The Intersection of Technology and Accessibility

Summary

In this conversation, Janet Engel interviews Deval Patel, CEO and founder of the Lotus Ring, a wearable device that allows users to control various devices by pointing. 

The discussion covers the product's launch success, recognition at CES, and its unique benefits for older adults and people with disabilities. 

Deval shares insights from user experiences, including unexpected use cases and challenges with existing voice assistants. 

The conversation also touches on marketing strategies, product details, and future plans for the Lotus Ring.

Takeaways

The Lotus Ring has received fantastic reviews since its launch.

Recognition by major publications like Ink Magazine highlights its impact.

Meeting Stevie Wonder provided valuable insights into the needs of blind users.

Unexpected use cases include helping older adults navigate their homes safely.

Voice assistants often fail to recognize users with accents or speech impairments.

Setting up smart home devices can be complex and time-consuming.

The Lotus Ring offers a simple, app-free solution for device control.

The product is designed to be user-friendly for older adults and their families.

Battery life of the Lotus Ring is impressive, lasting up to six months.

Future plans include expanding product offerings and potential family sharing options.

Sound Bites

"Isn't it wonderful what you've created?"
"Alexa only listens to my husband."
"There's no need for an app."
"You can take it with you wherever you go."
"You can use it at any family member's home."
"It's been an honor and a privilege."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Lotus Ring
01:04 Launch Success and Recognition
02:13 Meeting Stevie Wonder and Insights on Blind Navigation
06:08 Unexpected Use Cases for Older Adults
08:35 Aha Moments and User Experiences
12:21 Challenges with Voice Assistants
14:29 The Complexity of Smart Home Setup
15:57 The Versatility of the Lotus Ring
19:08 Marketing Strategies for Older Adults
21:31 Product Details and Pricing
24:02 Future Plans and Family Sharing
26:05 Battery Life and User Experience
28:05 Conclusion and Future Updates

website: Lotus: Control Objects at Home by Pointing

Transcript

Janet Engel (00:01.594)
Hello everyone and thank you for being with me today. Our guest is Deval Patel and he is the CEO and founder of the Lotus Ring, which is a wearable ring that can control devices by pointing. Deval, it's great to have you again. How are you?

Dhaval @ Lotus (00:21.646)
Nice to meet you. I'm good, thanks Janet for having me again.

Janet Engel (00:25.898)
Yes. So I wanted to have you on again because the first time I had you as a guest, I had many emails about how much they enjoyed the interview with you, how much they enjoyed learning about your product. And also you gave so many scientific explanations. I felt like I was in an engineering class, you know, for, for an hour. So I think a lot of other people felt that way as well.

Dhaval @ Lotus (00:49.774)
Thank

Janet Engel (00:56.026)
So tell us about everything that's been going on since you launched your product in September.

Dhaval @ Lotus (01:04.406)
Yeah, so we officially launched in September, and we've actually been shipping devices to lots of end users since. In general, we've gotten fantastic reviews and then some. Just a few examples, we got recognized by Ink Magazine in their best of categories, actually in two categories, consumer electronics. But what was more notable was they only recognized two companies for veterans, and we were one of those two. That was one.

We won another sort of accessibility award by CTA. And they are the foundation that organizes CES, sort of that huge consumer electronics conference that everyone knows about. But what was even spectacular, even more spectacular was as a result of winning that award, Stevie Wonder came by our booth and it was only a handful of booths that he came to. So in general, it's been amazing. We got our first five-star review and that was from a blind user. In fact, he loved it so much he recorded.

his unboxing experience and sent it to a TV station in Canada. I mean, it's been quite mind-blowing, but in general, everything's been wonderful. So, can't complain.

Janet Engel (02:13.048)
That's remarkable. Well, tell me again about meeting Stevie Wonder, because he was one of my favorite artists when I was growing up.

