GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It's the number one cause of death before age one. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) takes the lives of one in 2,000 babies. Now a new baby monitor may keep a watchful eye on little ones as they sleep.
You need Flash Player 8 or higher to view video content with the ROO Flash Player.
Click here to download and install it.
For the Boger family, moments together mean everything. Three years ago their lives turned upside down.
"I just figured he's tired, let him sleep," Lisa recalled to Ivanhoe. "I went back in to check him probably about 35, 40 minutes later and he was blue."
At just 10 weeks, their son Jacob died of SIDS.
"Just to have him suddenly taken from us and have no answer to it, it's very hard to live with," Lisa said.
Electrical and computer engineers at the University of Florida have a way to keep babies safe as they sleep. They're using the same radar technology cops use to catch speeders to monitor breathing.
"Most of the time you won't hear a noise actually if the baby's sleeping very well, so this give the protection that if 20 seconds that baby's not breathing, then that means something bad happened," Jenshan Lin, Ph.D., an electrical and computer engineer at the University of Florida in Gainesville, explained to Ivanhoe.
Most baby monitors on the market transmit sound or video. The new design uses Doppler radar to measure the baby's chest wall movement. If the baby stops breathing, an alarm sounds.
The radar signals won't harm the baby. A cell phone emits about one watt of power. The monitor -- 1/10,000th of that.
The engineers are also using the same Doppler radar technology to design a robot to locate disaster victims.
Today Lisa keeps Jacob close to her heart, in a locket around her neck. For the Bogers, the new baby monitor is priceless.
"Being a SIDS mom, I'll be the first in line to support a product that would do that," Lisa said.
"It would be a tremendous load off of you," Greg, Jacob's father, told Ivanhoe.
Jenshan Lin says the monitor could also be configured to measure a baby's heartbeat as well. He hopes the monitor will be available to the public in a year.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.-USA, contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
Each year America uses 180 billion gallons of oil to fuel our cars and trucks. Farmers may have the answer to the problem by turning their waste into fuel.
Research shows that once we turn 25, our brains slow production of chemicals linked to memory. Now there’s a new supplement that helps keep your memory sharp.
