After almost 5 months of hard work with many sleepless nights, finally the day came for final submission for Sudden Impact wearable Design Challenge...
before going to my final prototype I would like to start with my initial proposal...
Project Title : Real Time Player Monitoring System
Project proposal: Designing of low cost, easy to use and battery powered wearable sensor module to stream and monitor, vital body parameters of sport person/entire team on Android/IoS Smartphone and MacOS/Windows/Linux PC using WiFi at monitoring station.
Vital body parameter includes,
- Real time three axis acceleration data of impact on head(Helmet), Chest and spinal column of sport person.
- Real time ECG Heart rate and body temperature.
Targeted sports: Football, American Football, Ice hockey, Car racing, Bike racing, Ski run and any other sport that required real time monitoring of sport person vital health parameter in field.
Now the final summary of the project Starts..
The system is designed basically for school sports team but really its not limited for this purpose only..
1. Introduction to the final prototype : in this project mainly two wearable modules have designed..
1.1. Chest Strap
1.2. Helmet Module
Here is the introduction of this hardware prototype..
1.1. Chest Strap: It is designed around CC3200-MOD wi-fi supported module from Texas Instruments. The module have in built Body Temperature sensor (ADT7320), Heart Rate monitor with two electrode configuration (AD8232) , Chest impact sensor (ADXL375), 1Cell Lithium Battery and optional sub GHz transceiver to communicate with Helmet module.
more Build details with video are available here..
[real_time_monitor] Real Time Player Monitoring System Post#14 : Putting all together....
[real_time_monitor] Real Time Player Monitoring System Post#11 : PCB Designs
Here are some pics of Chest Strap design..
This module performs following functions
- Monitor heart rate
- Measure Body temperature
- Measure Chest Impact Force
- If SUB GHz transceiver is connected then also receives Helmet Impact data from Helmet module
- Record all the raw sensor data to uSD card with 200Hz Sampling rate for Post processing purpose
- Process sensor data and send it to Remote GUI Application via WiFi with UDP Protocol for Real time monitoring with 10Hz Sampling rate.
1.2. Helmet Module: It is Designed around MSP430 mcu, Helmet Impact sensor (ADXL377), on board Lithium battery and SubGHz transceiver.
This module performs following functions
- Measures Helmet Impact.
- Process this data and send it to Chest Strap via SubGHz transceiver.
- As I have provided headers for available GPIO of MSP430, User can interface their custom designed sensors with this module.
- More than one module like this can be placed on different body parts and they can communicate with chest strap simultaneously.
- As SubGHz transceiver used here are addressable,Means they can be programmed such that there is no possibility of cross talk between Helmet module of Player-X to Chest Strap of Player-Y in multi-player application where players are in very close proximity.
- It is also possible to have multiple modules like helmet module wearied on different body part with different sensors and all these module make communication to Chest Strap via small range SubGHz Transceivers and Chest Strap send this data to remote app via wifi communication.
2. Following are mainly targeted features of this project :
2.1. Low Cost so any educational institute / sport foundation can afford it..
2.2. Easy to use by non technical person
2.3. Wide range of applications
2.4. Easy to modify or upgrade with minimal technical skills (OPEN SOURCE).
2.5. Accuracy and availability of logged sensor data for post processing purpose.
2.6. Durability
The system is designed such a way that almost any sport, either single player or multiplayer supported by this system. the system can be used for personal fitness monitoring application too.
Following is detailed explanation of each feature..
2.1. Low Cost so any educational institute / sport foundation can afford it :For communication purpose WiFi Router is required which is already available in most of institute so It can be used during Play.Finally for GUI at monitoring end PC/Laptop and Android Phone is needed and it is common thing all we have no matter who the is user. So by using WiFi as Communication medium not only range but also I have targeted cost reduction with reuse of available resources.
so only investment in Wearable hardware module is required which is detailed as follows..
Chest Strap :
PCB with All major components and sensor : ~30USD
Lithium Battery: ~5USD
SD Card 8GB : ~3USD
SUB GHz Transceiver : ~3USD
Misc : ~4USD
------------------
Total : ~45USD
Helmet Module:
PCB with All major components and sensor : ~10USD
Lithium Battery: ~2USD
SUB GHz Transceiver : ~3USD
------------------
Total : ~15USD
Total cost per player:
Chest Strap : ~45USD
Helmet Module : ~ 15USD
------------------
Total : ~60USD
2.2. Easy to use by non technical person : Here is the video shows how easy it is to setup and use of this system.
here is a video showing detailed setup of SD card and content of the SD Card..
here is another GUI Application with realtime graphs but it is still in development phase..
As per the video, the setup is very easy and it can be done in following steps..
- remove SD Card from Chest Strap module
- Plug SD Card to PC/LAPTOP
- open nwconfig.txt follow the setup instructions available in readme.txt
- insert SD Card to Chest Strap
- Turn on Chest Strap and you have done with set up
- once you open GUI Application in Android Phone or LAPTOP/PC connected to same wi-fi network, Real time data available on the application.
- coach can set threshold values of different parameters and get notification in term of Popup, Vibration and audio alarm on the device.
