Solar-powered
parent-child
communication

Overview

Uhuru is a Japanese company focusing on innovation by combining out-of-the-box thinking and co-creation with the power of the Internet. Their goal is to unleash the full potential of IoT technologies, and bring the benefits of IoT to every corner of the globe. Uhuru offers their clients a one-stop-service covering every aspect of IoT, using their expertise to formulate business strategies, provide technological support and create communication strategies.

The idea

Uhuru wanted to create a new product category within the children’s safety product market. The existing categories within this market were mobile phones for children and simple emergency alarms. Uhuru believed there was a gap between these two categories. To bridge the gap, Uhuru needed a partner with strong industrial and digital product design capabilities. Uhuru turned to Star for assistance.

Project

Starting with the initial ideation phase, Star investigated possible designs for the solar-powered tracking device. We delivered three finalist 3D CAD designs that Uhuru could use to build appearance mock-ups. The Star team focused on the manufacturing feasibility of the designs they created, so Uhuru’s designers and engineers could put the designs into production at a later point in time.

The result of this collaboration was Solarmori, a solar-powered security and communication device. Solarmori merges a security buzzer, GPS tracker and texting device into one, solar-powered device. By using the accompanying smartphone app, parents can see where their children are, send simple messages and communicate using “stamps” (emojis). In case of an emergency, children can press a buzzer that activates an alarm, alerts their surroundings and sends an alert to the parents’ smartphones.

Project scope