Aside from charging your mobile devices and occasionally serving as music speakers and alarm clocks, the list of smartphone docks’ other uses just end there. An IndieGoGo crowd funding project may just change the fate of docks for devices in the future and potentially, they could even end up saving lives.
SensePlus is a smartphone docking station that is built with smoke and gas detection sensors, sounding an alarm once it detects smoke or carbon monoxide. An accompanying app will ask the user to respond to the alarm and if no response is forthcoming, it will automatically notify emergency numbers listed on the phone, like friends and family.
Currently a crowd-funding project on IndieGogo, the SensePlus targets $150,000 of funding within 44 days where for as low as $79 early adopters will get the dock for the iPhone 5, a charging cable and 1 USB wall power adopter. Initially designed for the Iphone 5, the team behind Sense+ plans to release future versions for Android and Windows phones, although the first batch of the dock will still have USB connectivity for non-iPhone 5 devices.