Dhaval @ Lotus (02:22.846)
It was incredible. He is such a soft spoken, salt of the earth gentleman. As everyone who's listening probably already knows, he is blind. And so he came by. He tends to be very interested in technology in general, but especially any technology that helps older adults, people with disabilities. And so he actually came to our booth first. We were very honored to have him on there.

and he's, really loved it. I think this was one of the many surprising learnings of CES. I don't know if people know this, but people who are blind don't actually use a cane, a walking cane inside their house. They only tend to use it outside their homes, not inside their homes and inside their homes. They're usually step counting to figure out how to navigate their homes. The other interesting thing.

is most people assume folks who are blind are completely blind. But the reality is most of them can kind of differentiate shapes or light versus dark. Like they know when the lights are on versus off, even though they can't resolve objects. And so as a result of those two things, multiple things happen when you're at home. Because you're not using a cane at home, you can often trip onto objects that have been moved. So if you have kids at home or guests at home,

Janet Engel (03:22.052)
Right.

Janet Engel (03:31.534)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (03:47.82)
and they've moved a table or a chair. And so it's very easy because you're just relying on counting steps to navigate from one point to another. And then number two, and this was very intriguing, when blind folks have guests at home, oftentimes their friends have sight. So they will turn on the lights, but when they leave, they leave the lights on, which of course is unnecessary for the person who's hosting them, who is blind.

Janet Engel (03:50.34)
Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (04:15.116)
And so for instance, one of the things that's TV really resonated with was sort of their friends and family leaving the lights on after they have left. And then you have to kind of hunt for the light switch to turn it off. That's a big problem. Again, totally unexpected to us. And so, you know, if you can just generally point in, because you know roughly where the switches are. If you can just aim in the right direction and push the button and it turns off without you having to walk all the way to it.

Janet Engel (04:29.53)
Hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (04:42.954)
trip on the way on objects that have been moved and then turn it off. That's a huge bonus. The other unexpected benefit it turns out is each of the switch covers make a little noise like that and that's been helpful to navigate your home by sound because there is always a switch cover by every door. And so that was anyway one of the many unexpected insights and so Stevie Wonder had

Janet Engel (04:56.196)
Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (05:11.182)
It was a little bit of a blur, but one of the things I remember him saying was, isn't it wonderful what you've created here with this technology to help people like us? that was really touching.

Janet Engel (05:21.722)
So is he a user himself?

Dhaval @ Lotus (05:25.408)
We don't know yet. He came by the booth. He loved the product. I wouldn't go as far as to say that he's purchased it. If he has, we don't know about it. But he definitely loved what he saw and had wonderful things to say about it.

Janet Engel (05:39.015)
I would try to get in contact with his person and send him a sample.

Dhaval @ Lotus (05:45.486)
Yes, absolutely. I mean, this happened just about a week ago, yes, just happened. And so, yes, we are absolutely going to.

Janet Engel (05:50.778)
you

Janet Engel (05:55.744)
Yeah, well that's great. And did you ever, did you know about how that sound would help blind people?

Dhaval @ Lotus (06:08.23)
No, this was all hypothetically possible. mean, we had all these. Our mission statement is we optimize for older adults and people with disabilities. Because when you make products that way, they're automatically usable for everybody. And so one of the common examples, for instance, because we were at CES, the most popular use case was during traveling. So most people don't have a smart home, as it turns out.

Janet Engel (06:23.833)
Right.

Dhaval @ Lotus (06:35.758)
But even if you do, if you're one of the 9 % of people that does happen to have a smart home in the United States, so small minority, even if you have one, when you're traveling for work or for pleasure, you can't bring your smart home with you. You can't bring your Alexa or Google Home with you when you're traveling and you're staying in a hotel room or an Airbnb. Except with our technology, you can literally take it with you where you go. You can put in your pocket and take it.

Janet Engel (06:49.87)
Mm-hmm.

