The History of Sonic Alert
The story of Sonic Alert dates back to 1972. Sonic Alert’s founder Adam Kollin had a deaf grandmother living alone in Pontiac, Michigan. He regularly made the thirty minute drive to visit her, but often returned home without seeing her as she usually did not hear him knocking on the door. It was frustrating that he could see her through the window but could not get her attention. It was even more frustrating because his grandmother felt so isolated and lonely.
Adam realized that although his grandmother could not hear, she could see flashing lights. Adam who was 17 years old at the time, together with his brother-in-law Roger Mulder, developed and installed a simple device that took several days of running wires through the walls that flashed lights in a few rooms of her home. It let his grandmother know when someone rang the doorbell or called on the telephone.
After news of that system started going around, Adam started getting calls from other deaf people asking if he could make a system for them too. His grandmother’s system required a complicated and expensive installation. To allow everyone to benefit from a visual alerting system, Adam dedicated several years developing an improved system requiring no wires that could be installed by any grandmother in a few minutes. In addition, the new system flashed the lights a different flashing pattern for every sound so you would know if the lights were flashing for the doorbell, telephone, baby cry, alarm clock or fire alarm. The “Sonic Alert System” was Adam’s first of many patents he would receive for his inventions.
Over the following forty years Adam has continued to develop new and innovative products for the Hearing Impaired community and today Sonic Alert products are available in over 40 countries.
Our line of “Sonic Bomb” alarm clocks are world famous, guaranteeing to wake up even the deepest sleepers. Sonic Bomb clocks are extremely loud, flash bright lights and shake your bed. Though they were developed for the Hearing Impaired community, they are also very popular with students around the world.
Our latest product line is the “HomeAware” system which alerts you to sounds around your home by means of visible, audible and tactile sensations. This highly advanced system is based on a sophisticated mesh network technology that constantly monitors the system’s performance, providing peace of mind, knowing that your system is always there when you need it, even when the power goes out in your home. Many people buy the HomeAware system for their elderly parents to help reduce their isolation as they will always be able to know when someone is coming to visit or is calling them on the phone. The system also provides an additional layer of safety as it can also respond to smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
