For my Bachelor’s Assignment, I was instructed to improve a device that measures arm movement. After picking out the necessary hardware (a BITalino toolkit) I faced the daunting task of designing a container that was both capable of housing the device as well as being easy to wear. Through some people at the faculty for Biomedical Signals and Systems, I got into contact with Andrea at the DesignLab, and I got to show him some of my early drafts for the wearable.
He immediately rejected most of them, saying they “simply wouldn’t work” with the 3D printer. So I got to work, and with the help of the people at the DesignLab, both staff members and students, I was able to create four concepts. I even learned how to operate a sewing machine with the help of someone at the DesignLab.
In the end, I got to test what concept would prove to be most comfortable to wear. After putting it through a testing panel, this was the clear winner:
This system contains an accelerometer, which is used for measuring movement, a Bluetooth module (hidden in this picture), which was used to transfer data from the device to a personal computer, a micro-control unit to control everything and a power supply unit + battery to power the whole system.
In the end, I managed to create a system that was almost 30 times as cheap as its predecessor (from about €5000,- to a little over €170,-).
It turned out in the end that the DesignLab team had some other devices laying around which do the exact same, but are even cheaper and smaller. So I might be back very soon to create an even smaller container.
I would like to express my thanks to the people working at the DesignLab for their help and guidance during my project.
