SafePulse monitors movement during sleep and sends an alert to a caregiver app when it identifies patterns consistent with certain types of seizures. The device is still a prototype and does not replace medical evaluation.
A nocturnal epileptic seizure can go unnoticed, particularly when a person sleeps alone or does not have continuous supervision. In response to this issue, two Biomedical Engineering students at the National University of Córdoba developed SafePulse, a wearable device designed to monitor movement during sleep and issue alerts when it detects a potential episode.
The project was created by Delfina Cid and Lucía Giuffrida as part of their capstone project at the School of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences. Its development emerged from their work with Fundación Espacio Epilepsia, through which the students identified some of the needs faced by people with epilepsy and their caregivers.
How Does SafePulse Work?
The wrist-worn device resembles a watch. It integrates an MPU-6050 inertial sensor and an ESP32-C3 microcontroller, which runs an algorithm based exclusively on accelerometer data.
The system analyzes a person’s movements throughout the night and attempts to identify patterns consistent with epileptic seizures involving motor symptoms. When it detects a potential episode, it sends the event to a mobile app designed for caregivers.
Developed with React Native, the app records events and uses Firebase services to store information and send notifications. It also allows users to enter information about medication and symptoms.
However, the technology has an important limitation: because it relies solely on movement, SafePulse is not designed to identify every type of epileptic seizure. Some seizures do not cause noticeable movement, while certain normal movements during sleep could trigger alerts unrelated to an epileptic episode.
Third Place in the University Student Category at Emprende U 2026
SafePulse placed third in the University Student category at Emprende U 2026, a nationwide entrepreneurship and innovation competition featuring projects from universities across Argentina. The final was held in Rosario.
This recognition, however, should not be confused with medical certification. Based on the publicly available information, SafePulse remains an academic prototype under development. No results from clinical trials involving patients have been presented, nor have performance indicators such as sensitivity, specificity or false-alarm rates been reported.
The materials published by the creators on Zenodo include the app’s source code, electronic design, circuit-board manufacturing files, enclosure files, battery-life test data and a cost analysis. This documentation demonstrates the project’s technical progress, but it does not establish that the device can diagnose epilepsy or clinically detect every type of nocturnal seizure.
The next step will be to evaluate its performance with specialized healthcare professionals and determine how it operates under real-world conditions. If it successfully completes those stages, SafePulse could become a complementary monitoring and alert tool for caregivers—but not a substitute for medical follow-up or clinically validated devices.
Sources: SafePulse technical materials on Zenodo, Emprende U 2026 finalists, and an Instagram post by the School of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences at the National University of Córdoba.