What is Biomedical Engineering?
Biomedical engineering (BME) is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g. diagnostic or therapeutic).
WEARABLE LED TOUCH SENSOR
Prototype Demo:
Problem Statement
With impairments from peripheral neuropathy, pinched nerves, and carpal tunnel syndrome it is nearly impossible to type on a computer. With the loss of the sense of touch in the fingers, people suffering from these impairments have difficulty recognizing if enough pressure was applied to the keys. This stops the flow of typing and requires the user to constantly look up and down from the computer screen to the keyboard. This device is essential in an office setting, where voice recognition technology would not be ideal to nearby co-workers
Design Goal
This device serves as an aid for those with sensory impairments in the hands and fingers. The goal of this design is to integrate a pressure resistive circuit into a one finger glove so that when pressure is applied to the tip of the glove an LED light will be activated, notifying the user that sufficient pressure has been applied to the keyboard key.
Design
Specifications
The device entails a 19cm one finger fishing glove with an elastic wristband that is secured by Velcro. Sewn into the glove is a simple LED circuit (3V battery & LED light) with the addition of a 1.75” force sensitive resistor. The actuation of the resistor can be as low as two grams and the sensitivity ranges from 0.1N-10N. The resistor has a 4mm active sensing area. The harder the force applied to the sensor, the lower the resistance. when no pressure is being applied, the resistance is greater than 1MΩ. with full pressure applied, the resistance will be 2.5 kΩ.
System Functions
The input to the system is pressure to the finger tips (measured in Newtons) the required force to activate the force sensitive pressure resistor is 0.5 Newtons. Once the system has enough pressure being acted upon it, the force sensitive resistor will be engaged, and will trigger a voltage (3V) response from the battery that is hooked into the LED light. Once the three volt battery is activated, the final feedback response is the illumination of the LED light.
