Development of a Smart Child Safety Warning System in Vehicles Using ESP32-CAM Based on IoT

Abstract

Abstract— This study discusses the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of an intelligent warning system to mitigate safety risks of children left in vehicles. The system was developed using the ESP32-CAM platform and integrated with a DHT11 temperature sensor, HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, PIR motion sensor and a buzzer. The Wemos D1 R1 microcontroller served as the main processing unit for sensor monitoring and alarm control, while the ESP32-CAM module was used for image capture and real-time notification delivery. The main objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a child presence and cabin temperature monitoring system that can send real-time alerts to caregivers. Experimental testing was conducted inside a parked vehicle over a 60-minute period, where the increase in cabin temperature and the system performance was evaluated in terms of response time and detection stability. The system activated a buzzer as an emergency signal and transmitted real-time Telegram notifications with captured images to the caregiver's smartphone when the cabin temperature reached the 37.8°C threshold. The experimental results demonstrated that the system operated reliably, providing alerts within an average of 7 seconds after detecting a risky situation. In conclusion, the proposed system has the potential to be developed as a cost-effective solution in preventing tragedies caused by negligence and serves as an early step towards establishing a more holistic and user-friendly vehicle safety technology in the future.

Keywords— ESP32-CAM, temperature sensor, smart alert system, child safety