Written By Tracey Khan
In a borough defined by grit, resilience and reinvention, Tyneadrian Fleming is building technology rooted not in Silicon Valley trends, but in survival.
Fleming, a lifelong Bronx resident, caregiver and psychologist, is the founder, CEO and inventor of Black Bird Smart Innovations, a wearable safety technology company created to protect some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, including children with autism, seniors with dementia, people with traumatic brain injuries and individuals at risk of medical emergencies or wandering. Her devices are not about convenience or fitness. They are about protection.
Fleming stands with her three sons at Blackbird Smart Innovations, which she built with her children in mind as both protection and legacy. “This is generational wealth,” Fleming said. “My children will see that their mother protected families, including her own.”
“I didn’t grow up dreaming of founding a tech company,” Fleming said. “This came from lived experience.”
Fleming, 54, launched Black Bird after decades spent working with vulnerable populations operating state-licensed home care agencies, serving in corrections and supporting individuals with cognitive and physical impairments. Again and again, she saw how easily people could slip through fractured safety systems.
The idea took shape during the COVID-19 pandemic, when QR codes became a daily tool for accessing information. Fleming saw an opportunity to repurpose that technology for something more urgent: saving lives. “I saw people go into crisis and how fast situations escalated,” she said. “People would pull out their phones to record instead of help. I thought, what if that same phone could be used to protect someone instead?”
Blackbird’s technology centers on what Fleming calls a “protective community” model. Wearable devices, including smartwatches, LTE-enabled pendants, medical ID sleeves and a patent-pending smart button, allow bystanders, caregivers or first responders to instantly access critical medical and care information by scanning or tapping the device.
The system can display diagnoses, medications, language needs and emergency contacts in seconds, providing context before treatment begins and helping responders act with speed and dignity. “That can be any one of us,” Fleming said. “A child who wanders, a senior who becomes disoriented, someone who collapses and can’t speak for themselves.”
Unlike traditional consumer wearables, Black Bird integrates safety management, real-time communication and health monitoring. The devices track indicators such as heart rate and blood pressure while remaining discreet and familiar in appearance.
One of the company’s most distinctive innovations is a patent-pending smart button designed for children with autism and nonverbal individuals who may refuse wrist or neck devices. The button can be sewn into clothing, alerting caregivers if a wearer leaves a designated area and allowing immediate identification if the child is found.
“This is solution-focused technology,” Fleming said. “Not theory.”
Fleming’s path to innovation was not linear. Raised in the Bronx, she experienced housing instability before earning a GED, followed by two master’s degrees, one in psychology from Mercy University and another in public administration. She credits her background for shaping how she designs technology.
“I’m trained in therapeutic processing. I’m trained in systems,” she said. “That allows me to build technology that works in the real world.”
Affordability was central to the design. Fleming said she worked to align Black Bird’s system with Medicaid and long-term managed care programs, a critical factor for families often excluded from emerging technologies. “Safety shouldn’t be a luxury,” she said.
As a Black woman founder in the tech and medical device space, Fleming said skepticism has been constant. Blackbird’s products are now moving through FDA approval, a process that has required her to present to doctors, engineers and regulators.
“When people see me, they don’t expect an inventor,” she said. “But I’ve been preparing for this my whole life.”
For Fleming, success is personal and generational. She built Black Bird with her three sons in mind as both protection and legacy. “This is generational wealth” she said. “My children will see that their mother protected families including her own.”
Black Bird’s mission is trademarked and simple: saving lives, one risk at a time.
As missing-person cases involving seniors and children continue to rise nationwide, Fleming believes technology must evolve beyond convenience and surveillance toward care, prevention and dignity.
“Technology is already everywhere,” she said. “Why not use it to take care of one another?”
As Black Bird Smart Innovations prepares to bring its devices to market, Fleming hopes her work reshapes who gets seen as an innovator and what innovation is meant to do.
For many Bronx residents and their loved ones, that vision may one day live quietly on a wrist, in a sleeve, or stitched into a shirt, a lifeline designed by someone who understands exactly what’s at stake.
Photography Credit: Black Bird Smart Innovations
Follow Us On Social Media!
