RapidARM: Technical Report

Mangan, Richard (2017) RapidARM: Technical Report. Undergraduate thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

This report has been produced to detail the research and development of a medical and home automation project, known herein as RapidARM.

RapidARM is primarily a health monitoring and alert system that autonomously calls for help if a user suffers with a cardiac emergency. The service continuously monitors the users heart rate activity through a smart watch application, and a smart phone application performs actions based on these readings when compared with heart rate parameters set by the user on initial setup. The service also functions as a smart-home hub in which a user can interact with common electrical devices in their home without the need to do so manually. This includes controlling lighting, television, radio and heating. The service also automatically unlocks the users’ front door in the event of an emergency. The mobile application UI provides functions to instantly launch a call to the emergency services or to a selected contact, while also displaying an overview of the most recent heart rate activity to the user.

The system has been designed to automatically call the emergency services when it detects heart rate conditions that are deemed outside of the acceptable parameters, allowing a brief period for the user to interrupt the call. The heart rate parameters are configurable, based on the individual health requirements of the user, as advised by their doctor. User data is used to create an audio file that is saved to their device, and in the event of a trigger, this file is played to the emergency services when an automatic call is evoked. During an emergency trigger, the phone will display the users’ identification details and medical history while also unlocking their front door.

RapidARM is built using an android mobile device, an Android Wear smart-watch, a RaspberryPi development board, and the Firebase API to provide authenticated user accounts and profile data, as well as saving a record of all events triggered within the system. This database exists in the cloud and can be accessed through the mobile application or through a web browser. An instance of the database is also stored within the mobile application itself for use when a network connection is not available. Events and data changes within the system occur in real-time, and a Raspberry Pi device and 8-channel relay board are used to receive control messages from the cloud and to interact with the users’ home based these control messages.

Valuable contributions to the project were made by Professor. Richard Costello and Dr. Abir Alsaid including forming baseline figures for upper and lower safe heart rates, and in gauging the benefits of such a system with patients. Surveys completed by the contributors have been attached in the appendix.

Through research into the possible user base for the system conducted using data from the Census report 2011, It was identified that over 900’000 people above the age of 65 currently live alone in Ireland. Also highlighted in the research was the number of disabled people living in Ireland, at over 590’000 in the same 2011 report.

Throughout testing, the system has been shown to address the problem consistently and reliably, providing a history of heart activity for the user to examine in the form of an events list, graphs and charts of data gathered from the smart-watch. Feedback was received on possible improvements during the usability testing and the results of this are contained in this document. RapidARM has been shown to provide a lifeline to the user who would otherwise be incapable of calling for assistance.

Research has been conducted into viable alternative options within the space and these have been evaluated to identify possible strengths, weaknesses or opportunities for the RapidARM project.

Item Type:	Thesis (Undergraduate)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Electronic computers. Computer science Q Science > QA Mathematics > Computer software T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Computer software Q Science > QA Mathematics > Computer software > Mobile Phone Applications T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Computer software > Mobile Phone Applications
Divisions:	School of Computing > Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing
Depositing User:	Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited:	01 Nov 2017 15:20
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2017 15:20
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/2721

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