URI students create a face mask that can monitor COVID-10 symptoms
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| Vignesh Ravichandran wearing the smart mask |
A team of students at the University
of Rhode Island has developed a “smart mask” named RespDetect that can
quantitatively monitor COVID-19 symptoms.
Using a respiration sensor in the mask, a throat microphone and an ear temperature sensor, a patient’s breathing rate, body temperature and coughing rate can be monitored wirelessly using an app.
A health care provider can then use the data to determine the best course
of treatment for someone experiencing symptoms of the virus.
The students came up with the idea
for the mask in Associate Professor Kunal Mankodiya’s Wearable Biosensing
Laboratory in the spring 2020 semester. Mankodiya was the group’s primary
adviser on the project and Professor Manbir Sodhi served as a collaborator.
The eight students who worked on the
project represented five different majors, with each taking on specific
responsibilities.
Body temperature sensor
Michaela Bellisle, electrical engineering: hardware development,
conceptualization, prototyping
Gözde Çay, electrical engineering: respiration sensing processing,
textile sensing
Jake Doherty, mechanical engineering: lead mechanical designer
Vanessa Kamara, biomedical engineering: hardware prototyping, temperature
sensing validation, respiration simulator development
Johann Muller, computer engineering: respiration simulator development,
mechanical design
Vignesh Ravichandran, electrical engineering: systems design, hardware
development, signal processing, edge deep-learning
Shehjar Sadhu, computer science: app development, deep learning, IoT
dashboard, network design
Yashna Sadhu, high school student: user interviews, survey design
“We tried to bring people together
who had an interest in hardware, software, mechanical and textiles to develop different
features of the project,” said Çay.
Data displayed on the smart mask app
Just as the team started working on
the project, the University moved to remote learning in mid-March due to
COVID-19.
Working apart, the students relied
heavily on technology to communicate. Besides using Webex and Zoom to meet once
or twice a week, they used an application called Notion to brainstorm and
manage their project. A program named Miro served as a collaborative online
whiteboard and GitHub was used to develop the application for the mask.
This summer, the students entered
the RespDetect mask in a design competition sponsored by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers Circuits and Systems Society (IEEE CASS).
The contest, which had a COVID-19 theme, attracted entries from students all
over the world.
Projects were judged on technical
quality, creativity, completion, and relevance to the circuits and systems
technology.
On Sept. 7, it was announced that
the team from URI captured third place. The first place prize went to a team
from France and a team from Sri Lanka won second place.
All three winning teams are invited
to present their work at the IEEE International Virtual Symposium on Circuits
& Systems on Oct. 10. The event is considered the world’s premiere
networking forum for researchers in the fields of theory, design and
implementation of circuits and systems.
With the help of Mankodiya and
Sodhi, the students are pursuing the possibility of having the sensing and
signal processing used on the project patented.
“We hope to come up with an
inexpensive licensing model to fund this project sustainably, while also
enabling improved access to high quality personal protective equipment for
patients and frontline healthcare workers,” said Ravichandran.