IAT320 Final Project - Epilepsy Seizure Warning System

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Body, the human body, is the material frame of man, viewed as an organic entity.

"To Embody is to put into a body an idea or spirit, to give a concrete form to or to express (principles, thoughts, or intentions) within art, action, word combinations, or institutions. Thus, an embodiment of an idea or principle is its physical form, realization or expression, or the incarnation of that idea."

Maggie Hansen

What should we apply on the body to achieve our concepts? This is the question that we always ask ourselves in IAT320 course.

Epilepsy is a group of neurological disorders often characterized by seizure. Our Epilepsy Seizure Warning System is designed like the Assistive Safety System for the epilepsy seizure patients. It is designed to detect epileptic seizures by collecting data via a technique applied sleeve; seizure patient wear this sleeve during daily activities.

In an event of seizure occurs, the system will alert people around the patient with multiple signals to prevent the body injured from irregular movements caused by seizure, and also to shorten the reaction time of performing first aid procedure.

Epilepsy Seizure Warning System - final version demo

At the beginning to start the ideation, we were focusing on the group of people who are suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Our initial idea was to build a tool to stabilize the symptoms to reduce uncontrollable muscle movements. However, along with the research process, we found the problem is more complicated than we thought. For instance, the shaking movement is the most complicated part to control and analyze, and our tests did not achieve our expectation.

Therefore, we changed our focus to epilepsy seizure detecting and warning system since the main issue of Epilepsy is similar to the Parkinson. We applied the bioelectricity signal (EMG) from analyzing muscle movements to determining whether seizure occurs. Once the EMG sensor is processed, and it determines there are abnormal muscle movements, the system will alert people around the patient with multiple signals to perform first aid procedure.

Our research and ideaiton of Parkinson Assist System - StabiLife

After several tests, we finished our first prototype. It worked properly and the functionality achieved our expectation. However, we wanted to challenge and see if there is space to develop, so we applied GSR sensor and made some tests. But with the testing results, we decided to apply EMG sensor in our final product.

Anderson is testing the code

The Grove EMG Sensor and an accelerometer sensor are collaborated together to detect the biceps brachii muscle, brachioradialis muscle, and brachialis (three main muscles of arm), and their movements. When seizure occurs, irregular muscle movements will trigger the buzzer in order to warn people who around the patient, and the LEDs indicate seizure first aid procedure.

The three muscles where the electrode will attach on

Also, since it is necessary to carry everyday, it should be a wearable product which means it is convenient to carry and light to wear. The material choosing is really important.

At first, we designed the sleeve with two layers: on the inner layer, we applied the circuit on an elastic cloth, and the outer layer is a cover. But we found that the circuit is not stable on the elastic cloth, and it was not easy to wear on. Also, the appearance didn't match the aesthetic quality that a wearable product should have.

Therefore, we finally design the sleeve with three layers: the first (outer) layer is a cover layer with printed instruction of first aid procedure; the second (middle) layer is the main layer where the circuit applied on; the third (inner) layer is electrode layer where makes the connection between muscles and the EMG sensor.

The material of outer layer is removable by Velcro, so it is easy to clean and replace.

Our first prototype design

Our final design is based on the Prototype presentation concept. We still focus on the Epilepsy Seizure Warning System that is design for the group of neurological disorders to detect epileptic seizures. The Epilepsy Seizure Warning System is designed like the Assistive Safety System for the epilepsy seizure patients. The system for human interaction that test whether patient’s epilepsy seizure occurs or not generate a directive response to allow the others know what they should do to aid the patients as soon as possible, which may save the patient.

When the seizure occurs, the system will alert people around the patient with sharp sounds immediately and assist them to do the first aid procedure with the instructions altered by the system. While the system is altered, the LEDs will be on and pointed on the procedure step by step.

When patient’s epilepsy seizure occurs, EMG sensor will send the signal to Arduino (Lilypad) where it compares current value with the previous value. If the number is significantly abnormal, it will determine seizure occurs. Meanwhile, we use the accelerometer to collaborate with EMG sensor. When the EMG sensor’s value is abnormal, it will check the accelerometer’s value. Once two conditions are all satisfacted, the buzzer and LEDs will be triggered. The LED lighting will delay couple seconds between each steps for people to have enough time to do the fist aid. People who are around the patient can help the patient through the instructions of the Epilepsy Seizure Warning System without first aid certificate.

The circuit connection of the Epilepsy Seizure Warning System

The steps of first aid procedure will follow the warning signal to light on

The components of Epilepsy Seizure Warning System that we used are the EMG sensor, Buzzer, Lilypad, Accelerometer and four LilypadLEDs.

The final version of the sleeve has three layers. On the inner layer, the three electrodes are sewed on the elastic bands and tie on the arm directly, where the three muscles will be detected. On the middle layer, the circuit of the Epilepsy Seizure Warning System including LilyPad, Buzzer, Accelerometer and LEDs is sewed. On the outer layer, the instructions of the first aid procedure have been printed.

Also, the materials we used is refined. We use elastic cloth on the Outer layer to be more flexible to wear, thick and stable cloth on the Middle layer to be easy for setting up the circuit, and elastic bands on the Inner layer to fit the size of patient's arm.

Three layers of the sleeve

The instructions on the Outer layer

The circuit on the Middle layer

The electrode on the Inner layer

In the future improvement, the sleeve should have more clean and unique design for the appearance in order to be easy to carry on by the patient, and convenient to wear.