Questions families ask.

Not yet. It's in development. You can reserve a spot: join the list for free, and when deposits open, hold a founding-family price with a refundable deposit.

We don't know yet, and we won't guess. The next step is a small pilot in a few homes, with each family's agreement. We'll email everyone on the list with a real date once we have one, and before we ask anyone for more than a refundable deposit.

The software is being built and tested on a laptop camera now. It has not run in anyone's home yet. The pilot will tell us how often it texts about nothing and how often it misses something, and we'll publish both.

It's built to alert you to a possible fall: if the camera sees someone go down and not get up within a few minutes, it texts you. We haven't measured how often it catches a fall or how often it's wrong, so we don't quote a number. When we have a measured one, we'll publish it here.

It can only see the room it's in. A fall in the bathroom or bedroom won't be seen.

No. It texts the family members you choose. It is not an emergency service and does not contact 911. In an emergency, call 911. If your parent needs someone to call for help, a monitored medical alert button does that: keep the pendant, and use both.

No. Keep whatever they use today. Vitals Home is a second layer: it notices things a button can't, like a late morning or a slow change, and it doesn't depend on remembering to wear anything.

No. It notices changes in routine, like a later morning, a slower walk or busier nights. Those can have many causes. A change is a reason to call and ask, not an answer.

Usually one a day, the evening "normal day" text, which you can turn off. Alerts only when something is different. We're designing it to stay quiet unless a text is worth reading, and the pilot will tell us how close we get.

No. Each picture is used inside the camera and discarded. There are no recordings, no clips and no snapshots, on the camera or anywhere else. How privacy works.

No, and that's on purpose. There's no live view for you or for us. You get texts about their routine, not pictures of their day.

We're designing it without a microphone. If that ever changes, we'll say so on the privacy page before anyone pays.

It comes with a small card for the kitchen that explains what the camera is, that it records nothing, and who to ask about it. When there's more than one person in view, it doesn't treat that as part of your parent's routine.

Listen to them. Show them the privacy page, tell them it can be unplugged any time, and let them pick the room. If the answer is still no, it's no. A camera only helps if the person it's for wants it there.

A shelf in the kitchen or at the end of a hallway, about head height, near an outlet. Never in a bedroom or bathroom.

Yes, the first version uses the home's WiFi. About 29% of adults 65 and older don't have home internet (Pew Research, 2026), so we're looking at a version with its own cellular connection. If your parent doesn't have WiFi, tell us on the reservation form. It helps us decide.

Our server expects to hear from the camera every few minutes. If it stops, you get a text saying the camera is offline, so silence never looks like a normal day.

It looks for people, not animals. Cats and small dogs shouldn't confuse it. A large dog is something we'll test in the pilot before we promise anything.

The first version is designed for one person living alone. With two people, it can't tell whose routine is whose. Let us know on the form if that's your situation.

Planned: $149 for the camera, then $19 a month or $190 a year, with the first month free. No contract. Founding families (the first 100 reservations) get the camera for $99 and their monthly price locked for two years. Pricing.

Yes, fully, any time before we ship, for any reason. Email us and we'll refund it through Stripe. Banks usually take 5 to 10 days to show it.

Yes, as long as your parent wants it. Please ask them first.

Neil Gilani and Yannai Richter, two high-school students in San Jose. We started Vitals with a camera for cattle ranches. Our story.