Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

The Smart Hard Hat, Darcy Fyffe, Connor Langenderfer, Charlton Johns

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In a wide variety of manual labor industries, workers are often unaware that they are approaching dangerous vital thresholds until they have already overexerted themselves. According to a 2012 white paper by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), over 4,500 workers lose their lives, and more than 4 million are seriously injured each year. There is an immediate need to improve the safety and monitoring of manual workers to reduce the number of workplace injuries and fatalities. Millions of laborers around the globe go to work every day relying on basic safety devices, such as harnesses and steel toed …

Responding To Dangerous Accidents Among The Elderly: A Fall Detection Device With Zigbee-Based Positioning, Michael R. Putnam

Master's Theses

The following paper describes a fall detection and activity monitoring system with position detection based on Zigbee transceivers.The main objective is to reduce the time taken for emergency personnel to respond to falls among the elderly. Especially when the victim is unconscious or delirious, position tracking reduces location determination time within a busy hospital or nursing home environment and facilitates immediate treatment. Reduced response times correlate to decreased morbidity and mortality rates. Background is provided on the major wireless network advances currently deployed in a healthcare setting for asset and personnel tracking, etiology of falls, and several methods of detecting …

On Improving Electrooculogram-Based Computer Mouse Systems: The Accelerometer Trigger, Johnalan Keegan, Edward Burke, James Condron, Eugene Coyle

Conference Papers

Eye tracking is a well-established method of computer control for profoundly paralysed people (Anson et al., 2002). Cameras are commonly used to track eye movements (Morimoto et al., 2005) but one alternative is the bioelectrical signal known as the electrooculogram (EOG). There are some EOG mouse control systems that facilitate the use of GUI applications, but certain actions, which are straightforward using a conventional mouse, remain impossible. Unless the eyes are tracking a target, they move in saccades (jumps), making it impossible to voluntarily trace out smooth trajectories with one's gaze, as would be required to draw a smooth curve. …

Accelerometer Based Measurement For The Mapping Of Neck Surface Vibrations During Vocalized Speech, Mark Nolan, Brian Madden, Edward Burke

Conference Papers

This paper presents a detailed study of the vibrations on the surface of the neck during a vocalization of predefined fundamental frequency and intensity. This study was carried out as part of a wider investigation into the use of laryngeal vibrations as a channel of communication. Another potential application of this study is in identifying a suitable location for a hands-free electro-larynx for laryngectomees.

An analog accelerometer, with dimensions 5x5x1.6mm and of mass 80mg, was used to perform the measurements. It was connected to a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter via single strands of insulated wire with a diameter of 100μm. The …

Accelerometer Based Measurement Of Body Movement For Communication, Play, And Creative Expression, Mark Nolan, Edward Burke, Frank Duignan

Conference Papers

This paper presents a newly designed wireless accelerometer-based movement measurement device. The device is capable of measuring activity ranging from gross body movements to more subtle vibrations emanating from the body, including laryngeal vibration and the mechanomyogram (mechanical vibrations from working muscles). The main body of the device, which is less than 20cm3 in volume and weighs less than 50g, contains a microcontroller, wireless transceiver, battery, and one accelerometer. A supplementary accelerometer module is connected to the main device by thin wires. This module is very light weight and can therefore be directly attached to the skin to measure laryngeal …