Read the full article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

ST. LOUIS • Two St. Louisans behind a new smartphone-enabled car seat monitoring system hope their invention prevents young children from dying in dangerously hot cars.

Business partners Bob Steffen of Crestwood and Greg Schoenberg of Sunset Hills, both 50, invented a car seat monitoring system powered by a smartphone application called iAlert.

They said they came up with the idea in 2007, after reading news coverage of 7-month-old Sophia Knutsen, who died from being left in a hot car at the Washington University Medical Center.

“That’s exactly what started this in motion,” Steffen said.

While 23-month-old Nathan Hubert was dying Thursday in the back seat of a car in O’Fallon, Ill., Steffen was introducing the new technology at the Safe Kids Worldwide conference in Washington, D.C.

Steffen and Schoenberg started Cars-N-Kids to design the pressure-sensitive device that is now built into the First Years iAlert car seat manufactured by Japanese maker Tomy International.

The smartphone app is free but so far only works with the First Years’ True Fit Convertible car seat. It costs $399.

“Our device could have saved this child’s life,” Schoenberg said Friday.

The smartphone app — available for iPhone and Android — communicates with a sensor inside the car seat using Bluetooth technology to send phone alerts if a child is left in a car seat for several minutes after a vehicle has stopped moving. The system also sends alerts if a car seat is improperly positioned in the back seat, if a child becomes unbuckled or if the car’s inside temperature gets too hot.

If a parent doesn’t respond to the alerts, the app begins sending messages to other emergency contacts, Steffen said.

In interviews Friday, Steffen and Schoenberg said they hope the technology someday becomes standard in car seats and in cars’ electronics systems. They said future versions of iAlert system may be able to call 911 directly to a location determined by GPS, and even roll down windows or unlock doors for first responders.

Steffen and Schoenberg are fellow Lindbergh High School graduates. Steffen has worked in the auto industry for years. Schoenberg is an electrical engineer.

“I just thought, there’s something that can be done about this,” Schoenberg said. “It was kind of a geeky conversation. Finally, we’re at a point where it can gain some broader acceptance instead of just Bob and Greg’s idea.”

After struggling for a few years to fund startup costs, Steffen and Schoenberg got a U.S. patent last summer and made a deal with TOMY International.

An earlier version of the car seat monitor featured a box that alerted parents by playing a song.

The special seat debuted Wednesday on Amazon.com, they said. Steffen says sales have been good in the first three days.

“It’s one of those safety products that most times will never, ever come into play, but thank God when they do,” Steffen said. “This poor family in Illinois — now there’s a dead child, a family facing criminal charges and lives are ruined.”

More information is avalable online at www.carseatmonitor.com.