Inspiration
We decided upon our project idea while talking about Marvel movies, specifically because of Doctor Strange. In the movie, Stephen Strange suffers a tragic hand injury due to a car accident and loses most of his hand's functionality. This struck us as an interesting issue and we decided to research more about it. Our research led to some shocking numbers. 24% of all Americans suffer from Arthritis, and another 20 Million suffer from peripheral nerve damage. This was the turning point of our brainstorming session. We set our eyes on making this project come true and trying to make something that can make the lives of millions easier.
What it does
Our prototype device is a simple glove which helps people exercise their injured hands by providing gradual opposition using servo motors depending on the amount of "strength" possessed by a person's fingers. It saves the data into an app and displays the users weekly progress by graphing the same. This allows every single device to be personalized to every users specific needs and allows it to cater to different situations efficiently.
In summary, we produced a glove which moves and stretches the user's fingers for them so that they can, over time, recover their ability to move them on their own. This especially aids severe cases of arthritis or nerve damage that makes it painful or impossible for them to move their fingers on their own.
How we built it
The prototype glove uses Arduino. It collects data from the Servo motors and saves them in a text file. Then, we run a Python program to send the text file, create a graph using matplotlib and save that as a .png file. The app then displays the graph and interprets it accordingly.
Challenges we ran into
The greatest challenge that we faced was the lack of hardware components. There are stories of us running around San Francisco downtown to various stores to find the correct components for our hack: buying gloves for the product at Ross, searching many hardware and electrical supply stores for extra Arduino components. We were mostly unsuccessful in procuring the required materials but that taught us that we were much more than just a few components slapped together, and that we could make something great with what we had. There were also multiple challenges concerning the wiring of our project which is, understandably so, extremely messy. Sticking all the items onto the glove in a limited amount of time with limited resources also proved to be a huge challenge as they kept twisting/turning/coming off and were just being plain annoying.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
The fact that we were able to complete this prototype within such a short time is an achievement in itself, especially considering the fact that for both of us in the team, this is our second hackathon. We spent almost our entire first day deciding on an idea and when we finalized one, we had to wait for the next morning for all the stores to open. Being able to prepare a working prototype considering all these factors is something to say the least.
What we learned
First and foremost, we learnt the patience required to build a hardware hack from scratch. The frustration of not having the appropriate equipment tends to get to you but sometimes taking things one by one can really help you go a long way. We learnt about interfacing different languages together and also discovered how truly mind-blowing hardware hacks can be. The possibilities are endless and you control every single thing that takes place.
What's next for digitalHeal
Considering this is the first prototype, there is so much more ground to cover with digitalHeal. The bulky servo motors can be replaced by small motors which can hide seamlessly within the gloves. The use of tension sensors can be introduced to make the measurements even more accurate and organized. Another set of motors can be introduced towards the opposite end to also aid in the lifting/grabbing of objects while also training the hand back to its full capability, especially in terms of flexibility. The app can be made more interactive and a chatbot can be introduced. I worked on making the accompanying application. I learned both Flutter and utilized my Python TKinter GUI knowledge. There can also be healthcare professionals who work along with the app and track their patient's progress.
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