FDA Department of Industrial Design Industrial

Design Graduation Project Spring 2012 Research Report Natalia Popova

COMMUNICATION DEVICE – wrist bend

Contents: Part 1: Exploration of the Problem Area

1.1 Project statement

1.2 Related products, Concepts and Design Trends in the Market

1.3. Related Technologies, Materials, Production Techniques

1.4 Characteristics of the Potential User Group

1.5 Conclusions

Part 2: Exploration of the Solution Area

2.1 Project constraints, Objectives and Directives

2.2 Further Research

2.3 Analysis of Potential Design Solutions

Part 3: Design Solutions

3.1 Description of Design Solution

3.2 Justification of Design Decisions

References

Tables and Illustrations:

1. The Emergrncy buttons in hospitals

2. “Life Button

3. BioBand

4. Sport bands, sport watches Nike FuelBand.

5. Biometrical wristbands

6.Wristband Blood Pressure Monitors

7. Diabetic watches

8. Vitals monitor system.

9. Blood Pressure Monitor for Blind People.

10. Heart rate monitors. Puma Cardiac Watch.

Acknowledgements: www.nike.com/fuelband/ knopka24.ru/ http://health.infoniac.com/blood-pressure-monitor-blind-people.html http://www.tuvie.com/vitals-monitoring-system-helps-medical-staff-remotely-monitor-patients-vital-signs/ http://inventorspot.com/articles/funky_and_fashionable_watch_may_pave_way_noninvasive_diabetes_mo_29425

Concept:

A communication device, a wrist braslet for hospitals wich mesures

temperature, blood pressure and puls. The device is holds on a wrist and attaches to

the puls, wich gives you possibility to mesure activities. In case of any chengings the

information automaticly goes to the reception of a hospital.

Braslet made of soft plastic wich is comfortable and perfectly attached to the

skin.

Related products, Concepts and Design Trends in the Market:

1. The Emergrncy buttons in hospitals, installed on a wall beside a bad of a

patient.

Usually it’s screen with the button wich gives a patient fastest acsess to the

urgent possibility to call a nurce.

2. “Life Button” - The communication device for old people invented bu russian

buisnecmen. There is a two tipes of device: a cellphone with large buttons; or a

bracelet with emrgency sencor, connected to the base, wich have a fall detector. All

the nformation goes to the 24 hours call-center.

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3. BioBand

Designed and patented by an American Board Certified obstetrician and

gynecologist, a BioBands wristband is a safe, simple, effective and inexpensive way of

relieving nausea: whether it’s from motion sickness, morning sickness, post-surgery

anesthesia, or chemotherapy treatments.

The wristband utilizes acupressure, a natural pressure therapy applied to a

specific acupuncture point that controls nausea and vomiting. A small bead embedded

in the adjustable band presses down on the P6 (Neiguan) point, located three finger

widths above the wrist crease between the tendons of the flexor surface of the forearm,

approximately in the area of a watchband.

Drug-free BioBands are easy to use and have no side-effects. Simply place the

adjustable band correctly on either wrist. A built in bead provides customized pressure

at the P6 acupressure point on the underside of the wrist. This gentle pressure

interrupts the signals that trigger nausea.

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4. Sport bands, sport watches

Nike FuelBand.

A wrist band for sport activities wich counts not only your steps but calories and

goal.

Coated in a rubber material, the FuelBand has a screen but it's made up of a

series of colored LED lights. You control the display with a small button on it. And

hidden in the bracelet's clasp is the USB port.

The FuelBand does track calories and steps, but mostly tracks your "fuelpoints."

Fuelpoints are based on your steps, but this is really Nike's motivation currency. You

set how many fuelpoints you aim to hit in a day and it lets you know when you have

reached that point. At the start of a new day, it zeros out the fuelpoints.

5. Biometrical wristbands

Health monitoring devices.

