The co-inventor of the popular MiFi mobile hotspot has launched a new venture – a high-performance Wi-Fi router that lets parents manage their childrens’ Internet use.
San Diego resident John Wu, founder with Arup Bhattacharya of Gryphon Online Safety, is seeking to raise $50,000 in a Kickstarter campaign for the specialized router based on Qualcomm’s latest Wi-Fi technology.
The home router contains software that lets parents block or allow access in real time to age-appropriate websites for each connected device in their home — all from a smartphone app.
Parents also can set online time limits on individual devices and see browsing history.
“We are trying to make parental controls a lot easier to use than traditional software solutions that are out there,” said Wu. “The Wi-Fi router is pretty much the front door to your connected home. Everything flows through the router. So it made sense to have the control there.”
The former vice president of engineering at Novatel Wireless, Wu was on the team that invented the MiFi mobile hotspot, which connected up to 10 Wi-Fi devices to high speed cellular network.
Though MiFi’s technology wasn’t unique – many smartphones can do the same thing – the hotspot received good reviews because it is easy to use. MiFi became Novatel’s top selling product for several years, generating more than $400 million in revenue.
Wu aims to recreate MiFi’s ease of use with the Gryphon router. He began working on the idea in 2014 as his two young daughters spent more time online.
“I found they were looking up something about princesses and some really objectionable content came up,” said Wu. “I think many parents have that moment where they ask, ‘What can I do to filter some of this?’”
Wu thinks current browser filters and website blocking software are difficult and inconvenient.
“These days, kids are using the Internet to do their homework,” he said. “They need some access. Constantly having to turn off (filters,) I think some parents just wind up not using the parental controls.”
Gryphon lets parents manage access in real time through the smartphone app. Children can request access to blocked websites, and parents can approve it with a click.
To help parents decide, Gryphon has a Yelp-like crowd-sourcing feature that shows what other users have done.
The app also tracks device usage, so parents know how much time their children are spending online. Parents can “pause” Internet access on specific devices, such as game consoles. And they can choose which devices to manage and which to leave unchecked.
Gryphon also is baking Internet security into the router to block malware and viruses. It has teamed up with security firm Kaspersky, and is building machine learning algorithms to uncover infected thermostats, security cameras and other Internet of Things devices.
“We can look at all the different fingerprints of these devices and how they communicate on the network,” said Wu. “If that changes, we can actually detect that and quarantine devices.”
Wu has filed patents on Gryphon’s technology. The company is self-funded and has about a dozen contract engineers working on its router. The device costs $199 retail, but Gryphon is offering early adopter discounts during its Kickstarter campaign.
So far, the company has received $35,700 from 213 backers with 43 days to go on Kickstarter. Gryphon expects to fill orders by June 2017.
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