Progress Report #2
Progress Report #2
This past week our group was able to go to Medical Necessities to look at the type of oxygen concentrator we will be working with. Below is a picture we took of the standard in-home oxygen concentrator we saw.
From this experience, we now have a more informed opinion about how we are going to design our device in terms of aesthetics and operation. After finally seeing firsthand the device we would work with, one goal since our last progress report was to begin design development.
We have identified that our biggest visible issue will involve attachment. Oxygen concentrators do not provide many points to secure a device. so a key component will be properly attaching it so that the risk of accidental removal is limited.We came up with two ideas to solve this issue. The ideas are to either use the handle at the top of the concentrator to anchor the device, or to wrap some sort of band or adhesive around the concentrator itself to secure it. Our intentions are to look into the validity of these two designs to see which one will be more valid for our device.
The idea we came up with for the functionality of our device is to have a motor driven wheel turn the knob on the concentrator that adjusts the air flow. Right now we are still deciding on the specifics of this design such as power requirements. Plugging into the wall might be the safer option with a device that can directly affect a person’s health, but a battery power will be easier to use. A motor will be attached to a bluetooth sensor that can detect signals from a phone in order to make adjustments to the air flow.
Another avenue we can explore includes creating a clamp device also using a motor to rotate the clamp to adjust the oxygen liter flow. This would incorporate a button that would contract the clamp to fit onto the knob and release the clamp as needed. This device should be easily adjustable for all knob sizes due to its ability to contract to the tightest possible fit with the click of the button. It would also most likely be battery powered.
Goals we have for next week include agreeing on a finalized design plan and sketch in addition to thinking about materials we will need.
A challenge we faced is a bit of disconnect in communication between us and our advisors at VUMC. We hope for Wendi to set-up times for us to go into patients homes as well since we had hoped to do this already by now. We have continued to reach out to set-up meetings and maintain frequent communication.
Regarding the application development, we are still researching the app development for both front end and back end design to better understand what direction we want to take with the app. Team members working on the app development will continue to learning the coding required for our project.We will also try to get our hands on an actual oxygen concentrator we can keep to use when as we continue to progress with this project.
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