About
I live far from my own family. So I know the worry.
Happy Steps began as a PhD on reading people from floor vibrations. Moving to Tokyo, I saw how many parents live alone, and how much their families want a gentle way to know they are okay.
FOUNDER
Mainak Chakraborty
Researcher in structural vibration sensing and human-centred AI. PhD in Cyber-Physical Systems from IIT Delhi as a Prime Minister’s Research Fellow, now based in Tokyo.
- Creator of VIBeID, a 100-person footstep vibration dataset
- 5 journal papers, 5 conference papers and 4 patents in vibration sensing
- Reviewer for IEEE TIM and IEEE TMC; ICASSP 2025 organising committee
- Poster presenter at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum 2026
- Also built GajGamini, ground-vibration sensing for elephant safety
“I want a family to know grandma is okay, without anyone watching her.”
「見張るのではなく、そっと見守りたい。」
ROADMAP
Where Happy Steps is going.
Now · 2026
Working prototype
- Full pipeline on real recordings
- Gemini reasoning, function calling, voice
- Open event format and sensor bridge
Next
Home pilot in Japan
- A small group of volunteer homes
- Real floors, real routines, real feedback
- Measure false alarms and family trust
Later
Care homes and cities
- Night rounds in care homes
- Hospital recovery wards
- Earthquake response: who is still inside
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Partners who care about the same thing.
Research partners
Multimodal and on-device AI, audio and signal modelling, and long-term health reasoning.
Pilot homes
Families and care homes in Japan willing to try a sensor and share honest feedback.
Care professionals
Nurses, carers and geriatric doctors to shape what “a change worth telling” really means.
See a real footstep become a kind word.
The live demo runs real floor recordings through the full pipeline and calls Gemini in your browser.