Radar vs camera
Radar vs camera: watch over your parent. Without watching them.
Both can spot a fall. Only one does it without putting a camera in your parent's bedroom.
Both can spot a fall. Only one does it without putting a camera in your parent's bedroom.
Where radar and cameras diverge for in-home senior monitoring.
| Silvie radar | Camera | |
|---|---|---|
| No images or video captured | Yes | No |
| Works in full darkness | Yes | Varies (night vision) |
| Suitable for the bathroom | Yes | No |
| Detects a fall automatically | Yes | Some models with detection features |
| Nothing to feel watched by | Yes | No |
| Option | Best at | The gap Silvie fills |
|---|---|---|
| Medical alert pendant / watch (e.g. Medical Guardian) | Help out in the community, GPS location | Only helps while it is worn and charged. Button-only models also need your parent to be able to press the button; models with automatic fall detection do not. A pendant left on the nightstand overnight covers nothing. |
| Wearable rings / bands (e.g. Oura) | Sleep and activity trends | Has to be charged and worn every day. Not built for fall alerts. |
| Phone location sharing | Knowing where they are when they carry it | The phone gets left on the kitchen counter. No help if they cannot reach it. |
| Indoor cameras | A live picture | Many parents will not accept a camera in the bedroom or bathroom, two rooms where falls often happen. |
| Silvie (contactless radar) | Fall and activity sensing in each room with a sensor, no camera, nothing to wear | — |
Most nights, nothing happens. That is the point. Silvie senses the ordinary rhythms of the day in the rooms where a sensor is installed. Did they get up this morning. Did they sleep through the night.
No way to know if a parent living alone was alright between bedtime and breakfast. Silvie can help fill that gap without a camera, without anything to wear, and without a 6am phone call to check.
A camera records images of your parent in their most private moments. Radar doesn't. It senses movement and presence without ever capturing a picture, so the bedroom and bathroom stay private.
Cameras without night vision struggle in low light; night-vision cameras can see in the dark, but they still capture images, which is why many families rule them out for a bathroom. Radar works in complete darkness without capturing images, so a sensor can cover a bedroom or bathroom too.
A button-only pendant helps only if your parent is wearing it and can press the button. Pendants with automatic fall detection remove the button press, but still only help while worn. Silvie is mounted on the wall and works passively in the background, so there's nothing to remember.
"The privacy of a sensor, with the awareness of a camera."
It is radar, not a camera. Silvie monitors movement, breathing, and positioning/stillness via mmWave radar, with no cameras, microphones, or wearables. It never captures an image and never records sound.
Silvie runs in the background with nothing for your parent to wear, charge, or remember. There is no button to press and no daily task. It is there to help them stay in their own home longer, not to take over their day.
Most families set it up themselves. The sensors mount on the wall and plug into a wall outlet with the included adapter and USB-C cable, so there is no installation wiring and no electrician. If you would rather not do it yourself, we will walk you through it.