Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
37 Outdoor Safety Bracelet
Sameeth Gosike
Samuel Sitzmann
Seth Katz
AJ Schroeder design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
other1.pdf
other2.pdf
Sameeth Gosike (gosike2), Seth Katz (sethk2), Samuel Sitzmann (samuels7)

RFA: Outdoor Safety Bracelet

Problem
To many children, the outdoors is a magnificent playground that is just waiting to be explored. However, as adults, we also understand that children can fall into danger rather easily. For parents on a family outing or for camp counselors that are struggling to keep track of 10+ kids at a time, it is difficult to continuously monitor a child's safety when they are roaming around outdoors. A number of things can happen, such as a child falling into a body of water, falling from high places, or wandering off outside of a guardian's supervision. As of now, guardians rely on their eyes and continuous alertness to keep track of all this which can be tiresome. This issue can extend further to the elderly in nursing homes or patients in a mental hospital.

Solution Overview
The solution proposed to help people in this regard is to develop a bracelet which would be worn by those whose safety is a concern. The bracelet would track the wearer’s location in a restricted radius, detect a fall from an elevated height, and sense if the wearer is drowning. Each bracelet can be monitored from a single monitoring phone app which would be in the guardian's hands and connected via Bluetooth. It can notify users when a bracelet wearer is in any of the aforementioned situations so that the guardian can immediately act and bring the victims to safety. Additional features that could be included are a panic button for the bracelet wearer as well as an alert signal that can be sent out by the guardian to make the bracelet vibrate.

Solution Components
Bracelet

I. Power Unit
The power unit will contain a battery and the necessary circuitry to protect the battery and power all components of the device. The components in the device may operate at different voltages therefore, the battery must at least match the highest voltage component. This voltage can then be stepped down either through voltage dividers, voltage regulators, or DC-DC converters.
The bracelet should be compact so as to not be cumbersome on someone's arm. For this reason, a small battery supplying the desired voltage is ideal. The battery may be replaceable or rechargeable.
Depending on the operating voltage of the other electronics, the voltage supplied by the battery may need to be stepped down. This may be down with voltage regulators, resistive voltage dividers, or DC-DC converters. There might be multiple different operating voltages and therefore more than one of the above methods may be employed.
We may implement some circuitry to protect the battery from short circuits, back EMF, or other electrical hazards in order to protect the battery and prevent any dangers associated with batteries.

II. Sensing Unit
The sensing unit will contain all the sensors to take the kind of measurements needed. These measurements will be relayed to the microcontroller for processing. It will consist of 2 sensors, a water sensor and an inertial measurement unit (IMU)
The water sensor will detect if the bracelet is in contact with water, which allows the guardian to be alerted if the wearer falls into water unexpectedly
The IMU will keep track of motion, including velocity and acceleration. Using the velocity, the bracelet can keep track of a location relative to some starting point. Using the accelerometer, the bracelet will also be able to detect falls.

III. Processing Unit
The Processing unit will include a microcontroller (MCU) as well as a Bluetooth/RF communication unit to relay data back and forth between the bracelet and monitoring app. It will be able to process the data from the Sensing Unit in order to calculate accelerated motion from a certain height or in a body of water as well as continuously keep track of the bracelet wearer’s motions in a restricted radius. The MCU should be able to packet necessary data into an easily readable format and transmit to the monitoring app via Bluetooth or another form of RF communication.

Monitoring Unit
The bracelet is meant to collect data about the whereabouts and environment of an individual. This information is to be collected and sent via Bluetooth or other form of RF communication to be viewable by a “lifeguard” (i.e. parent, guardian, teacher, caretaker, etc.). An easy way to view this information would be with a smartphone application. Smartphones already utilize Bluetooth and have the ability to contact emergency personnel quickly if required. Each bracelet will have a unique ID that will be synced with an app.
A map would potentially be displayed on the app showing the relative location of one or more bracelet wearers that were synced to that particular smartphone. The map would be produced either using GPS data or a combination of Bluetooth range data and IMU vector data.
With Bluetooth, it is simple to indicate how far a bracelet wearer is by the strength of the signal.
A series of alerts can be displayed after receiving data from a sensor that exceeds a threshold. For example, a water alert can be displayed if the water sensor detects water. This alert will let the user know that the particular bracelet wearer is in or near water. Another alert example may be an impact/fallen alert. If the IMU detects a large force an alert will let the user know the bracelet and/or bracelet wearer may have just experienced some kind of impact.

Criterion for Success
Bracelet and phone communicate via Bluetooth
Bracelet accurately senses water, falls, and relative location
Bracelet is secure on the wrist, child-proof, and waterproof
Bracelet isn’t too large, similar in size to watches
App alerts guardian if there’s danger
App shows the relative location of bracelet

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