This Radar-Equipped Stove Shutoff Is One of the Most Practical Things I Saw at CES
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The iGuardStove is the little black box in the middle of the photo. It can connect to your regular stove, whether gas or electric.
Credit: Beth Skwarecki
Radar sensors appear to be having their moment at CES, particularly in the realm of technology intended to allow people to keep tabs on their aging family members. One product in particular caught my eye because it focuses on a single important function: preventing kitchen fires caused by someone walking away from the stove.
iGuard is essentially a smart shutdown for a stove or cooktop. Its new radar-equipped version costs $399 and can operate on gas Or electric frying pans. (For gas, you’ll need to have a plumber install a shutoff valve.) If you leave the kitchen while cooking, a five-minute timer starts. If you don’t return by the time it turns off, the unit will cut power to your electric stove or shut off the supply line to your gas stove. It can also notify a caregiver that a shutdown event has occurred.
Why this is aging-in-place technology
This year, the major theme of smart technologies is aging in place. Most older adults would prefer to live at home as long as possible, but health issues can make this difficult. When it comes to cooking or other activities that require a sharp mind, mental health issues like dementia come into play, as do medications that can have cognitive side effects. With all of this in mind, caregivers often worry about a parent leaving the kitchen while cooking, forgetting that the stove is on.
THE National Fire Protection Association Reports that cooking fires are the leading cause of home fires, the leading cause of fire-related injuries, and the third leading cause of fire-related deaths. Unattended kitchen equipment causes half of these deaths. Older people are over-represented among fire victims compared to younger and middle-aged people.
The device has a five-minute timer, especially because it is a safety margin that the company developed with the security organization. ULmarketing director Jon Landers told me. You can also skip the five-minute timer if you’re roasting a turkey or making a slow-simmered gravy. In this case, you tell the appliance how long the food should cook, and it lets that cooking time complete before resetting the usual five-minute timer behavior.
Why radar is involved
A previous version, called iGuardStove, used motion sensors, but if you’ve ever worked in an office with lights on motion sensors, you know why that wasn’t a good solution: sit at a table too long and the lights go out. The older version of the device could potentially turn off while you’re just waiting for your dinner to cook and could be triggered by the movement of pets. Radar solves these problems because it can more accurately identify the presence of a person in the room.
I saw radar in a number of aging-in-place products at CES this year. The Silver Shield of PontoSense uses radar to monitor the presence and movements of a person in a room, reporting movements and potential falls to a caregiver’s app. Moona talk and reminder device from Cairns Health, features radar capable of monitoring heart rate and breathing (even through blankets!) when placed near a person’s bed. The iGuard has some monitoring features in common with these devices, but it remains focused on its primary task of ensuring that stoves do not operate unattended.
Radar can “see” a lot of things, but it doesn’t seem to be as invasive of privacy as a camera. Having a device in the kitchen is also a little less intrusive than in a bedroom, for those who would feel creeped out knowing a tech device is monitoring them while they sleep.
What do you think of it so far?
In addition to turning off the stove, the iGuard can report to a caregiver (via an app, of course) information such as the time each person first enters the kitchen. It can catch night wandering if the person visits the kitchen at night; it can also send an alert if the person doesn’t appear to be up and active at their usual time. For example, if your mother usually makes coffee around 9:00 a.m. every morning, you can ask the app to notify you if the kitchen is still empty at 10:00 a.m.
Other monitoring and security features
Besides turning off the stove and signaling when someone is in the kitchen, the iGuard has a few other smart features. The version of the device designed for gas stoves is capable of detecting unburned gas, in case someone left it on without a burner running.
The device can also be configured to prevent the cooker from being turned on by pets or children, or it can be locked to prohibit cooking during certain times or days (e.g. at night). The app can also alert a caregiver if temperatures become too hot or too cold, prompting them to check if a heat wave or cold snap is severe enough to affect indoor temperatures.
While many products I’ve seen at CES are speculative or hopeful in their use cases (I often wonder “who would actually use this?”), the iGuard seems carefully designed and presents a concrete use case and benefits. I was impressed! The new device is expected to ship later this year.
Updated 01/07/2025 7:48 AM PST: Corrected to note that the new product is called iGuard and the previous version with motion sensors was iGuardStove.