Janet Engel (06:56.921)
Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (07:01.622)
So we were using it in our hotel rooms. And because of course, everyone had come to CES to Vegas from somewhere else in the United States, that was one of the most popular use cases of the technology. Which was, my God, this would be wonderful because we would love to use it in our hotel rooms that we're staying in Rao. And we were, in fact, we were using it upstairs above the sort of Venetian ballroom where we were staying. And so that was the other unexpectedly popular use case.

which was when you're traveling for work or for pleasure.

Janet Engel (07:31.822)
Mm-hmm.

I've said to my husband many times that I spend way too much time trying to figure out where the light switch is in a hotel room.

Dhaval @ Lotus (07:45.27)
It's an extremely common problem because it's not really accessible. Oftentimes the switch is sort of behind a piece of thing or furniture or down the long sort of hallway that you walk through to get to inside your bedroom. And of course, it's a new space for you, so you don't know where it is. So you're busy hunting at least, and you're only there for a few days. So it's this weird problem. It just compounds for older adults when they're traveling, for people with disabilities when they're traveling and so on.

Janet Engel (07:49.306)
minute.

Janet Engel (07:58.948)
Yeah.

Janet Engel (08:03.35)
Right, yeah.

Janet Engel (08:14.656)
Yeah. So tell me about the aha moment. Another one you've already told me about how it helps people who have low vision. But are there any other examples or specific features or benefits that seem to resonate with older adults?

Dhaval @ Lotus (08:35.67)
Yeah, the most popular use case, this one was maybe a little, you know, this one was a little more expected, but the most popular by far use case from older adults was getting up to use the bathroom at night. That was probably the number one example everyone gave us when they came over and learned about this technology. Everyone sort of mentioned this, my God, this would be helpful for my dad or granddad.

Janet Engel (08:50.487)
Mm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (09:02.028)
mainly because they get up to use the bathroom at night. And the problem is today, when you try to do that, you are getting up to use the bathroom at night in the dark because you're in this Catch-22, right? How do you find the light switch in the dark? And so most older adults will either attempt to walk to the bathroom in the dark and fall. Falls are a huge problem. Or the small percentage of people that need light will leave their bathroom lights on and keep the door ajar.

Janet Engel (09:31.78)
Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (09:31.832)
But then of course they don't sleep very well. And so the most popular both feature and use case, and the reason it's been designed as a ring is because you can keep it on and leave it on. So when you're in bed, you are not hunting for your phone or hunting for the wall switch. You can just point and click silently and walk to the bathroom, not in the dark. Because for instance, if you have a spouse and they're asleep next to you,

Even if you wanted to and you were in that 9 % of users, you couldn't say, hey Alexa, turn on the lights, you know, because someone's asleep next to you. And so very quietly, you want to just turn on a little bit of light so you can walk safely. The other common thing being for older adults was preventing falls, not just at night, but all the time, which is with the Lotus ring. You don't have to get up to begin with if you don't need to. Now, of course, you're still going to have to get up to go eat food or go take a shower.

You know, you're not preventing exercise or motion, but on that one time when it's the end of the day and you're very tired and you don't want to get up, but you forgot to turn off the lights before you got into bed, that one time your risk of falling is very high. And so that was one of the common things that came up. The other unexpected, I think my aha moments were a lot of older adults have speech impairments or

Janet Engel (10:32.015)
Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (10:56.13)
they, or, you know, in general, they stutter or have become hard of hearing over time. None of the existing solutions can work for them. They can't use an Alexa, any voice based system, because they can't hear well or they can't speak well. Or for instance, in my parents' case, they have an accent. And so anyone with an accent being able to use any voice control device becomes very, very hard. Now, if you take that to an extreme, we actually had a couple of users who are

legally deaf and hard of hearing, sort of two users who came by, and they came with their sign language interpreter. And I'll never forget, the lady told me, I want this device today in my home and we already have an Alexa. And I asked her, well, if you already have an Alexa, why do you want this? And she happens to be in that 9 % minority. She said, well, my husband is able to use the Alexa in front of me, but I can't use it because I can only sign.

