Independence-assisting device for elderly began as burglar alarm

The device was initially conceived and developed by Simpalarm director James Savage as a burglar alarm due to a spate of burglaries in the street he was living in.

‘I had in my head something that was mains powered and nice and loud which, when it detected movement, gave off a very loud alarm that affected the burglar’s ability to think,’ Savage told The Engineer.

Simpalarm has since evolved into a device that plugs into any household mains socket and contains a passive infrared sensor to monitor movement.

It reports the information it gathers to a web-based server, which then uses software to allocate, analyse and disseminate that information.  

If the device is installed within a ground floor hallway or a room in regular use, such as the kitchen, it will detect movement activity a number of times each day.

Savage said the device reports detected activity by securely sending packets of information to a central server wirelessly using its integral GPRS modem. Over a period of time, typically a week or two, patterns of activity in a person’s daily routine will emerge.