Cocoon Cam, the first Wellness Video Baby Monitor

Congratulations to the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center Cocoon Cam team for graduating the NSF I-Corps Program in Washington DC!

(From left to right) Dr. Nadir Weibel (Mentor from UCSD CSE Department), Rubi Sanchez,
Pavan Kumar and Dennis Abremski (Mentor from von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center)

Recognizing that there was a need for smarter baby monitoring, team founders Pavan Kumar, Siva Nattamai and Rubi Sanchez developed Cocoon Cam to make baby parenting less worrisome through continuous tracking of heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature.

"Siva had a baby about 2 years ago," explained Pavan Kumar, one of the founders of Cocoon Cam. "He started looking for a baby monitor that could tell that his baby is okay when he is away, but was not able to find any product in the market that met his needs."

Using machine vision to measure heart and respiratory rate and infrared sensors to detect skin temperature, Cocoon Cam allows parents to view videos and receive alerts on their smartphone when their baby needs attention.

During the von Liebig I-Corps program, the team identified the market size for the baby monitor industry as well as stakeholders and channels for bringing Cocoon Cam to market. Throughout the program, the team was mentored by entrepreneur Dennis Abremski and Computer Science and Engineering research scientist and lecturer Dr. Nadir Weibel. With their help, the team was able to start building relationships with potential partners and customers. After over 100 customer interviews, the team realized that Cocoon Cam would be viable as both a consumer product and tool in the medical field. To those who want to start their own companies, the team urges startup founders to get out of the building.

"It is important for startup founders to talk to as many potential customers as possible to understand the real customer need for your product or service," Pavan explained.

Not long after completing the von Liebig I-Corps program, the team was accepted into the NSF I-Corps Program in Washington DC in April and graduated from the program in June. Since then, the Cocoon Cam team has continued working at full speed. Within the last few months, the team took home a prize at the Moxie Center's Zahn Prize Competition, launched their website, completed prototype development and began testing Cocoon Cam with customers in San Diego.

Congratulations again to this team for all their success! We know it won't be long until Cocoon Cam hits the market!

Want to know more?

See more on their website, "like" Cocoon Cam on Facebook and keep up with the Cocoon Cam team's updates on Twitter.