Janet Engel (11:46.189)
and

Dhaval @ Lotus (11:54.966)
And so I feel extremely disempowered. And so I want this to be able to show him that I can also have the power to control things in my home as and when I need them. And so it's just lots of overlap with older adults with lots of different use cases, anyone that's hard of hearing, anyone that's had their speech impaired over a period of time, also very helpful. So those are just some examples coming off the top of my head.

Janet Engel (11:55.162)
Mm.

Janet Engel (12:21.076)
Mm-hmm. I was at my girlfriend's house last weekend and she's from Brazil and We were gonna ask Alexa question and she said Janet you ask Alexa because Alexa hates me

Dhaval @ Lotus (12:36.3)
Yeah, that came up a lot. We actually had many husband and wife couples who came over and said the exact same thing. Well, Alexa only listens to my husband or Alexa only listens to my wife and doesn't get me. And so, yes, very common situation.

Janet Engel (12:49.114)
Yeah, she said she doesn't understand anything I

Dhaval @ Lotus (12:54.254)
We actually had families who came over to us and said they have now unplugged their Alexis because it doesn't understand what they want or it only understands one person in the family. And of course, all of this becomes compoundingly true for older adults, either because of hard of hearing or speech or just an accent if they're an immigrant.

Janet Engel (13:16.246)
Yeah, I also when my son was younger and he was using Alexa, I realized that the way that children word statements isn't in the natural language. so Alexa won't understand them either.

Dhaval @ Lotus (13:34.668)
Right. Yeah, and you know, you're very familiar with this yourself, but there's common, there's lots of overlap when it comes to designing products and technologies for younger folks like children and older adults. Very lots of commonalities and similarities. Actually, on that front, one thing I just remembered, probably the most surprising thing was the number of people who did not realize that

using anything like a voice assistant, like an Alexa or Google Home or Apple Siri, using any of those systems, how much rewiring it can involve or how much setup it involves. And the reason being the most common use cases for using these technologies is playing music, asking for the weather and setting kitchen timers. That's the most common use for these technologies.

Janet Engel (14:13.966)
Mm-hmm.

Janet Engel (14:26.458)
Hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (14:29.226)
Most people did not realize that if you want any of this to say control your ceiling lights at home, your first step is to rewire your existing wall switch. Because it has to connect to the internet to be able to talk to Alexa or Google or Siri, right? How would your existing offline wall switch connect to any of that? And that was extremely surprising to people. In fact, if you go even deeper, forget the actual installation.

Janet Engel (14:42.862)
Right.

huh.

Dhaval @ Lotus (14:58.87)
Just knowing what to order is very complex. You need to know if you have a neutral wire in your home. You need to know what kinds of lights do you have. Are they fluorescent lights? Are they incandescent? Are they LED lights? And then what's their wattage? Most people don't know any of this, and that's just to purchase an alternate wall switch. Then when it shows up at your doorstep, you have to figure out where the fuse box is, turn off the fuse, go in, unscrew the wall, rewire the wall.

You know, it's a really long, drawn out process for a typical single family home. It's 11 hours, but it surprised me how many people didn't realize that if they ordered an Alexa, that they would have to do all of this to set it up. And that's just step one. Then you have to connect everything to the internet and then pair it up through another app. And so that was quite surprising.

Janet Engel (15:45.935)
right.

But now your product doesn't just control lights. can turn on the television, right?

Dhaval @ Lotus (15:57.002)
That's exactly right. So it's a ring that controls objects by pointing, but there's no app, there's no rewiring and no internet. mean, essentially all you do is put on the ring. There's a single button you usually push with your thumb. And so putting on the ring once means there's no need to have a smart speaker in every room of the house because the ring stays on you and goes with you wherever you go. And to your point,

The second half, the Lotus switch cover, can go on to existing wall switches just using magnets. There's no rewiring. And that was probably the most fun to watch, actually. We would have people come and put this on themselves. And you could see the sort of aha moment in their eyes when they watch the magnets just snap on top of the screws.

