A Humanitarian Engineering Problem 385
zrosener asks: "A have a friend who has ALS (Stephen Hawking's ailment), a particularly nasty disease in which her motor neurons deteriorate over time, slowly waylaying her. She is in pretty bad shape now, and her movement is restricted to moving her eyes, and very limited (1 inch in each direction) hand movement. She has very light bell that she uses to wake up her husband when she needs assistance, but as her strength wanes it is becoming less and less effective. She is afraid at night now that if something were to go wrong she would not be able to rouse her husband. My challenge to you is to design a noise-making-husband-alerting device cheaply and quickly assembled from strip mall parts (Radioshack, Walmart, etc.) that she could use with her extremely restricted movement. Buttons are out of the questions, as are anything that requires gripping. Analog answers are encouraged too! Please email all suggestions or post them."
here's the solution (Score:0, Insightful)
Retinal device thingy (Score:2, Insightful)
possible approaches (Score:2, Insightful)
2) perhaps a more intrusive than she'd accept, but something based on jaw clench is possible
3) voice recognition... not a radio shack problem, i'm afraid tho
Optical switch and buzzer (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, you'd need a second one to signal when the first one's batteries go out.
And and third to do that for the second.
And a fourth to do that for the third.
She has an infinite number of fingers right? That will solve this. If not, I guess you should just build one.
heart rate monitor (Score:5, Insightful)
Infared beam break sensor? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ratshack even used to sell a larger-scale version of this as a door entry bell. You placed the unit and a reflector on either side of a doorway and anytime someone walks through the beam a chime sounds. Most ratshacks had these set up and operating to alert the salespeople to incoming customers during off-hours.
You might be able to find a pre-made version of this device on a small scale for detecting cabinet openings, or as a small portable "hotel room alarm" but most of these kinds of devices will not use this mode of sensing. (most cabinet alarms sense the light pouring in from the room into the cabinet, and most hotel alarms hang on the doorknob and sense being rocked around with a mercury switch.)
skin is conductive (Score:3, Insightful)
Or some lightweight convex surface with the contacts mounted underneath -- much lower resistance than a mechanical button or switch but less likely to go off accidentally. You could use the material from a small speaker dome and put conductive traces on the inside. Along with a cheap piezo buzzer and a 9V battery.
Some thoughts... (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, a sensitive motion detector? It might be able to pick up blinking or other movements she could make moving an object like a pencil.
How about a handicapped-helper dog?
Another idea is a button she could bite on that triggers a noisemaker.
Advice: I hope you find something. Be creative. Use functions of her body which are not affected by ALS, i.e. respiration or heart rate. If either vital signs drop or accelerate to a certain point, a simple breathing monitor or heart monitor would make noise.
Re:Complete the circut Switch with two metal plate (Score:5, Insightful)
you could work in some extra circuitry to make certian very quick brushes don't trigger the sound, but that's optional.
Re:Complete the circut Switch with two metal plate (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sort-of button idea (Score:2, Insightful)
without having read any other of the ideas... (Score:3, Insightful)
get one of the touchpad light switches. all they require is human contact to complete the circuit. No force required. Connect this to a FM transmitter that will send a signal to a device her husband can keep next to him to wake him up. The beauty of this is she can be anywhere within the transmission range and the husband can still be alerted. Plus they could have extra receivers if they wanted.
What about your liability... (Score:1, Insightful)
I work for a company that sold its biomedical division because of the horrendous liability issues associated with biomedical products. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd be surprised if you didn't have similar issues associated with this project. You might want to check on that before you give your friend your solution.
Re:Some thoughts... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good luck! I hope your friend finds something to help!
Re:heart rate monitor (Score:4, Insightful)
[Thanking to The Great Nerd Up There I haven't been struck with either fate]
--Ben
Re:Optical switch and buzzer (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:how about a photodetector? (Score:1, Insightful)
One small problem with IR is that if she covers the emmiter or detector her hand still gives off IR radiation and the switch may not close. Also, there's the problem of cooking the poor woman's hand from the IR LED if not tuned properly.
A simple photodetector could be put near a nightlight or an LED to trigger the switch. Radio Shack, among other electronics retailers, sells a project box the size of a matchbox. An LED and a Photodetector could be mounted on the outside of this with four wires (telco wire?) going to a seperate box holding the battery's, buzzer, and possibly a relay that keeps voltage from going to the LED except when the photo resistor is covered to conserve battery life.
Just Some Perspective (Score:1, Insightful)
Remember that a light detector works better at detecting the presence of light than it does at failing to detect the absence of light.
So, my variation would be based on the light sensor array. Place a reasonably bright light in front of a resonably sensitive detector. Set the system so the alarm goes off when the detector sees light. Place the patient's hand (or fingertip) over the light (apertured so that it is just barely completely covered). Slight motion of the hand (or finger) lets the light sneak past and the detector will trigger. The patient won't need to move much to trigger it, but false alarms should be rare since it is the patient's lack of mobility that necessitates the alarm.
Best of luck with whatever solutions you pursue, and I hope it aids your friend and her family.
Re:Whoa, nelly (Score:1, Insightful)
Commercial houses don't make medical equipment like this. It's called life critical. All of the components, ALL of them -- capacitors, resistors, microprocessors, you name it -- go through extensive inspection and screening. MUCH more extensive than normal commercial flows. The manufacturers specifically forbid you to use their equipment in life critical applications without their consent.
If you think Radio Shack is using the same capacitors that are in a pacemaker, you need to buy a clue. Same manufacturer? maybe. Same processing, safeguards, screening, testing, paperwork, failure analysis including intentionally destroying certain parts to see where they fail their limits? not even close.
Please return to your mindless rants, jackass.
Use proven technology! (Score:4, Insightful)
I myself kinda think the idea of biofeedback is neat... but this isn't the time to experiment. Go to the experts and do what they say. Neither you nor the rest of Slashdot put together can possibly match the experiences of the entire community built around supporting these people.
On a more prosaic note, I would be very deeply concerned about the potential legal liability of creating your own solution to this problem. You may find that your best friends are ir(?)rational enough to sue for damages if your homegrown device fails. (On reflection, perhaps that would be perfectly rational behavior, for some definitions of rational. Surprisingly deep philosophical question.)
Eye movement/signal motion-detector (Score:2, Insightful)
David
Proublem (Score:4, Insightful)
-Ben
(Yes I know my spelling is poor but it's 2 am and I've been up more than 36 hours)
Re:Use proven technology! (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, I'm assuming the requirements are not the poster's, but the husband's. Maybe he needs something cheap because he cannot afford the fancy equipment. Not everybody is insured.