A Humanitarian Engineering Problem

zrosener asks: "A have a friend who has ALS (Stephen Hawking's ailment), a particularly nasty disease in which her motor neurons deteriorate over time, slowly waylaying her. She is in pretty bad shape now, and her movement is restricted to moving her eyes, and very limited (1 inch in each direction) hand movement. She has very light bell that she uses to wake up her husband when she needs assistance, but as her strength wanes it is becoming less and less effective. She is afraid at night now that if something were to go wrong she would not be able to rouse her husband. My challenge to you is to design a noise-making-husband-alerting device cheaply and quickly assembled from strip mall parts (Radioshack, Walmart, etc.) that she could use with her extremely restricted movement. Buttons are out of the questions, as are anything that requires gripping. Analog answers are encouraged too! Please email all suggestions or post them."

Comments

heart rate monitor

[Laplace]

When the wife becomes nervous her heart rate probably goes up. Get a heart rate monitor that has an upper target rate alarm. Set it to a reasonable value through trial and error.

Infared beam break sensor?

[mkettler]

Why not have a small IR beam sensor (you can buy the parts at most ratshacks) and have that set off a buzzer/siren. Position the beam sensor pair within range of motion of her hand so all she needs to to is interrupt the beam with her fingertip.

Ratshack even used to sell a larger-scale version of this as a door entry bell. You placed the unit and a reflector on either side of a doorway and anytime someone walks through the beam a chime sounds. Most ratshacks had these set up and operating to alert the salespeople to incoming customers during off-hours.

You might be able to find a pre-made version of this device on a small scale for detecting cabinet openings, or as a small portable "hotel room alarm" but most of these kinds of devices will not use this mode of sensing. (most cabinet alarms sense the light pouring in from the room into the cabinet, and most hotel alarms hang on the doorknob and sense being rocked around with a mercury switch.)

Some thoughts...

[GAPeach3]

Would she be able to use a light switch panel that has the large, flat switch (as opposed to a regular light switch)?

Also, a sensitive motion detector? It might be able to pick up blinking or other movements she could make moving an object like a pencil.

How about a handicapped-helper dog?

Another idea is a button she could bite on that triggers a noisemaker.

Advice: I hope you find something. Be creative. Use functions of her body which are not affected by ALS, i.e. respiration or heart rate. If either vital signs drop or accelerate to a certain point, a simple breathing monitor or heart monitor would make noise.

Re:Some thoughts...

[DJPsychoChild]

I think a really good idea would be a breathing monitor. Assuming she has control of her breathing (which it is possible she doesn't), she could speed her breath up rapidly to set it off, or hold her breath to set it off, or something like that.

Good luck! I hope your friend finds something to help!

Re:Complete the circut Switch with two metal plate

[Sawbones]

Similar theme is used in an incredibly annoying singing reindeer in my house. Battery powered the device has two small metal contacts about 1/2 a cm apart on the bottom of the device. when it's held in the palm the skin creates a path for just enough electricity to flow through to start the annoying jingle. It's got no moving parts so there is no physical resistance and so long as she can make contact with both nodes at the same time with the same finger/palm/whatever it will sound.

you could work in some extra circuitry to make certian very quick brushes don't trigger the sound, but that's optional.