Janet Engel (16:46.51)
Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (16:47.414)
And so the nice thing is because it goes on top of your existing wall switches, it can control whatever the switch controls. So if your wall switch controls a light, like I'm holding here, you can control lights. But if your wall switch controls a ceiling fan, you can control your fans. In fact, if you live in a rental apartment, you can't upgrade to a smart home because of all the rewiring, but it's very common to have those rental ACs. You know, the ones that stick out the window. We can control the ACs. In fact, in addition to all that,

To your point, we can also control TVs. And for TVs, you don't even need the switch cover, because all TVs, even the ones from 20 years ago, already have infrared built in. So you can control lights, fans, appliances, and TVs. And by the way, without internet, because all you do is point and click. So like a TV remote, only the thing you're pointing to turns on and off, and everything else stays off.

Janet Engel (17:33.658)
That's great.

Janet Engel (17:37.818)
pointing.

Dhaval @ Lotus (17:45.292)
So there's no rewiring, there's no app, no internet.

Janet Engel (17:49.038)
What about a smart faucet, like a voice activated faucet? It can control that as well.

Dhaval @ Lotus (17:55.456)
Not yet. So today we started off with wall switches because with one device you can control many types of things, but we are working on additional devices as we speak. So next, what we're working on is a smart plug. But when I say smart, it's still completely offline. So there's nothing listening to you. Your data isn't going anywhere. It's completely offline. So if you live in a rural area or rural community with poor or no internet, it can still work for you.

If you've been one of the folks affected by the fires recently or the hurricanes, oftentimes a lot of these folks have a generator, but they don't have internet. So you can still continue using everything in your home as is because you don't need internet, which is a common problem because even if they have a generator, everything that needs the internet stops working. So yes, absolutely.

Janet Engel (18:43.972)
Mm-hmm.

Janet Engel (18:48.086)
Yes. Tell me about, well you've already told me about how the Lotus ring appeals to diverse groups. How are you tailoring your marketing to reach older adults and their families who are exploring aging in place solutions?

Dhaval @ Lotus (19:08.886)
Yeah. So one thing we've realized is a very common situation for older families is oftentimes the people stumbling across our technology are sort of you and me. You know, there are the folks who have older parents or older grandparents. Sometimes, you know, we're also working with distributors like Crutchfield. They, for instance, are looking into partnering with us to distribute our product. And oftentimes people who used to use Crutchfield in the past as they were growing up.

They tend to use them, but very, very commonly the messaging is around both the end user, which in this case would be your parents or your grandparents, and the children, like you and me. Because as we have now discovered, the benefits are to actually not just the end user, but the family members as well. So for instance, the benefits to the end user are obvious, which is they get to be more independent, they get to have more agency, and they get to prevent faults.

while having more independence and agency. But the side effect of that is to all the family members who would otherwise have to do all of that by themselves, where you would have to stop what you were doing and walk across the house to turn on the light switch that's 10 steps away from your dad or your granddad. But because you don't have to do that anymore, now you have relief, you have peace of mind, and this is especially true if you're not living with your parents or grandparents. Where there's somewhere far away,

And you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you've ever played tech support for your parents, where you've helped them figure out a piece of technology or get them online, or they've forgotten their password to log into an app or something, you know exactly what I'm talking about, which is you want to give them technology to empower them, but then you're constantly playing tech support. The nice thing with this is you put on the ring, snap on the switch, you're done. If they know how to use a TV remote, they know how to use Lotus. There's no training and there's no setup and there's no app.

completely offline. And so that's kind of the powerful messaging we found, which is starting to share that it's not just helpful for the end user, but also their families and any caregivers involved.

