Company’s sales pitch: Keep track of loved ones through water usage
It all started when Marlo Vernon’s grandma didn’t pick up the phone.
The recent University of Colorado Boulder graduate’s grandmother had fallen a few months before, so when she wasn’t answering calls or texts, the family sent someone over. Turns out grandma was completely fine.
The family wanted a way to keep an eye on her, but didn’t want the invasiveness of video cameras or motion detectors. And Vernon knew her grandmother wouldn’t wear a Life Alert necklace nor would she want them to call every day.
That’s when CarePenguin was born — a Boulder-based company that provides a non-invasive way to keep tabs on older family members or loved ones by monitoring water usage.
“It’s a good way to catch falls faster without being creepy and putting cameras in their house or motion sensors in every room,” said Vernon, CarePenguin’s founder and chief executive officer.
The name CarePenguin comes from how penguins interact with each other. Vernon said that they are very familial birds, and as an added bonus, penguins also spend most of their lives in water.
Water is an indicator for human behavior, she said. Typically, everyone’s morning routine involves water — whether that’s running the faucet, taking a shower or refilling the dog’s water bowl.
CarePenguin tracks the water usage in a home using a sensor that attaches to the main hot water source. Most water usage uses some amount of warm water, Vernon said, and the sensor takes temperature readings every 15 seconds.
“Whenever anyone uses water in the house, the temperature of that pipe spikes way up, indicating that someone is up and active and going about their normal daily routine,” Vernon said.
CarePenguin does not have a consent form, but rather, expects families to have conversations with their loved ones about using the sensors.
“We plan on providing educational material on how to talk to your elderly loved ones about passive monitoring, but APP » 11A