Lively Mobile

An innovative embedded Lua + RTOS software platform enabling the mobility and safety of an aging population.

Lively is the leader in connected health for active aging. The Lively Mobile medical alert, a small, mobile personal emergency response system (mPERS), helps aging consumers live more independent lives. Though compact in size, this sophisticated device includes a cellular communications link, BLE and NFC connectivity, GPS location, accelerometer-based fall detection and more. Synapse leveraged their expertise in low-level firmware to develop an innovative embedded Lua + RTOS software platform that enabled Lively’s software team to quickly update the application to add new features and enable new experiences.

Synapse was first brought on to provide engineering expertise to support industrial design explorations. Over time, the role evolved into strategic consulting to help align C-level decisions. Understanding the business, the user constraints, and the market helped Synapse make the right recommendations in the early stages of the project, which led to an accelerated start to this ambitious program.

Synapse engineers worked with Lively engineers to develop an architecture for the Lively Mobile; including evaluating trade-offs between size, battery life, cost, and performance. The team provided recommendations on ergonomics and power management. After the initial architecture design, Synapse firmware engineers developed low-level firmware, provided an embedded Lua application environment for Lively software engineers, and collaborated with teams in Asia (EE, ME and FW) and at Lively (application design).

Working with Lively enabled Synapse to engage with an entirely new user persona and challenged our team to make informed decisions to ensure that cutting-edge technology enhances rather than hinders usability.