6.Wristband Blood Pressure Monitors

7. Diabetic watches

The G-Tone watch by Sunghoon Mun is a healthy timepiece that monitors

glucose levels.

Especially handy for diabetics, Mun says this watch is great for anyone that

wants to maintain a healthy lifestyle and help prevent diseases.

G-Tone is not very discrete in its futuristic design with a large LED display clad

in bright colors.

Implications - Today's health-conscious consumer does not want to seem like a

"sick person," they want to blend in and enjoy themselves as everyone else does.

Thus, pharmaceutical companies are compiling ways to help less healthy consumers

get the help they need in a more discrete manner, with pieces like the G-Tone as a

perfect example.

8. Vitals monitor system.

Dan Bishop's Vitals monitoring system takes the medical bracelet to a new

level. Designed to ease up on the tedious workload that taking vital signs involves, the

concept medical wristband can monitor the wearer's temperature, pulse and blood

pressure. First, medical staff will take a manual reading to provide a baseline. For

future readings, though, all the patient has to do is swipe the Vitals' monitor over his or

her forehead to take their temperature, which signals it to start reading pulse an blood

pressure, too.

All the data is relayed wirelessly to a digital "chart," logging all the vitals of the

patient, who gets the added bonus of wearing a stylin' medical gadget. We wouldn't

mind seeing Bishop's Vitals monitoring system come to hospitals, but it would be extra

fun if the wrist pulse monitor makes the same doot-doot-doot sound as the bigger

ones.

9. Blood Pressure Monitor for Blind People.

Tensio blood pressure monitor designed by Diana Dumitrescu is a concept

now, but will soon become more than just a nice health gadget.

This blood pressure monitor in a form of an electronic wristband tracks your

blood pressure without the necessity to use your sight for this purpose.

10. Heart rate monitors.

ex.:Those, who regularly workout, may already know how important is to watch

over your heart rate during physical activities. Puma Cardiac Watch is designed to

monitor your heart rate to maximize your training.

Related Technologies, Materials, Production Techniques

1. The Emergrncy buttons in hospitals

2. “Life Button”

3. BioBand

ioBands is an adjustable wristband that applies continuous acupressure to the P-

6 acupressure point at the wrist to relieve nausea and vomiting from motion sickness,

morning sickness, cancer treatments, and surgery anesthesia.

A BioBand has a bead sewn into the wristband. This bead is positioned at a

precise point on either wrist, then the band is tightened snugly so that it applies a

constant pressure to this point (known as P-6) located on the inner forearm just above

the wrist.

Acupressure works on the same principle as acupuncture, but by using constant

pressure instead needles. This treatment method, originally developed in China, has

also been studied extensively by western medical researchers. And they have found

considerable evidence (with many controlled, clinical studies) that both acupuncture and

acupressure, applied correctly to the P-6 acupressure at the wrist, can alleviate nausea

and vomiting. – You can read more about these studies at “Research Proves It Works”.

Medical scientists don’t know for sure how acupressure wristbands relieve

nausea and vomiting (then again, they don’t know for sure how aspirin works either). But

the theories they have so far point to two possible explanations of how BioBands works -

- The first is that using an acupressure wristband interrupts the nervous system signals

that bring about nausea symptoms in the body. The second is that continual pressure to

the P-6 acupressure points causes the release of endorphins, neurotransmitters that act

as a natural painkiller within the body.

The Physiology

Different nerve fibers carry signals to the brain at different speeds. Touch and

pressure signals are carried by large-diameter nerve fibers and will arrive at the brain

much sooner than pain sensation and signals, which are carried by small-diameter

nerve fibers.

For example, consider what happens when you stub your toe. - The first thing

you feel is a sensation of impact as your toe hits the wall. Then, a minute or so later,

you feel the pain from the injury to your toe, even though the tissue damage occurred

at the same moment. This is because information about touch sensations travels to the

brain through faster nerve fibers, while information about pain and tissue damage

travels to the brain through slower nerve fibers. – The touch signals will always reach

the brain first.

