Session 7: Health Monitoring Systems

Development of Flexible Biometric Sensor Band with Lifesave App and Test Protocols
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
10:50 AM - 11:10 AM

A technology product demonstrator consisting of a multi-sensor wearable bio-medical band along with a smartphone app will be shown. The intended application for the technology product demonstrator (TPD) is for operators working on the inspection and maintenance on aircraft fuel tanks. The fuel tanks are small confined spaces in the aircraft, which reside in the fuselage and inside the wings of the aircraft. Inspection and maintenance operations require the operators to climb inside the confined space of the fuel tanks. Oxygen levels in a confined space may become depleted due to oxidation or depletion by another gas. The typical concentration of oxygen in the environment is 20.9-percent. When oxygen levels drop to 19.5-percent to 12-percent, judgment is impaired, and personnel may experience an increased pulse and fatigue. If levels drop further, from 12% to 6%, fatigue will worsen and nausea and vomiting will occur. A dual-use aspect of the technology may include the following applications - (1) monitoring of vitals of workers in high-heat environments to determine when workers need to come out of the heat before the effects of heat stress become a physical risk factor (2) monitoring of lone worker in a hazardous environment. The multi-sensor bio-medical band will be worn by the operator working in a confined space. The band will have multiple sensors including – GPS, pulse-ox, pulse-rate, and electromyography sensor for measurement of the loss of blood oxygenation resulting from depletion of oxygen in the environment in the fuel tank, abrupt changes in the pulse rate resulting from anxiety or claustrophobia, loss of consciousness, myocardial infarction, stroke, bradycardia or aneurysm. Emergence of flexible electronics technologies has made tractable the ability to develop solutions for integration of electronics for biometric sensing into wearable fabrics. In wearable applications, electronics may be subjected to stresses of daily motion in addition to exposure to human body temperature, and ambient environments. Existing test standards and protocols are geared towards the assessment of rigid electronics. In this paper, a test-protocol has been developed to impose deformations that mimic the stresses of daily motion on flexible batteries during charge-discharge operation. The test protocol is intended to be used for assessment of the ability of flexible battery to meet the power needs of wearable electronics and provide adequate survivability while being subjected to constant human body or ambient temperature and flexing typical of stresses of daily motion.