- once the game/workout is done user have two log files properly stored with time stamp.
-
- one log file in SD card with raw sensor data taken at 200 Hz Sample rate so it is very useful for post processing done with matlab, gnuplot or any computing scripts.
- Second log file in monitoring Android Phone or LAPTOP/PC with processed data received from Chest Strap here user have all the data available from entire team.
-
2.3. Wide range of applications: As mentioned earlier, the system can be used for monitor entire team by multiple coach/trainers.
here is the demo video of the same..
in current development stage the system can support any game with maximum 11 players.
As Wi-Fi being ussed here for communication purpose, by using powerful wifi router (High Gain and high sensitivity) it is possible to achieve upto 100m range in open field. With WiFI hotspot running on Android phone, currently I have achieved 30m Range. for even more range for sports like mountain biking, car racing etc, Wifi routers can be configured as repeaters to achieve range of even few kms.. Followng images explains use case of the system..
Use Case 1 : Multiplayer/team monitoring Application.
Use Case 2 : Personal fitness monitor
2.4. Easy to modify or upgrade with minimal technical skills (OPEN SOURCE): As all the hardware, MCU Source code and GUI Applications are available in onen source domain it is possible to replicate, modify or even upgrade the current design.
these are links of available codes and hardware details in open source domain
As I have used Processing open-source IDE for Android and PC application and Energia open-source (Arduino Like) IDE for CC3200 and MSP430 Application development. it is very easy to use by even high school students who have limited programming and electronics hardware design skills.
Also Helmet module have lots of GPIO available to interface custom sensor. (e.g. if you want to measure blood pressure , simply interface blood pressure sensor with Helmet module write code for the same and wear it in your hand ...bingo..!!! all the data available to GUI app via Chest Strap)
I am working hard to make library for other sensors for MSP430 which can be easily used with this system.
2.5. Accuracy and availability of logged sensor data for post processing purpose: The following table explains Accuracy, Range of Measurement and Sample rate of different parameters
- With 3.7V1200mAH LiPo Batter in Chest Strap I am getting 6hrs 35min backup, and with 3.7V 150mAH LiPo Battery on Helmet module I am getting 1hr 45min backup
- as explain earlier in this post, two log files properly stored with time stamp are available for post processing purpose.
- one log file in SD card with raw sensor data taken at 200 Hz Sample rate so it is very useful for post processing done with matlab, gnuplot or any computing scripts.
- Second log file in monitoring Android Phone or LAPTOP/PC with processed data received from Chest Strap here user have all the data available from entire team.
2.6. Durability: As this is initial prototype and there is still scope of upgrade a hardware, I have not used Electrolube resin for pack hardware prototype in enclosure to ensure durability. But I have used hot glue to make proper fitting of different hardware module so it can withstand at least 35g force.
What went well....
- As per project proposal I have implemented all the features in given time line
- Previous knowledge of hardware design and Programming of arduino and processing helped me to include all possible features in hardware and GUI Application
- I have been able to utilize most of the Hardware Parts provided by sponsors
What could have been even better....
- Hardware and enclosure design could have been better..
- GUI Application available only for Linux/Windows and Android, It could have been available for IoS and MacOs too..
- Android Application is not available in signed package and there are some issue with different screen resolutions...
- Still some key components are not received which are requested from $500 Budget, if these are available then it will be possible to have more standard hardware...
Future plan....
- Improvement in form-factor of hardware modules, and more work on look and feel of modules..
- Conductive fabric will be used as ECG Electrode to make chest strap more convenient to wear..
- Improve Android and PC application with more functionality
- SD Card Log file transfer and Network Configuration through GUI App via WiFi so no need to remove SD Card from chest strap.
- More interactive library for GUI App and mcu for easy implementation/modification.
- Adding mqtt support to android/PC GUI Application so notifications can be sent to other person on internet who have subscribed to the topic.
If you would like to track my progress then here is a link of my journey for this project.
[real_time_monitor] Real Time Player Monitoring System : Table of Contents
All the content related to GUI App, mcu codes and hardware design are posted on following link as attachment for download..
All the GUI codes under CC-BY-SA License....
All the HW details and MCU codes under CC-BY-SA License....
Final words...
"I have tried my best to came up with a solution which can be used as end product as well as development platform for ideally any sports..."
"Winning or losing is not in my hand, but I am some how satisfied by contributing all my project details to Open Source community from where I have gathered all my knowledge applied in this project.. I will be very happy if some how the material I have contributed will be helpful to others who are/will be working on similar project.."
With this words...
I would like to Thank all the sponsors (element14 Analog Devices, Electrolube, Tektronix, Leeds Beckett ) of this design challenge and Texas Instruments for their Support either in providing free samples of Hardware or providing online resources.
I would also like to thank all element14 community members for their valuable feedback and continuous support during this design challenge..
Best Wishes,
Ravi
Top Comments
Yes it has taken lots n lots of time for planning followed by break down the design in different modules and then step by step implementation of each module ... When I have started this project I have…
Excellent summary.
Well done.
DAB
Ravi
You have crossed the line ...well done.
This challenge was always going to be difficult, and I don't think there are any commercial products that get abused like these will that were a first design…