A famous theory about pain, called the Gate-Control Theory, was devised by

two researchers, Patrick Wall and Ronald Melzack, in 1965. They concluded that, if

there are more neurological signals coming from the small-diameter fibers, then the

brain reacts by feeling pain. But if there are more signals from the large-diameter

fibers, then the pain is not felt. The reason is that these signals will arrive first -

effectively “closing the gate” and overriding the slower pain signals to the brain.

As an example, think about this. - What’s the first thing you probably do after

bumping your head by accident? You rub it and it feels better, right? – How this works

can be explained by the Gate-Control Theory. Rubbing your head would activate touch

and pressure signals sent to the brain by large nerve fibers. They would arrive at the

brain first, and interrupt reception of the pain signals.

How It Works

This same principle applies to the different signals that cause nausea and

vomiting – the signals to the brain that activate the brain’s Vomiting Center. The

neurological signals that trigger nausea will travel to the brain through slower small-

diameter nerve fibers.

But a BioBand creates pressure signals that travel through faster large-diameter

nerve fibers in the median nerve to the brain. Applying a BioBand at this exact point

(between two tendons and pressing the median nerve) will activate sensory receptors

(proprioceptors), sending faster pressure sensation signals to the brain, interrupting

the signals that would trigger the Vomiting Center.

And because BioBands are designed to provide constant pressure to the P-6

acupressure point, the faster signals from the sensory receptors are continual, and the

interruptions to the nausea-causing signals are continuous. Thus relieving the pain and

discomfort that comes from nausea and vomiting.

4. Sport bands, sport watches

Nike FuelBand.

A watch/calorie counter/goal setter.

Nike today introduced its FuelBand wristband device, which is designed to

measure a person's daily movement and drive the athletic gear company further into

the technology world.

The FuelBand is designed to provide users with the time, the number of steps

taken in a day, and calories burned. But the main selling point is a newly created

fitness metric called NikeFuel, which is based off the rate of oxygen consumption and

motion. The wristband will retail for $149, and is available on February 22 in the U.S.,

May 1 in the U.K., and the rest of the world in the fall.

Nike's FuelBand

(Credit: Nike)

The FuelBand represents the next step for a company that waded into the connected devices world with its Nike Plus products, which were designed to track how far and fast runners went. (The company plans to have its Nike Plus products start offering NikeFuel readings in the summer.) But with NikeFuel and FuelBand, the company is fully embracing a world where its products integrate with smartphones, PCs, social media, and the Internet. Nike's pitch to athletes is the FuelBand doesn't just track runners; it measures all activity.

"Before, there was no simple metric that worked across different activities," said Stefan Olander, vice president of digital sports for Nike, who boasted that NikeFuel was based on a scientifically validated method of measuring oxygen consumption.

A normal day of activity, for instance, would provide 2,500 points of NikeFuel, while a high-energy day would provide 5,500.

Nike's attention to the metric is what the company believes will be the key to the

FuelBand's success. Users get positive feedback from the accompanying free

smartphone app when they hit certain benchmarks. For instance, they get a message

saying you're "on fire" when you hit a certain score. Users are also encouraged to

share their scores through social media and the Web, although Olander acknowledged

that the extent of sharing depends on the comfort level of individuals.

The product itself is a slim wristband that does its job of staying virtually invisible until you absolutely need it. There's an accelerometer in the device that tracks your hand movement, which is matched to data on oxygen consumption taken during several different types of activities, allowing the FuelBand to measure just how active you are. It doesn't always work; activities where your hand is moving little, such as cycling, wouldn't register with the device.

Beyond the four major readouts, there is a smaller strip of LED lights below the main display that goes from red to yellow to green--depending on how far along you are on the activity goals you set. Red means you're not doing enough; green means you're having a pretty active day.

