Wearable Detection Device for UV And Polluted Air Exposure

• Fall Poster
• Winter Poster
• Spring Poster

• Fall Peer Review
• Winter Peer Review
• Spring Peer Review

Background

Albeit apropos sunshine benefits people’s health, there is authoritative convention that Ultraviolet radiation from sun exposure is the primary environmental cause of skin cancer. Even so, people still tend to go outdoors for sports and activities. Danger comes when people, being too devoted, forget that their sunscreen lotion applied on their skin loses the function, exposing people from rick of developing skin cancer. Therefore, people staying outdoors exposed to direct UV need to be noticed if they have been in the sun so long that they have been in danger.

There is another outdoors component that impairs people’s health, air pollution, which is more serious in industry area. The noisome components in the air, including PM2.5, would impair the health of people’s respiration system, especially for outdoors sports. Thus, for the sake of their respiration health, people should be noticed that they have been inhaled so much noisome air that they should find for fresh air.

After some research, we have found some products in the contemporary market. For UV detection and alarm, there is currently a wristband called Sunfriend, which can inform people of how much UV they have been exposed to and. The device is integrated with wireless charging system. However, there is not wireless communication with phones or PCs, which means the data cannot be recorded and displayed. For the air detection, currently devices (including a new device called Tzoa which is really functional and powerful, but limited by the weight, power source and high cost.) are too big or heavy to be wearable. In terms of the air detection, there is no wearable device.

Goal and Objectives

The project aims to develop a wearable device to detect the exposure to the Ultraviolet and polluted air of the people who wears this device, and to alarm them when they have been exposed to dangerous amount of UV or air pollution. Besides, through wireless communication, the device can transmit data to smartphones or PCs, where data can be organized and analyzed. The result of three quarters will be a paper to be submitted to IEEE VCACS conference.

Innovation

All components of the device are designed for wearable solution so that the minimization of the size of the device can be completed without impairing its designed function.

The primary idea of data analysis and display is to use smartphone app or PC. After creating an interface on the phone or PC, which communicates with the device through WiFi or Bluetooth, data can be integrated and deeply analyzed on phones and PC instead of the microcontroller.

Research on the human’s medical tolerance to UV and air pollution is planned to go on. Medical research papers can provide adequate data for mathematic model. Mathematic model can be built with Matlab or Mathematica on the reference to related medical research papers so that the alarm system can be scientific.

The Bigger Picture

The device provide a chance for everyone to take good care of their health rather than be exposed to the strong UV or air pollution inadvertently. It makes the detection of the potential environmental threat so convenient and reachable. As long as this device obtained the popularization, it will be the best prevention method for the vulnerable populations and will definitely reduce the Morbidity of Skin diseases and respiratory diseases.

Timeline

Budget

Subsystem Breakdown

none

• Fall Team Roster
• Winter Team Roster
• Spring Team Roster

Initial Project Information

• Project ID#

  MAE0088

• Course Code

  19275

• Project Type

  Student Innovations

• Field of Interest

  Sensor plays very important role in robotics, plant automation, health monitoring systems, consumer electronics (cell phones, gaming platforms), etc. To develop an application it is very important to understand sensor parameters to design a control or monitoring system. Some examples for the sensors that are broadly used in industries are inertial, pressure, temperature, gas, humidity, IR, PIR, Laser, Ultrasonic, etc.

• Description

  The topic will give engineering design teams (5 students per team) an opportunity to propose a sensor-based solutions to real-world problems. The students will develop a hands-on project for three quarters, develop a prototype, record a presentation, and present results at the IEEE Virtual Conference on Applications of Commercial Sensors (VCACS). The project and presentations at this conference describe the problems being addressed and explain the designs and fabrication of prototype solutions. The designs, schematics, microprocessor code, CAD files, etc., for the prototypes will be made available for public, virtually to anybody who is interested in reproducing and/or extending the functionality of the proposed solutions. The goal of this project is to create a community of “makers” who share information with each other in an environment in which the information being shared has been peer-reviewed by the IEEE. See details and examples at http://2016.ieee-vcacs.org

• Maximum Number of Students

  15 (3 teams with 5 students per team)

• Requirements

  GPA 3.5+

• Additional Information

  See Notes Below

• Contact Method

  email advisor (for now)