When Drew Henson spent around a decade away from his family traveling, he began to think about personal safety in a new way. “Even if I have a phone on me, it’s still really easy to end up on the back of a milk carton. When I looked at personal safety technology and all the panic buttons and wearables and apps that were out there already — they don’t actually keep anybody safer,” he explained. Henson, who has been developing various technology projects for the last decade, decided to create his own solution.

Investing In Personal Safety

Meet the SEAM Lotus, a personal safety device recording a variety of environmental data, including photos, audio, and location. It consists of both a wearable device and an app utilizing a cloud-based network.

Based in Toronto, Canada, the company introduced the product for purchase in 2018 with a mobile charging case. It is the only personal safety device enabling hands-free two-way audio calls directly from the device, while also accessing a voice assistant. Think of the Lotus as the remote controlling the app, allowing users to share data with up to five people or save it for any reason — the Lotus can also place a phone call.

The Benefits of a Cloud-Based Network

Good design doesn’t happen in a vacuum — Henson believes Fusion 360’s ability to enable work anywhere through the cloud is essential to the successful development of the SEAM Lotus. He’s even used it to communicate with engineers while he’s in the air. “Fusion [360] really found a user-friendly way to make those little things accessible while making more masterful design also easy,” he adds.

His team wants every person to feel safe, empowered, and connected — all at an affordable price. A portion of their initial sales even went toward a women’s foundation assisting women and children to move away from poverty and violence. The SEAM team understands reliability is essential in personal safety products, and this was reinforced by the important role Fusion 360 played in bringing their goals to fruition.

“Once you finish with your model, of course, you want to prototype, but you want to be able to do reliability testing through simulations. Fusion 360 allows you to do that as well as create really well laid out engineering drawings, which you can use to communicate to manufacturers,” says Nishoake Sribavan, who is a SEAM Mechanical Engineer.

Since its release, the Lotus has been steadily gaining in popularity and has now partnered with major realtor organizations to keep real estate agents safer. They’ve also decreased the price thanks to higher-order productions and introduced new accessories to compliment the original design The Lotus team is flexible and responsive because they have the right tools to deliver excellent products efficiently and without losing any quality in the process.

Fusion 360: A Tool to Help Industrial Designers

Jasmine So, who works as a SEAM Industrial Designer, credits Fusion 360 with making the design and production process smooth and easy. “It’s easy to design with because of how fast I can just push and pull things, and then it’s easier to work with my team because now we check and double-check things and make notes using the app,” she says.

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