The Nabi Car Seat Clip alerts you if leave your baby in the car
Solving a tragic but recurrent problem, the Nabi Smart Clip alerts you if you walk away from your car with a baby still inside.
Parking your car and walking away with a baby still strapped into its car seat is a tragic problem that unfortunately takes the lives of dozens of kids every year. A small clip, powered by Intel tech, wants to stop those accidents from ever happening again.
The Nabi Car Seat Clip takes the place of your current car seat's harness clip (the piece that clips across your baby's chest) and has a Bluetooth sensor built in that connects to an app on your phone. That sensor knows when the two pieces of the clip are snapped together and detects when the clip is unlatched when you take your baby out. If you walk away from your baby's car seat with the clip still snapped into place, you'll get a loud alarm on your phone that will only stop when you return to the seat and separate the clip.
The clip has a temperature sensor built in, plus an accelerometer to detect movement. It runs on a coin-cell battery that will last for a few months, and there's an indicator in the app to show you how much juice it has left. It's designed to work with any car seat on the market.
I first got to check an earlier version of the clip at CES 2015, with creator Marcie Miller, an Intel engineer who was tasked with looking for solutions to prevent infant car deaths. Even in its early stages, it was simple enough for any parent to use and easy to set up. The Nabi is the second generation of the device, and it comes with an even more user-friendly app.
Outlook
While details on where and when you can buy the Nabi are slim, we do know that it will go on sale in time for the 2015 holiday season for less than $50. Check back for more details on the exact price and where you'll be able to get it.
The Nabi isn't the only smart car seat clip. Baby Alert International sells the ChildMinder Softclip for $50, which also alerts you if you walk away from your clipped-in baby, though it sends those alerts to a small receiver that you can put on your key ring. The advantage of the Nabi is that it works with your phone, so you don't need to carry around a receiver.
With the unfortunate number of fatalities from heat stroke and other complications caused by leaving a child in a car unattended, the Nabi and other devices like it seem like lifesavers. I have no doubt that future car seat models will come with clips like these installed already, but for now, the Nabi is an ingenious accessory that brings peace of mind.