Narrow Results

Pressure ulcers are commonly seen in long-term-care and bedridden patients. A common strategy to prevent pressure ulcer is the use of air mattress system. However, the effectiveness of the air mattress system is still under debate. In this study, we tried to design a system to collect the data of temperature, humidity, and interface pressure from the interface between patient and mattress. This system contained a maximum of ten sets of sensors which combined a thermistor, a humidity sensor, and a force sensitivity resistor in a socket and controlled by a MPS430 microcontroller. Data were transmitted to host computer by RS232 interface. To validate this system, a clinical evaluation experiment was performed using two different mattresses — a standard hospital mattress and a low-air-loss mattress. Twenty subjects lied on two different mattresses each for 2 h while monitoring temperature, humidity, and interface pressure at the sacral region continuously with 0.5 Hz sampling rate and averaging each 5 min epochs. The results showed that using a low-air-loss air mattress could reduce about 9 mmHg and 1°C in interface pressure and temperature (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in humidity between the two mattress systems.

Cradle is a household appliance that carries the baby and aids in the comfortable sleep of the infants. In the current scenario, almost 80% of women are working. They find it tough to manage both the household work and office job. Hence, there is a real need for the design and development of a low-cost automatic oscillating cradle that could monitor the real-time parameters of the infants. Unlike adults, infants cannot regulate their body temperature easily. Children are more prone to develop hypothermia and hyperthermia under extreme temperature conditions. An incubator could maintain appropriate conditions for the infant. This study is focused on developing a low-cost automated baby cradle with an incubator that analyzes baby cry and oscillates automatically. The developed system can also maintain suitable environmental conditions for the infant’s growth. If in case attention of a premature baby were to be sought on a regular basis, the developed system can monitor the temperature and heartbeat along with the cabin temperature and humidity. The developed system has an inbuilt alarm that rings when there is an abnormality in the infant’s heartbeat and body temperature. The alarm also indicates when the mattress is wet. A Bluetooth-based mobile application is also designed which could monitor and control the cradle. The proposed prototype model can be employed both in hospitals and at home.