our baby-monitoring device, aims to support two of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 11. (sustainable cities and communities). First, SDG 3 focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages. By detecting movement and recording video, Motion helps parents monitor infants for risks like sudden stops in breathing or unsafe sleep positions, which relate to reducing preventable deaths in newborns and children under 5—a key target of SDG 3. It provides an affordable tool to ease parental anxiety and improve infant safety, especially in homes where expensive monitors aren’t an option. Motion tackles this by offering a low-cost solution (under £20) compared to high-end baby monitors (£100+), making safety technology accessible to lower-income families who might otherwise go without.

In our prototype we used an Arduino as a microcontroller. We intended to use it as a security camera but instead changed our products use case to baby monitoring. The Motion prototype is a compact, low-cost baby-monitoring device built to detect movement and record video, giving parents an affordable way to watch over their infants. It uses a PIR (Passive Infrared) sensor to spot motion, like a baby shifting in a crib, triggering a buzzer to alert parents instantly with a sharp sound. A small camera module captures video whenever motion is detected, saving footage to an SD card for later review—letting parents see what happened if they miss the alert. The setup runs on an Arduino microcontroller, wired together on a breadboard with jumper cables, powered via USB for simplicity. Costing under £20, it’s made from basic, accessible parts: the PIR sensor, buzzer, a cheap camera, and a standard SD card, all housed in a simple casing (like a 3D-printed box if available). This prototype is rough but functional—designed to test if it can reliably spot movement, buzz loudly, and store clear video. It’s our starting point to refine based on real use, ensuring it meets parents’ needs for safety and peace of mind without fancy extras.

We had to find a way to incorporate all the functions we needed in the camera while also maintaining a low build cost to make sure it is financially sustainable. This allows for a highly reproduceable product that can be mass manufactured if needed. By keeping the products parts cheap and simple it allows for future modifications and ease of use. To figure all this out we all researched on competitive products and how they work. We also looked into cheaper alternative parts with the same results.