Patti Singer

ROC

So much for the excuse, "I didn't feel the alarm go off."

Patrick Seypura and Alec Satterly said that more than once when they were late to classes at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The 20-year-old entrepreneurs are working on a solution — a sleek, powerful vibrating alarm that uses smart technology to rouse deaf or hard-of-hearing sleepers.

Alarmify is synced to a smartphone through an app that sets different times for up to a week. The phone serves as the clock, and a chip in the alarm triggers a motor that vibrates.

The vibration is far more powerful than that of a smartphone alone, said Satterly, of Oreland, Pa. "You need something that wakes you up, that shakes you."

They plan to license the technology through their company, Cenify. The first part comes from center, as in the middle of everything. The suffix implies action and gives the company a techy feel, said Seypura of South Windsor, Conn.

They see manufacturers using Cenify to power coffeemakers, light fixtures, window coverings — common household gadgets. The item would respond either based on a schedule or the location of a phone. In a video promoting Cenify, Satterly walks toward a window and the blinds open.

"I would say that it is actually a great idea in general," 17-year-old David Mayes of Penfield wrote in an email. He's not involved in the project but is a potential consumer. Seypura and Satterly said they are targeting people in their 20s and 30s, and Mayes isn't too far away.

"(It's) revolutionary because it would impact our daily lives, to have a program making coffee for me first thing in the morning would be amazing," wrote Mayes. "To have a program starting up my computer in the morning so I can check my everyday stuff would be nice. … (I)t's the kind of thing that shaves seconds off my day and while that might seem trivial, it would actually be a big help."

Seypura, who is deaf, and Satterly, who is hard of hearing, said they started with Alarmify because alarm clocks are a problem. They said current ones are cumbersome, with wires that are more like tentacles. They also have to be set every day.

Alarmify, which remembers seven days' worth of wake-up times, has one cord for the wall outlet. The phone would rest in its charger. Alarmify also recognizes phone numbers, a safety feature so users won't miss an emergency call in the middle of the night.

The prototype is a blocky little rectangle about the dimensions of a credit card, but the finished product will be thinner and have a rounded edge that rests outside the bedframe or mattress. "You don't want the Princess and the Pea effect," said 20-year-old Sophie Phillips of Sleepy Hollow, a deaf student who is majoring in medical illustration and has drawn the design.

A wireless version is in discussion, which would appeal to travelers such as Matthew Starr. He unplugs the hotel clock, which doesn't work for him anyway, to get an outlet for his vibrating alarm.

He said it'd be useful on a train.

"Sometimes if I'm on a long trip, I really have to force myself to stay awake," said Starr, a member of the Deaf Health Community Committee. "I'm so afraid of missing the stop I need."

Seypura and Satterly, majoring in management information systems with a minor in entrepreneurship, each separately had toyed with making a better alarm.

Seypura said he didn't get much encouragement when he presented the idea his first year to some businesspeople. But they weren't deaf.

"They didn't see the problem as we did," he said.

Seypura and Satterly met in a marketing class and decided to work together.

About 4.5 million Americans 64 and younger are deaf or hard of hearing, according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. Seypura and Satterly said their research showed a potential $6 million market for Cenify technology.

Alarmify has been battle-tested at innovation competitions. Seypura and Satterly won first place and $5,000 at the Next Big Idea competition held in early May at RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The pair received a trophy for being a finalist at the recent New York Young Entrepreneur Challenge in New York City. They are working on the patent and estimate the device would sell for about $60.

Once the idea found its audience, "the reaction was immediate," said Phillips.

PSINGER@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/PattiSingerRoc

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To learn about Cenify, go to cenify.com.