Goal: Take strain gauge plethysmography; and make it convenient for the patient to perform it, by developing an in home version of the system used in hospitals.

I was the lead engineer in my group for this project; having designed the circuit for the device, and figuring out what materials were needed in order to make it feasible.

In hospitals, it is normally a large configuration of computers and a complex setup rig to get the patient in a position to have the test done. However, our project used an Arduino unit to acquire the same data that the computers would acquire, reducing the size of our project immensely, a key feature for making it able to be taken home.

The device’s prototype testing was a success, and earned us high praise when we presented it to our professors and peers at the conference.

Above is a sketch in fritzing of our device, which succeeded in measuring the expansion of a balloon used to simulate a human thigh, when set to expand at the rates the thigh normally would.