One of the founders, Toby Northcote-Smith, has climbed, mountain biked and skied for over 25 years. In 2012 he was riding his road bike down Old Topanga Canyon road, in the Santa Monica mountains. He got tangled up with some motorcycles in a corner and was pushed wide onto some gravel. There was not much he could do, on loose ground a road bike will not scrub off much speed at 35 mph. Toby ran along the barrier until his handlebars caught on a sign post. He was then tossed about 25ft through another sign and onto the verge on the other side of the barrier. Dazed, crumpled but alive he lay there thankful that he had not fallen down the steep cliff 2ft to his right.

 

Luckily his mate Rob showed up a minute or so after the accident.  Toby was in ragged shape, Rob called for emergency services. Toby had shattered his right hand,  a deep 5" cut on his shin, punctured his chest and his helmet (Giro) had fractured and saved his brain. Somehow, much to the surprise of the hospital, he had managed not to suffer any significant internal injuries.

 

He was lucky. What is if Toby had been on his own?

What if he had been knocked unconscious?

 

Over the past year Toby and the product team at zeezao have been developing a product called CareBeacon. It is a medical monitoring device for the elderly and people at risk of falling. It knows if you are moving or if you have fallen an sends for help automatically to designated family and friends.  The CareBeacon team has been able to apply this automated technology to help people participating physical activities to help keep them save when they are running, walking, riding or sliding solo.

 

The result is ActivBeacon, an easy to use subscription based automated alert service for the iPhone. If you crash or have an incident it sends your details and location to family and friends.