Janet Engel (21:18.65)
So Deval, if I were to buy this device, I would need to buy the light switches for different areas of my home, correct?

Dhaval @ Lotus (21:31.534)
Sure. So yes, a starter kit actually has one ring, one ring and three of these switch covers. These things, these little things. And so that's the starter kit. And typically most people will start off by putting one switch cover in every room. So that way, and by the way, the price point is typically $3.49. But if you're working with a partner organization that we're working with, such as the state of New York, or if you're a veteran,

a veteran soldier than with Veterans Affairs, you actually instead get it for $2.99 and often paid for, so it's completely free to you. And so in those cases, typically what we've seen is most people will want to put one in every room. So all of a sudden in two seconds, you have a smart home and one that you can take with you wherever you go. Now you can always add more as you go. And the reason that is key and important is there is no pairing. Meaning, if you visit your dad,

your ring will continue working in his house without any setup. And I don't just mean you taking your devices. If you have a Lotus ring and he already has the Lotus switch covers, your ring will automatically work in his home. And if he comes to visit you, his ring will work in your home. In fact, he can literally come to your home and turn on your television. No setup. It's like a telephone. The more people that have it, the more beneficial everyone's device starts to become.

because that's another person in whose home you can use it. Now I couldn't be outside your home and use it because infrared, like a TV remote, doesn't penetrate walls. So just like you can't turn on your neighbors television, you can't turn on your neighbors lights with this. But if you're in your home, then yes, it'll automatically work, which is nice.

Janet Engel (23:17.498)
Perhaps in the future you will offer something like a family device sharing. I'll give you the example of Instacart. I've been a member of Instacart for several years and just recently they added the family, you can invite family members at no cost. So I've invited several family members and

they use it all the time and then I can see when they go shopping, which is annoying because it's telling me what they're buying and I don't need to know. Right. But I could also contribute to that list, which could be a problem, right. But.

Dhaval @ Lotus (23:54.049)
Yeah, yeah.

Dhaval @ Lotus (23:58.209)
Right.

Dhaval @ Lotus (24:02.208)
Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, in a way, this is sort of baked in already where any family member can use it at any family member's home from the get-go. But obviously, you can't use it if you're not invited. If you're not at that physical space, then you could use it.

Janet Engel (24:16.194)
Right. Well, what I'm suggesting is that maybe you offer a kind of family plan discount, right?

Dhaval @ Lotus (24:21.578)
got it. Yes. Yes, yes. That makes sense. We actually already offer sort of bulk discounts for partner organizations, but I get what you're saying, which is discounts for family members to sort of add on because that's true. And you're right, because it's very common for a family to get a kid. And then the other people in the family.

Janet Engel (24:36.996)
to spread the love.

Dhaval @ Lotus (24:47.566)
who currently can, you know, they can still walk up to the wall switch and use it manually like they would anyway. But they then say, hey, I would also love a lotus ring. So I can also control things sort of at a distance. And so I don't, you know, very common use case that started coming up was pregnant moms or new parents, like new dads. Because from prenatal to postnatal, going through pregnancy, if anyone's gone through this, you know, getting up from a seated position to a standing position very hard, you know, lots of back pain involved.

Janet Engel (25:00.012)
Mm-hmm.

Dhaval @ Lotus (25:17.324)
And then once you've had the baby, a very common situation for a new mom or new dad is if you've put your baby to sleep and they fall asleep in your arms, you can't get up. And at that moment, you can't say, hey, Alexa, turn off the lights. And your arms are kind of tied up, right? You can't move. you know what I mean?

Janet Engel (25:27.065)
Yeah.

Janet Engel (25:33.166)
Yeah, or your nursing. That's a very common activity. Nursing.

Dhaval @ Lotus (25:37.088)
Sorry, say that again. Nursing, exactly, exactly. So you can't get up, you can't make a sound. And so very quietly, you can just push the button with your opposing thumb and you're done. And so that's been very common where one parent has the ring and now the other parent also wants it for the same reason, because you're both helping taking care of the baby. So you're absolutely right.

