Students design life saving health alarm

Chennai: If you are suffering from a heart attack or there is a sudden drop or increase in pulse rate, a watch like device will help you deal with the emergency by alerting your doctor or caretaker in real time.

To ensure timely treatment for people facing a medical emergency, five mechanical engineering students from Hindustan University have developed a watch that alerts physicians. Dr D. Dinakaran, Professor, Centre for Automation and Robotics, who mentored the students, said, “The students have been working on this project for the past six months and within three to four months we are planning to market our product. We have made a prototype. This device will soon be patented.”

It is a wristwatch like device which has to be worn by the patient. It will transmit any abnormal changes in pulse rate acquired from the sensors to the wireless alarm which can be fixed anywhere inside the house or in the hospital. The unit that will be displayed will thereby enable the caretaker of the patient to reach him faster.

Explaining the functioning of the device, team leader Kiran Thomas Verghese said that the heartbeat is recorded using a Pulse Oximetry Sensor.

The sensor will output the heart beat in the form of an analog signal, which will be converted into digital form.

“This is done by taking the average highest crest and lowest trough of the analog waves for 200 readings, we get the accurate reading,” he said. He added that if the heart rate of the person is too low or too high the processor transmits the fact to the receiving unit by means of an RF transmitter. The receiving unit is a processor to a RF receiver or a buzzer. During the event of heart attack or any other problem the transmitting unit signals the receiving unit to generate an alarm.

Santosh Kumar E., also part of the team, said the main advantage of this device is that since different people have different body conditions, it can be customised according to the pulse rate. “A certificate of the pulse rate has to be given by the doctor,” he said.

Professor Dinakaran further said that other products related to pulse rating will cost around '1 lakh in the market. But this device costs around Rs 1,000-1,500.

“When it comes to mass production, the cost will be less than Rs 1,000. We discussed with Chettinad University and other experts. They feel this device will be very useful,” he said.