Balleristics 2017 Capstone Project

Welcome to the Balleristics Home Page!

Our team’s goal is to develop a ballistic vest for police officers to act as a “virtual partner” for automated assistance request based on real-time sensing and thresholding. Nearly 48,000 officers are assaulted every year, of which nearly 50 percent are alone. The “virtual partner” serves as an automated partner that provides officers an accurate and reliable support system.

An integrated system of biometric and force sensors, including a photoplethysmograph, pressure conductive sheet, blood sensor, accelerometer and piezo film, will be utilized to measure heart rate, respiratory rate, extracorporeal blood, and other external forces. Our algorithm will process this information, and, should these biometric markers exceed a predetermined threshold, the central dispatch will be notified. These modules will be integrated together into a pouch, which fits between the officer and the ballistic vest. A rendering of our product is seen above (vest not shown). The device’s name is the H.E.R.M.E.S (Health Evaluation with Real-time Monitoring-based Emergency Signaling) System.

Data processed using our algorithm can be seen in real time at http://hermes-dash.appspot.com/. A video detailing our system can be found here.

Balleristics is sponsored by the Vanderbilt University Department of Biomedical Engineering and GPS-911 and is advised by Dr. Matthew Walker III, and our sponsors Erin Raccah, Jim Shepard, Austin Martin, and Arlie Haddix. Additional assistance was provided by Dr. Ken Pence and Dr. Amanda Lowery.