted, which is why the international patent has been published and we hope to bag the patent soon. Now that it is public, we are in talks with some of the major watchmakers in the country for commercial production of the devices,” said Shah while refusing to divulge further details.

According to Shah, while the product may see a pilot testing in September, the company plans to launch the product in retail through its tie-up with a watch maker by December 2015.

The target audience includes working women, elderly people, children and corporate leaders.

In case of emergency, the device will sense variations in parameters and send distress signals based on the kind of situation. “The device what we call a body guard in case of emergency and problem (BICEP) network, wherein it smartly senses the kind of problem and sends signal to relevant team. For instance, in case of fire, it will connect the device to a fire department and in case of a heart attack, it will connect to a hospital. Also, the user will get a phone call from us to verify the distress and the call will also automatically trigger an in-built microphone and camera,” Shah explained. Being operational in stealth mode so far, the start-up hasn’t sought funding even as it self-funded to the tune of multi-million rupees. With plans to go out in the market, Intellovate began the capital-raising activity.

The company has tentatively priced the device at around $100 for the economy model, $200 for the standard model and $300 for the premium model.

The firm has also tied up with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad for a market and feasibility survey.