CloudMass Ara

What's the problem?

Daily in New Zealand, two dementia patients go missing. That's over 700 individuals each year in New Zealand alone. Dementia has seven stages, from no cognitive decline (stage one) to very severe cognitive decline (stage seven). Between stages two to seven there is an everpresent wandering risk, highlighting the prominence of this social issue. It is estimated that there are around 40 to 50 million people in the world with dementia, and that number is only expected to rise with ageing populations.

Who are we?

At CloudMass, we believe in thinking differently. We believe in challenging normality. CloudMass was founded on the intention of encouraging freedom for dementia suffers and their families. We strive to innovate and produce modern solutions to social issues. Since 2018, we've aimed to assist those less able through care in real-time. 

Throughout 2019 and 2020 CloudMass has participated in the New Zealand Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) run by the Young Enterprise Trust. The Young Enterprise Scheme is run nationwide in New Zealand high schools and has over 4,000 student entrepreneurs taking part, creating more than 1,000 businesses in 2019 alone. CloudMass has been a highlight YES business and was selected as the 2019 Auckland East Regional Champion to compete at Young Enterprise Nationals in December 2019. 

The CloudMass Ara

For the past year, CloudMass has been in the development of our product which aims to encourage the freedom of dementia patients while reducing the stress involved with the care of dementia patients. 

Our product, the Ara, is essentially a watch-style tracking device. It is a miniature, real-time tracking device that tracks the location of dementia patients at risk of wandering. We are currently in the process of developing a custom-built application that will interface with the device and allow users the ability to track the patient's whereabouts in real-time, set up geofences and see the previous history of the user, as well as secondary features such as retirement village management, etc. Our band has a unique locking mechanism to ensure the patient cannot forcefully remove the device without assistance from target caregivers. 

Support from PCBWAY

CloudMass is asking for support from PCBWAY for the production and assembly of our PCB boards associated with the Ara in our final prototyping stages. Previously, we ordered five of our tracking device PCBs from PCBWAY. We have concluded the testing and development of these trackers and are looking to order five more for our final stages of coding and design of the casing.