URI
engineering student creates smart T-shirt to regulate heavy lifting
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| See what happens when you DON'T wear a smart shirt. |
Actually, her shirt does.
Marjorie Pickard is the co-creator
of a smart T-shirt that has the ability to detect improper lifting techniques
and is so promising it won a top award at a recent startup contest.
Sensors in the shirt—appropriately
called SmartShirt—measure movements of the spine and shoulders, then send
feedback through a smartphone application.
While everyone could benefit from
heavy-lifting advice, Pickard says the shirt she developed with a classmate is
tailored to factory and warehouse workers, who frequently lift heavy objects
without guidance on the best forms and techniques.
Pickard wowed judges at the 12th annual RI Business Plan Elevator Pitch Competition Nov. 1 at the Tech Collective in Providence, winning third place among 34 contestants. Pickard received $100—and a boost of energy to take her shirt to the next level.
“It was really exciting to win,”
says Pickard. “I was happy about the judges’ reaction to the project. They
seemed generally enthused about the idea. Wearable tech is a booming field.”
Sponsored by the Rhode Island
Business Plan Competition, the contest promotes entrepreneurship and
development of startup companies in Rhode Island.
The competitors—college students and entrepreneurs—had 90 seconds to convince the judges, all local business leaders, that their projects solved a problem and are commercially viable. Contestants were also evaluated on preparation and enthusiasm.
The competitors—college students and entrepreneurs—had 90 seconds to convince the judges, all local business leaders, that their projects solved a problem and are commercially viable. Contestants were also evaluated on preparation and enthusiasm.
A URI graduate student and URI
professor were runner-ups. Linden Wyatt was recognized for his startup Optera
Diagnostics, which is developing an instrument to analyze human tissue biopsies
faster. Wyatt received his doctorate in physics from URI last July and will
graduate with a master in business administration in December.
And Mindy Levine, associate
professor of chemistry, was singled out for The Party Elements, a business she
created that brings science parties to people of all ages, from preschool
children to adults. The goal is to expand the business nationally.
The idea for SmartShirt came to
Pickard and her classmate, Jeremy Doody, of Westfield, Mass.,
during their Wearable Internet of Things class taught by Kunal Mankodiya,
assistant professor of biomedical engineering and director of URI’s Wearable
Biosensing Laboratory.
A North Kingstown native
on track to graduate in May, Pickard is majoring in electrical engineering and
French through URI’s five-year International Engineering Program. Mankodiya
asked Pickard to pitch the shirt project for the contest.
“Professor Mankodiya asked us to
design a wearable item that could solve a problem and help people,” says
Pickard. “At first, we thought about weightlifters, then Kunal steered us
toward factory workers because that’s a larger market and there are fewer devices
available.”
The tight-fitting shirt is a
synthetic-cotton blend. Four sensors, which bend with body movements, are
stitched into the shirt along the spine. Eventually, sensors will be installed
on the shoulders.
The plastic sensors curve as the
worker moves. Signals are sent to a microcontroller in the shirt. That
microcontroller analyzes the sensors’ messages to determine if the body
movements are safe for heavy lifting.
“From the microcontroller, the
information is also sent to a smartphone application,” says Pickard. “When
workers have bad form they can find out about it on their cell phone. Employers
can also receive the data.”
The goal is to reduce the number of
work-related back injuries, says Pickard. This, in turn, could decrease the
number of workers’ compensation claims, saving companies money.
Pickard and Doody are still working
on a prototype that they expect to complete by the end of December. In time,
they hope to seek a patent for the project.
The future looks bright. A judge in
the contest who owns a workers’ compensation insurance firm told Pickard he was
keen on the shirt.
“That was definitely exciting,” says
Pickard. “It made me think about the possibilities of the device as more than a
class project. Everything I’ve learned over the past five years is being
applied to a real-life problem, and that’s fulfilling.”