11. Implications and applications¶

This week I worked on defining my final project idea and plan proposal. This was very challenging to achieve within one week!!

Inspiration¶

Previous Projects¶

I am passionate about cardiology and everything related to heart especially the medical instrumentation used with the heart. In my undergraduate study, I have developed multiple devices related to medical instrumentation but I enjoyed designing single lead ECG and infra-red pulse detector monitor projects the most.

In the begining of the week, I started to think and brainstorm different concepts and topics of my interest. Then, I created a Pinterest board to gather the different ideas that are interesting for me. I realized that I am interested at two main concepts; wearables for health monitoring and modular design in fashion.

Project Main Idea "Modular Smart T-Shirt"¶

To design and implement a smart T-shirt using textile/ soft electronics to monitor human vital signs. I would like to emphasize on the modularity feature and to add it to the shirt design. This could be achieved by choosing the signals the user is interested to monitor. Each module will be sensing a different set of signals; however, in all cases the module for ECG monitoring is there. This modular jacket has inspired me to implement the modularity to the design.

Why?¶

Embedding electronics systems for health monitoring is the next level of smart wearables.
Having vital signs monitering systems embedded in daily use clothing is a cheap and sustainable solution for people with chronic cardiac disease.
People with chronic cardiac disease require consistent daily monitoring for their ECG signals which cannot be accuratly achieved by acquiring the heart rate (i.e. using fitness tracker watch can only provide the heart rate (BPM) not the detailed graph of the rhythmatic signals).
I want to challenge myself as an electronics engineers, to learn how to embed such a system using different conductive textiles to make a modular and appealing wearable product.

User Empathy Map/ UPPSS¶

Desifining the target users/ cleints for the product is one of the most important things to do before designing the product. After defining the target users and their age group, it is important to exchange hats between the designer and final consumers and to look at the things from their point of view. The following figure is an empathy map for the product I want to develop.

Validation of the User Empathy Map¶

In order to validate the different aspects of the user empathy map, I have developed a survey and distributed it among different makers, engineers and designers at the age range of 23-35 years from different FabLabs and maker spaces mainly in the Arab world. Refer to the link to review the details of how I am got the target end-users engaged in the initial design process.

Technical Feasability¶

Signal Processing

When I was defining the structure of the project, I was considering the complexity of the electronics design. However, as I have some experience to design biomedical circuits for signal processing and I have only three months to develop the project, I find it more valuable to focus on the wearability and practicality of the design and to experiement different materials for the textile electrodes. For the electronics ciruits, I will use ready-made modules as follows:

1- For the ECG monitor, AD8232 heart rate monitor module can be used for signals filtering and amplification.

2- For EMG monitor, I can use MyoWare Muscle Sensor that will also process the EMG signals.

3- For WiFi communication, I will use ESP32 or ESP8266 with a simple Blynk application to display and log the data.

Design Constraints

1- Material selection and wearability.

2- Power management.

The Project Proposal Plan¶

To develop the project proposal draft, I have followed the engineering design process as shown in the following chart.

My proposed project plan is as follows:

Gant Chart Draft¶

Check the link