Shown holding belt clip.įigure 5: Device enclosure (black) showing speaker (white) and dismissal button (black, top left).įigure 6: Device internals and lid. Mental belt clip is shown beneath the device.įigure 4: Side view of device enclosure (black) with power switch and labels. I had some trouble using the Mega links with Safari, but Chrome seems to work).įigure 1: Block diagram of device function, encompassing hardware (including communication protocols), processing of data in software, and communication with user.įigure 2: Wiring diagram of the device components (not including the ear bud, which acted as the speaker).įigure 3: Device enclosure (black) with power switch and ultrasonic rangefinder (round with slits) top left on. I have switched to Mega, which seems to work really well.
The code can be found here (I had to switch from using Dropbox to host my downloads as they are ending the download link service. Despite this flaw, the device was well-received for its advanced construction, functionality, user friendliness (comparatively) and interesting application. Hence, the device will think that the user is still standing, especially if the chair is high off the ground. If the chair that the user is sitting on is not wide enough to enter the field of view of the ultrasonic rangefinder, the rangefinder will not see the chair, and likely measure the distance to the ground. With these two problems corrected, the device performed with 95.84% accuracy during controlled testing. A future modification would be to mount the device on a swivel mount so that it was always pointing straight down. This was corrected by ensuring that the device pointed squarely at the target. Second, if the device was angled when the user was sitting, aliasing occurred (where sound reflected off of the chair, then off of the ceiling or wall, then returned to the sensor, resulting in a long range measurement > 100in occasionally). This resulting in failed range measurements.
First, the initial position of the device was too low on the belt, resulting in the range finder being too close the the target (the chair) when the user was sitting. The device worked quite well after several problems were addressed. This alarm (which played through my broken ear bud) could be dismissed by the user by pressing a momentary switch. The following figures provide further information.
The series of tones ascended in frequency to signal a transition from sitting to standing (which would require an increase in oxygen flow rate), and descended in frequency to signal a transition from standing to sitting (which would require a decrease in oxygen flow rate). The device functioned by playing a series of tones when a transition in activity was detected (sitting to standing, or standing to sitting). Hence the choice to use the rangefinder to measure the distance to the ground. Doing this with only an inertial measurement unit (the MPU6050 for example) would be extremely difficult as there is not much information to work with (for example, how can you tell the difference between sitting motionless and standing motionless with inertial information only?). The idea was to use the MPU6050 in combination with the rangefinder to determine if the person wearing the device was sitting or standing/walking by measuring both activity (movement) and the distance to the ground (the device was intended to be worn on the waist).
I used an Arduino Nano, MPU6050, MaxBotix Ultrasonic rangefinder, HC-05 Bluetooth transceiver (for debugging), broken ear bud, a momentary switch, a regular switch, protoboard, and a project box from Fry’s Electronics. As such, I decided to build a device that would help her to remember to adjust her oxygen supply. Likewise, if she transitioned from standing/walking to sitting without reducing her oxygen flow rate, she could become hyperoxic, which is also dangerous. This resulted in oxygen deprivation and a high risk of syncope. Essentially, when she transitioned form sitting to standing/walking without increasing her oxygen flow rate, her oxygen consumption increased (due to more exertion), but her supply did not. I had heard about a friend on supplemental oxygen who often had difficulty remembering to adjust her oxygen supply to match her level of exertion. For my Microcomputer Applications class at Arizona State University we were tasked with designing and building a medical device that utilized some sort of microprocessor.