Dream Device/Personal Health Diagnostic Tool

This week we were asked to design our "dream device". This could be anything we want, though, it had to be something we couldn't readily build, something that stretched our imaginations.

I knew immediately what I wanted to design. For a while I have been thinking about the state of our health care system and what the future of medicine and health care holds for me, my family, and friends.

A confluence of thoughts for me in this area has been the idea of "personalizing" medicine and health care. We are on the brink of being able to implement technology that will allow us to track our health in a minute by minute fashion. I believe this technology will empower individuals to learn more about their bodies and ultimately receive better and more comprehensive care. The following is my vision for one of the ways this might manifest in a device.





The links below will help to give a better understanding of the technologies that will be deployed inside the human body in order to enable the Personal Human Diagnostic Tool. There are also several animations that show the scale and level on which this device will gather information.


Wikipedia on Carbon nanotubes and applications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube


Article on using Y shaped carbon nanotubes as transistors (switches)
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20050715001807data_trunc_sys.shtml

Animation of inter-workings of cell. This gives an idea of the scale on which this device would gather information.Animation

Animation of how cells and proteins communicate. This allows us to see and envision the proteins and structures we could build that would detect various phenomena in the body and signal to an outside device what is happening.Animation

Animation of how we can engineer and build proteins into structures of our choosing.Animation

Playing with IF statements

Had a lot of fun today with IF statements and derivatives...Here is some code and video from my experimentation today.

This code turns on and off 3 LED's depending on the amount of force sensed by a Force Sensitive Resistor.

////////////////////
///////////////////
int potPin = 0;
int ledPin = 3;
int ledPinA = 5;
int ledPinB = 6;
int potValue = 0;

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledPinA, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledPinB, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
potValue = analogRead(potPin);

Serial.println(potValue);


if (potValue >= 600) {
analogWrite(ledPin, potValue / 4);
}
else analogWrite(ledPin, 0);

if (potValue < 600 && potValue > 500) {
analogWrite(ledPinA, potValue / 4);
}
else analogWrite(ledPinA, 0);

if (potValue <= 500 && potValue > 200) {
analogWrite(ledPinB, potValue / 4);
}
else analogWrite(ledPinB, 0);

delay(10);
}



_______________________________________________

The following code allowed for the use of two sensors and included some OR (||) statements.
////////////////////////////
///////////////////////////
int potPin = 0;
int potFlex = 1;
int ledPin = 3;
int ledPinA = 5;
int ledPinB = 6;
int potValue = 0;
int potFlexValue = 0;

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledPinA, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledPinB, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
potValue = analogRead(potPin);
potFlexValue = analogRead(potFlex);

Serial.println(potFlexValue);


if (potValue >= 600 || potFlexValue < 450) {
analogWrite(ledPin, potValue / 4);
analogWrite(ledPin, potFlexValue / 4);
}
else analogWrite(ledPin, 0);

if (potValue < 600 && potValue > 500) {
analogWrite(ledPinA, potValue / 4);
}
else analogWrite(ledPinA, 0);

if (potValue <= 500 && potValue > 200) {
analogWrite(ledPinB, potValue / 4);
}
else analogWrite(ledPinB, 0);

delay(10);

}



_____________________________________________________

In this last snippet of code is a simple application of the "Hello World!" program using a sensor to tell a user if they are "strong" or not.

/////////////////////////////////
////////////////////////////////
int potPin = 0;
int potValue = 0;

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
potValue = analogRead(potPin);


if (potValue >= 800) {
Serial.println("You are Strong");
}
else Serial.println("You are weak");

delay(10);
}



________________________________________________________

A lot of fun with this stuff. Really starting to see the giant world of possibility when combining the physical world with instructions.

Lab 2/Hello Analog World, meet my Arduino

I just finished lab 2. This lab allows us to start interfacing the analog (variable) world with the digital world of computation. I was primarily interested in using the variable resistors at our disposal to measure force and flexion. As I changed the resistance in the variable resistors with physical force, the LED in my circuit had a proportional voltage applied to it. This lab really started to open my eyes to the possibility we have to connect our physical world to the power of a computational device. Lots of ideas running around my head. Will keep you all updated.

