Project Title:- Control of Garment Color Through Brain Signal
Project Creator:- Kitty Y. M. Yeung
Short Description:- The project is a painted flowery fabric to monitor heart rate using the LED blinking on the dress, an Arduino Nano as the microcontroller and pulse sensor to take the readings of the heart rate.

 

Heart-rate monitor schematics

The image above shows the placement and readings taken by the pulse sensors for heart rate measurement. The first part of the diagram shows the placement of the sensors, on the upper left, upper right and lower left of the chest. The second part of the diagram shows the analog ECG heart rate monitor readings. The sensor was placed closer to the heart to have a more accurate readings than the earlobes (where the project creator placed it initially).

Response:- What I love about the project is that it shows the kind of projects that I would really like to work on, which are beautiful functional garments or wearable that also provides health services. I like the compactness property of the project. The creator achieved that by adding another layer in the cloth to put the boards in order to avoid direct contact with the skin, that is, to avoid short circuit.

An improvement I would like to add on, is that the compactness should also be extended to the sensors, if possible it can just be placed on one spot of the chest and not three, as identified in the diagram above (Although, this depends on the medical procedures of taking an heart rate measurement).

Furthermore, I would suggest an improvement on the LED, that it should not just light up only when the heart is being measured but a particular color can be programmed in case there is any irregular flow of the heartbeat. This can send real time communication to the wearer of the garment. Overall, it is an awesome project!