Hi parents, my team has recently been tasked with addressing why kids don't play outside as much as before anymore.
When we examined the issue, we found two problems:
1. Parents are concerned with the safety of their child and thus, limit the area of play for the child.
2. Some families are unaware of other neighboring families with children of similar ages and thus, kids don't get together and play.
Further research showed that unsupervised outdoor play encourages more physical activity (around 20% more heart-pumping activity according to ParticipAction). Then, we learned that parents are more comfortable with unsupervised outdoor play if their child is with a friend or sibling.
As a result, we designed TapBand, a bracelet item that will establish a simple line of communication between parents and their child.
Essentially, a child will wear the TapBand and the parents will be able to track where they are in the neighbourhood system. The child will be marked safe when they are home or with a friend, "caution" whenever they are alone, and "in distress" if they are alone for a long time or press the distress button on the TapBand they are wearing. When the child is "in distress", alerts could be sent to every household within the neighbourhood system.
Moreover, the TapBand is cheaper to other devices as it does not use a GPS System or cellular technology (we are looking at around $50 cheaper). That is because it requires a few families within the neighbourhood to be a part of the program to set-up the system. This encourages community-building and could expand the child's friend group.
There are still many things we could change so we would greatly appreciate feedback and whether you would be interested in this product.
Thanks for reading about our proposed product.
Richard
When we examined the issue, we found two problems:
1. Parents are concerned with the safety of their child and thus, limit the area of play for the child.
2. Some families are unaware of other neighboring families with children of similar ages and thus, kids don't get together and play.
Further research showed that unsupervised outdoor play encourages more physical activity (around 20% more heart-pumping activity according to ParticipAction). Then, we learned that parents are more comfortable with unsupervised outdoor play if their child is with a friend or sibling.
As a result, we designed TapBand, a bracelet item that will establish a simple line of communication between parents and their child.
Essentially, a child will wear the TapBand and the parents will be able to track where they are in the neighbourhood system. The child will be marked safe when they are home or with a friend, "caution" whenever they are alone, and "in distress" if they are alone for a long time or press the distress button on the TapBand they are wearing. When the child is "in distress", alerts could be sent to every household within the neighbourhood system.
Moreover, the TapBand is cheaper to other devices as it does not use a GPS System or cellular technology (we are looking at around $50 cheaper). That is because it requires a few families within the neighbourhood to be a part of the program to set-up the system. This encourages community-building and could expand the child's friend group.
There are still many things we could change so we would greatly appreciate feedback and whether you would be interested in this product.
Thanks for reading about our proposed product.
Richard