For now, the FuelBand only works with the iPhone; an Android application is in the works for the next few months, and Nike doesn't have plans for other platforms yet.

Glenn Gaesser, a professor at Arizona State University's school of nutrition and health promotion, said the device could be useful in promoting activity, and more importantly, discouraging inactivity, which has led to a number of health problems. The FuelBand's motivational techniques are in line with what the government and health organizations have been pushing in terms of increased daily activity.

Gaesser worked with Nike to help gather the data on the various activities.

Still, at $149, the product will attract primarily fitness enthusiasts with a decent amount of disposable income. The FuelBand finds itself in the category of niche activity products that integrate different kinds of technologies, including an accelerometer, Bluetooth capabilities, and other features. Competing products include Motorola Mobility's MotoActv fitness tracker, which also incorporates more features such as GPS, a music player, and more memory, but for a pricier $249.99.

9. Blood Pressure Monitor for Blind People.

The flexible wristband is made of inflatable foam, where the results appear on a display in Braille form, the system that lets blind people read using their tactile sensation.

The Tensio Blood pressure monitor is also a great first aid device that can wirelessly call for help in case of emergency.

10. Puma Cardiac Watch Monitors Heart Rate. This heart rate monitor has a number of the helpful features. First of all, it works

as a heart rate monitor watch with wireless ECG sensor belt that is hooked around the chest. While you are working out or simply resting, the watch displays your heart rate so that you can get to know if your heart rate is in the target zone for your activity. You can also set the heart rate zone according to your preferences to improve your training.

It also can be used as a regular watch to display time, as a chronograph to time your workouts with the help of the EL backlight or a timer to count down to the end of your exercises. The Puma Cardiac Watch features a 50 lap counter and alarm. You can switch from one mode to another using buttons on a display.

You can choose from different colors, including white, black, yellow and red and

pick up the one that match your style. The solid and sporty design will appeal to workout fans, while the watch itself is quite easy to use, which is very important for active lifestyle.

Conclusions

There is big number of different wrist bends which measures life indicators such

as puls, blood pressure, blood sugar etc. All of them for sport or medical purposes.

Characteristics of the Potential User Group

The potential user will be a patient in a hospital. Also it can be used as a home

device. The device should be comfortable to wear and use.

Part 2: Exploration of the Solution Area

2.1 Project constraints, Objectives and Directives

Project constrains are: use of soft materials, the numbers on a screen should be not very small and readable.

2.2 Further Research    Scientists are working on creating a new biometric bracelet that could also “talk”

to devices on a person’s body, allowing data collected by blood pressure cuffs and

heart monitoring devices to be matched to correct electronic records.

The devices could prevent mix-ups of health records at military and veteran

hospitals.

The researchers, led by Dartmouth College computer scientist Cory Cornelius,

have developed technology that matches a person's bioimpedance -- their

physiological response to the flow of electric current passing through tissues -- to a

unique identity. Bioimpedance can be used to pinpoint specific people because

everyone has a different structure of bone, flesh and blood vessels.

“Significant impedance differences exist between the varying tissue types,

anatomic configurations, and tissue state, each of which may provide a unique

mechanism for distinguishing between people,” according to the research paper.

The devices could be configured to discover the presence of other health

monitoring devices on a patient’s body, recognize that they are on the same body and

share information securely.

The researchers demonstrated the technology at the Usenix Advanced

Computing System Association workshop in Bellevue, Wash., this week.

The biometric system has been demonstrated to recognize people in a

household with 85 percent accuracy.

Part 3: Design Solutions The idea is to create a useful and comfortable wrist bend for a medical purpose, which measure the main life activities. As an addition, there is a chip and usb port wich gives a possibility to store all the information in the computer. It is also comfortable to count a progress of recovery of every patient. Plus, bend is equipped with projector which gives a possibility to project measurements on any surface.

Material: selicon Colors: gray-wight for the bend, orange for numbers