An Upper West Side teen genius has created a device to protect patients of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia — and he has been chosen to show off his invention at the annual White House Science Fair on Monday.
Kenneth Shinozuka, 16, a junior at the Horace Mann School in The Bronx, developed the SafeWander to help caretakers keep an eye on Alzheimer’s patients — specifically to help his family keep track of his grandfather Deming Feng, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
“The first incident happened when I was 4 years old,” Shinozuka recalled. “My grandfather and I were walking in a park in Japan and he suddenly got lost and didn’t know where to go. It was really a very scary experience.”
He watched helplessly as it became harder for his family to keep track of his grandfather until, one day, he had an idea.
“I saw him stepping out of the bed,” Shinozuka recalled. “When he stepped onto the floor I had this light-bulb moment. I thought, ‘Why don’t I put a pressure sensor on the heel of his foot?’ and the idea just took off from there.”
The sensor Shinozuka developed attaches to a sock and sends an alert to the caregiver’s phone every time the wearer stands up.
The devoted teen, who won $50,000 at the 2014 Google Science Fair, taught himself about coding and circuitry, tested the device on his grandfather and even worked with a nursing home in California for further tests.
“It’s definitely had a huge impact on my family,” Shinozuka said. “My aunt has a lot more peace of mind. Now she doesn’t have to worry about my grandfather’s wandering.”
He is using the money he’s won to make it commercially available through his start-up, SensaRx.
But for now, Shinozuka hopes to show the president his project.
“I would be very excited to talk to the president,” the boy said. “I would like to tell him all about my project and the huge burdens faced by the Alzheimer’s and dementia communities.”