Janet Engel (25:56.75)
Mm-hmm.

Janet Engel (26:00.858)
I was going to ask, does it have to be charged?

Dhaval @ Lotus (26:05.004)
Good question. That was the other big... So I think if there were two light bulb moments, no pun intended, that I would see in users when they sort of tried the technology out for themselves, one was the first time they pulled the switch cover off the switch plate, where you would look at them and they would look at both sides and they would go, my goodness, it's just magnets. That was a big sort of aha moment.

And the other was the battery life, because we would ask people, OK, if you had to guess, how often do you charge your phone or a smart Apple Watch or Fitbit or any health ring? And usually, it's every day or every three days or so. And when we would tell them, you only need to charge this once in up to six months, meaning only two, maybe three times a year, it would blow their minds. And that was the second aha moment. So yes, they both have rechargeable batteries.

But you only need to charge it two, maybe three times a year, as opposed to multiple times a week. And so that's the nice thing about this technology as well.

Janet Engel (27:12.868)
people are gonna forget to charge it at month seven. They're gonna be like, it broke.

Dhaval @ Lotus (27:15.022)
It's sort of like your TV remote, right? Like when was the last time you changed the batteries on your TV remote? Do you even remember? It's very similar. The way I like to describe it is the ring is not a laser pointer. It's more like an infrared flashlight where you don't have to hunt, but as long as you're pointed in generally the right direction, only the thing that's covered by the flashlight will turn on and off. Everything else will stay the same.

Janet Engel (27:25.796)
No.

Dhaval @ Lotus (27:43.404)
So you can have many things in the same room, and this is why we don't need an app. Because there's no need for it. You just point and click. So if you know how to use a TV remote, you can use this.

Janet Engel (27:54.392)
Well, great. Well, it was great learning more about your product and also the incredible success that you've had since you've launched, which has only been four months, right? Four and a half months.

Dhaval @ Lotus (28:05.888)
Yeah, or four months. We have some more exciting news, but it's not public information yet. So soon, stay tuned. There might be even more exciting news in the works. Let's just say someone from TV reached out.

Janet Engel (28:14.081)
Janet Engel (28:22.47)
really? very very exciting. Okay well you'll have to message me privately and then I can have you on again. Is there anything else that you want to mention about the Lotus Ring Deval? Well perhaps where people can go to purchase it?

Dhaval @ Lotus (28:32.116)
Absolutely. It will be a thrill and an honor and a privilege.

Dhaval @ Lotus (28:44.0)
Yeah, absolutely. So if you're interested or if you think this will help someone that you know, either an older adult or a person with a disability, especially limited mobility, we are welcome to come to our website, GetLotus.com. That's G-E-T-L-O-T-U-S, Get Lotus, like the flower, GetLotus.com. Or you can email me, my name is Daval, D-H-A-V-A-L, at GetLotus.com.

But yeah, the website sort of explains it easily. The other interesting thing, if you are a veteran soldier or if you're in any person staying in the state of New York, please do recheck. We actually have pilots ongoing with each of these organizations. So with Veterans Affairs at the federal government level and the state of New York at the state government level, and a large number of disability organizations. If you would like to try this product out and you're either staying in the state of New York or you're a veteran,

or you have some connection to a disability organization, you may be able to get this product for free today. So please do reach out. We're running pilots as we speak. And so like I said, if you're in any one of those categories, do reach out. We might be able to get you the product absolutely for free, and you can keep it.

Janet Engel (29:56.494)
Well, that's wonderful. Well, thank you, Deval, and I really hope that whatever you have in the works realizes for you.

Dhaval @ Lotus (30:06.254)
Thank you. Thank you. It's been an honor and a privilege. Thank you, Janet, for letting me come on your show and sort of share our updates. Thank you.