Seat that alerts caregiver if child left behind

"ensors in the seat could detect the presence of a child weighing 5 to 65 pounds. An electronic module sends alerts to a smartphone via Bluetooth. If the caretaker does not respond to the alert, the module will send e-mail and text messages to as many as 12 addresses or phone numbers that have been entered by the caretaker. These messages are delivered through the cellular network.

The seat can be installed as a rear-facing infant seat or a front-facing toddler seat. The smartphone app is free and available for most Android phones and iPhones. The app can also measure seat angle to assist with rearward-facing installation and monitors the temperature in the back seat, where, under most states’ laws, it must be mounted.

The car seat is available from Amazon.com for $350."​

Two decades ago, this was relatively rare. But in the early 1990s, car-safety experts declared that passenger-side front airbags could kill children, and they recommended that child seats be moved to the back of the car; then, for even more safety for the very young, that the baby seats be pivoted to face the rear. If few foresaw the tragic consequence of the lessened visibility of the child . . . well, who can blame them? What kind of person forgets a baby?

The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist.​