Smart Clothes - 0 - Introduction

20 Dec 2014

First of all, I would like to thank to element14 and the supporters (Analog Devices, Tektronix and Electrolube) for selecting me as finalist of the Sudden Impact Wearables Design Challenge, it is a great pleasure for me.

I have to apologise, it was a very busy period in my work and this is the reason of why this post is delayed.

Well, this is an introduction post. A few words about me: I am a researcher at a Chemical Research Institute in Hungary. At this time I am working on a renewable energy project on the field of reverse electrodialysis. Briefly about the technology: if there is a difference in the salt concentrations (e.g. seawater and fresh water), the salinity gradient power is generated. Using the alternating anion and cation exchange membranes between the different salt solutions, the different chemical potential generates a voltage over each membrane. The total potential of the system is the sum of the potential differences over all membranes. My main task is controll some processes and log the parameters during the measurements with microcontroller. I was a supervisor of a Bachelor Thesis (related Arduino project) and I led a laboratory excecise for power optimization. The teaching activity is finished in this week, so I have a little freetime, which is ideal for desingning some interesting things.

The cycling is my beloved outdoor activity so the basis of my project is bound to cycling. The project has three parts:

measuring the health parameters during the activity,
logging the trip parameters,
design a visible system for the cyclist.

My scheduling of the challenge is the following:

1. Learn about the theoretical background: I promise it won't be boring. I'm going to show the methods of measuring the biosignals and the applied devices.

2. Design and optimization: choose the parts that want to use and optimize the elements.

3. Construction: build and write the codes for the smart phone application.

4. Testing: there are going to be some preliminary tests during the work, but the final system testing is expected near the beginning of March.

5. Evaluation: create a final review about my project with videos.

Good luck to all competitors and try to enjoy the Challenge!