Week 10: End of the Project

Powerpoint Presentation

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fe8fv3c5wbctc5y/engr103_grp06501_finPres.pdf

Final Report

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8kqiz0939awb1h/engr103_grp06501_finRep.pdf

Updated Proposal
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0n7rbtdtvq91xtk/engr103_section065_group01.pdf

Arduino Readings Diagram

This is a rough layout of the code so far of the arduino readings that it'll take. It's easier for the consumer to understand in a block diagram rather than the raw code itself.

To Scrap the App or Not To Scrap the App? - WORKING WITH BLUETOOTH

As the weeks wind down, the team is deciding whether they should ditch the mobile application for android or continue working on it. It is currently week 6 out of 10 and so far our programmers have only set up the environment for the application. Unless 24/7 effort is put for the application, it will most likely not be complete.

Hence, one of the members is working with bluetooth via laptop connection to work with the arduino and pulse band for now as an alternative.

Figure 1: Interfacing bluetooth module with Arduino

On the official Arduino's website, there are tutorials that help our project succeed:

http://playground.arduino.cc/Learning/Tutorial01

One of the items required was a bluetooth modem along with the code required.

Figure 2: Bluetooth modem that will be connected with the Arduino

Draft of Prototype Pulse Band

Figure 1: Draft of the final product

Introduction to Biosignals

Biosignal is a term that summarizes all kinds of signals that can be (continually) measured and monitored from biological design.  The term biosignal is often used to mean bio-electrical signal but in fact, biosignal refers to both electrical and non-electrical signals.

They are usually taken to be (changes in) electric currents produced by the sum of electric potential differences across a specialized tissue, organ or cell system like the nervous system.

In the pulse band project, the team will mostly work with EKG/ECG - Electrocardiogram to measure heart rate via the pulse sensor. Also, Galvanic Skin Response is important to detect the sweating produced by hypoglycemia.

Examples of bio-electrical signals:

• Electroencephalogam (EEG)

Figure 1: imaging brain while performing a cognitive task

• Magnetoencephalogram (MEG)

Figure 2: mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in brain

• Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)

Figure 3: GSR Through Lego NXT

• Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Figure 4: ECG used by diagnosis of heart disease

• Electromyogram (EMG)

Figure 5: EMG used for recording electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles

• Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Figure 6: HRV used as a measure of time interval between heartbeats - measured by variation in the beat-to-beat interval

The Coding Environment

It's necessary for the coding environment to be set up prior to to testing the product of the pulse band.

Tutorial for Developers that the team is using: Click Here

There are multiple items that are needed to be installed:

• Android SDK - The Android SDK provides the user the API libraries and developer tools necessary to build, test, and debug apps for Android.

Figure 1: Android Emulator & Code

• Android API - (API - application programming interface) is a protocol intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other.

Figure 2: Android API Classes

• Eclipse - multi-language software development environment comprising a base workspace an an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment.  (mostly written in Java)

Figure 3: Eclipse Screenshot

Week 3 - Sensors

Week by week, the team has decided to use a sensor to detect heart rate. But the question was which sensor would be liable for wrist bound detection? After research, the team found a pulse sensor (via kickstarter) that is very reliable for the fingertip (and nicely, the earlobe too).

Figure 1: Pulse Sensor

In an optical heart-rate pulse sensor, light is shot into a finger tip or ear lobe. The light either bounces back to a light sensor, or gets absorbed by blood cells. As you continue to shine light  and take light sensor readings, you quickly start to get a heart-beat pulse reading. The theory is easy to understand. In practice, it's hard to master DIY optical heart-rate sensors, or get them operational at all. There are many tutorials online and in publications describing how to make DIY heart-rate sensors.

There were other ideas such as using a polar brand heart rate monitor on the wrist. Those brands and products are reliable. Yet, it would take over the timeline we have to take the products apart and would be beyond our knowledge for system deintegration. There was also a waist monitor but for our module, the most optimal product would be meant for the wrist.

Figure 2: Polar Wrist Heart Sensor and Polar Waist Sensor