Lab 1/Switch and LED's

I just completed my first lab. This was my first time building a circuti...ever. New experience from cutting wires to figuring out schematic of breadboard to figuring out the anode and cathode ends of a LED. Great to move from theory to application...Switch works great. One note for anyone programming Arduino->Save your file before you tried to upload it to Arduino...Side note= I now have lots of tools and electronic components, heh heh heh.

Sensor Walk

I just completed my "Sensor Walk" and had an interesting experience. Similar to my "mental sensor walk", I started at my apartment in Park Slope and walked to the subway at Atlantic Ave. I noticed many things along the way from ATM's, to street signals/lights, to apartment buzzer systems. I found my "gold mine" to be underground in the subway system. I found touch screens, magnetic(?) card readers (swipe and go), turnstiles, and subway doors. What struck me most about all of the sensors I encountered was what was required of me to get them to actuate. I found myself much more drawn to sensors that required more "dynamic" movement or force from me. For instance, I became fascinated with the subway turnstiles that allow you into the subway. I had never stopped to think about it before, but, these turnstiles require a force to be exerted on them in order for you to enter the subway. I decided I wanted to measure this force and so went home and got a scale (see pics below). I found that waist height turnstiles require approximately 3 pounds of force when operated as far as possible from the fulcrum (pivot or rotation point of turnstile). I also tested full-height turnstiles and found that these require approximately 5 pounds of force when measured from the middle of the "cage".

I found it interesting that I was much more drawn to interactions with sensors that required more of me (in terms of force) than interactions that were fairly easy, like the touch screen. This brings to my mind the different ways of interacting with subway turnstiles->

1) Lets say I'm in the mood to exert a larger amount of force over a shorter distance..I should try walking as close to the pivot point as possible. My torque is minimized here so I must personally produce a larger amount of force to get myself through the turnstile.

2) If I want to output less force but am willing to give this force over a longer range of motion, I should walk as far away from the pivot point as possible. This will maximize my torque but will require me to output a smaller amount of force (than 1) over a longer range of motion.

I think this exercise has made me aware of what is a personally rewarding experience with a sensor for me. I will trying to keep an account for interactions with sensors in the coming days and weeks that speak to these and other observations.

"Mental" Sensor Walk

One of my first assignments is to do a "sensor walk". This requires observing sensor applications in the every day world. Prior to this, I thought I would do a "mental" sensor walk...To do this, I will just imagine myself heading out from my apartment to my Physical Computing class in lower Manhattan. These are the things that come to mind:

Phone->Push Buttons, Voice Dial, Video Camera, Lens

ATM->Push Buttons

Subway Turnstile->slide card=GO

Subway Doors->Shut but will re-open if opposable force is applied.

Subway Temperature Controls->This might potentially work by having some type of temperature sensor that provides feedback to the heating/cooling system thus regulating overall T of each individual car. I think this might be true as I remember the air conditioning units seem to vary their output.

Subway door sound as doors close->Their is an automatic "ding ding" as doors are closing, sometimes automated voice as well "Stand clear of the closing doors"..I am assuming the conductor presses a button which closes the doors and that this button also triggers the "ding ding" and automated voice.

Horn->People in cars push rather large "buttons" on their steering wheel that results in a loud honk..Lots of this on Houston and Broadway.

Bathroom urinal at NYU Tisch->Sensor that detects my presence at the urinal. This seems to operate such that once I am close an "event" is started. Once I leave the urinal it flushes automatically...This could be interesting...Will probably check this out further.

Elevator Button->I press "^" to go to the fourth floor.

What is this?

This is my blog and record for the projects and discoveries I will encounter in my Intro to Physical Computing course at NYU. This course is part of the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU and is an elective toward my masters degree program in Biological Engineering. I look forward to gaining an ability to create useful applications for the sports and medical worlds with the knowledge and insights gained in this course.