Drowning Detecting Wristband
During my Freshman year, my team and I tried to design a solution to the problem of silent drownings in toddlers
Problem
In our research, we found that 90% of child drownings occurred in supervised environments. This is due to the fact that many kids grow tired and drown silently, without displaying the thrashing and splashing commonly looked for. This led us to design a device that aids in the identification of a young swimmer in trouble and aids in their rescue.
Design
We designed a wearable device that inputs pulse oximetry data from a fingertip sensor and if a users blood oxygen levels fall below a critical criteria, the device actuates a servo that releases a bright dye into the water. This dye makes it very clear that a child is in trouble and pinpoints exactly where they are in the water.
I worked on creating the dye release mechanism in Solid Works and printed it using 3D printers available at Northeastern.