Martin Štěpnička graduated from the University of Technology in Brno, after his studies he joined a startup as a hardware developer. From the developer’s chair, he gradually rose to the position of executive director of Senzoor, which manufactures and sells SOS buttons. Today, they save the lives of senior citizens not only in Brno, but also in the rest of the country. It is Martin who is behind the development of this button, which, according to him, was created during procrastination.
“The button that today saves the lives of seniors across the country was created as part of procrastination”
Martin joined the Brno sensor production company as a developer. “In the beginning we were playing with the technology itself, I thought we could try to develop a controller or a button and make it as small as possible. It was a bit of a challenge for me, but the button that today saves the lives of seniors across the country was actually created as part of procrastination,” Martin briefly introduces me to the history of the button, which was born in a workshop in Čechyňská street in Brno.
In addition to me and Martin, there are still a lot of tools, components and other gadgets in the workshop, without which the button probably wouldn’t exist. I can’t find my way in the creative chaos, but Martin calms me down. “Everything has a system,” Laughs.
“In development, from my experience, it often works like this: you solve a specific problem, you sit on it for hours and days and you could sit on it until midnight, but then you just go out for a beer in the evening and suddenly it clicks in your head and you have it solved. How many times is it better to get out of a long session and do something else, because then the solution will suddenly appear in your head.”
When the user presses the button, the device will connect to the five set contacts in turn
Martin started developing the emergency button in 2018, and due to the rapid development of technology, he gradually had to focus on fitting a larger number of components into a smaller box. “Eventually I managed to cram everything in there, but when it was done, I started thinking about where else I could make it even smaller and how small the emergency button could be. When I was able to functionally install all the components in a box roughly the size of a garage door button, the first generation of our button was actually created.”
After a few months, the first device primarily intended for its owner to call for help in an emergency was created in the Brno workshop. “Emergency can be made known to the user by pressing a button, but fall detection can also be set, which means that the device will behave the same as if the user pressed the button. Of course, we took into account that the user can just hit another object with his hand and it doesn’t have to be a fall right away. To prevent any unwanted alarms, the button will flash and vibrate and if the user does not respond to it, help will be called.” Martin explains the main function of the emergency button.
When the going gets tough and the user presses the button, the device will gradually connect with the five set contacts via mail, SMS and phone. “From our experience, we already know that no one reads e-mails, text messages are fine, but it can happen that a person does not read it in time, so the most important thing is clearly the call. The way it works is that the button sequentially calls numbers from a list of five contacts until one of them picks up, then the other contacts receive an SMS telling them who picked up the phone, so that everyone knows that someone is already handling the situation.”
“It’s incredibly fulfilling to communicate with someone whose loved one’s life was saved by our bracelet”
In his words, Martin only realized with time what potential the button had and what it could mean in terms of helping the elderly. “Some members of our team take our work literally as a mission. The cases where the emergency button has saved a life are still increasing and are basically on a daily basis. We are always very pleased when people write to us, call us or even send us chocolate saying that our button really works and has saved a relative’s life. It’s incredibly fulfilling to communicate with someone whose loved one’s life was literally saved by our bracelet.” Laughs.
Martin’s buttons are also used by the municipality office of Židlochovice, which is located south of Brno. “They have a very progressive mayor who likes to try new technologies and then other municipalities will start using them as well. About thirty of our buttons are available in Židlochovice and are used by seniors who live alone as part of the care service. When pressed, the buttons contact the mobile number of the Židlochovice city police,” Martin describes the collaboration.
There are various emergency buttons on the market, but the ones from Brno have a unique battery life. “We give at least a year. The lifespan of competitive buttons on a single charge ranges from a week to a fortnight. Even among the competition, there are buttons that can last for about a year with one battery, but they are more like doorbells, because they only cover one household and the user must have some kind of switchboard in the socket that sends the signal on. With our button, the user can also go outside.” The button that Martin developed thus offers the possibility to call for help from places outside the home. At the same time, it can determine the user’s location according to the transmitted signal.
The device itself sends a diagnostic message every 18 hours, which includes signal strength, battery status or temperature. “That’s how we know the device works. If we find that the button is not working properly, we send an SMS message to the contacts asking them, for example, to change the battery after a year, it is similar to the one in the watch. A lot of our competitors don’t deal with this at all, and in my opinion the worst thing is to have an emergency button on you, rely on it and not really know if it happens to have a dead battery.” Martin shrugs.
Most importantly, don’t miss the train
Martin realizes that he cannot miss the train because technological progress is very fast. “We are now bringing the third generation of the emergency button, which is more compact and will offer users new fall detection.”
Seniors who are offered an emergency button often respond with disinterest because they do not feel they are old enough to need one. “But when something happens, people will come. 60 to 70 percent of customers will dare to say that. Misfortune just doesn’t walk in mountains. For example, we young people take our phones to the toilet, so we could call for help, but I believe that seniors don’t go to the toilet to see what’s new on Facebook or Instagram. And if something happens to them in the toilet or another place where they won’t have their phone with them, they are sure of the presence of a charged and functional emergency button.”
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