Smart hard hats and wearable light shows: UVic engineering student design show

An energy harvester that converts knee bends into battery power for cell phones; a wireless personal ECG monitor that transmits electrical signals to a remote cardiologist; a smart hard hat that sends data to a safety station; a bracelet that transforms music frequencies into a wearable light show.

It just goes to show you what comes of giving senior computer and electrical engineering students at the University of Victoria cash prizes, course credit, and the challenge to design a product (either theoretical or practical) with a budget of $120.

Twenty-two projects are on display Friday March 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. at UVic’s Engineering Lab Wing lobby. A panel of high-tech industry judges will select the top three projects. This event is open to the public and admission is free.

Some projects are in an advanced-prototype stage, having been refined and tested for several years. The Real Time Wireless ECG device uses a wireless signal to transmit a patient’s ECG from their heart via a smart phone to an online monitoring centre. Though not yet ready to go to market, the device could prove helpful in addressing problems of access to diagnostic testing in remote communities in BC.

PillPoint is an Android app that uses a smart phone camera and a pill database to identify prescription pills. Students anticipate that it could be valuable for people with dementia or cognitive impairment who have trouble managing their prescriptions.

Some projects are ideas that still need a lot of refinement, like the knee-bend energy harvester that in its current form requires an estimated 230,000 hours of running to charge a AAA battery. So far, no one has so much as charged a watch battery, but the ideas—and its inventors—are still young.

For a complete list of projects visit: http://www.ece.uvic.ca/~elec499/2014-spring/Project_List.shtml

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