QuadrAssist

Design team members: Timothy Szeto, Siva Venkat, Sunit Mohindroo and Mayunthan Nithiyanantham

Supervisor: Professor Carol Hulls (ECE)

Background

Quadriplegia is a condition in which a human experiences paralysis of all four limbs or of the entire body below the neck. It is caused primarily by trauma to the brain or upper parts of the spinal column, such as the cervical spine. Severity is determined by location of the damaged vertebrae and extent of the injury. For instance, a patient with an injury to the C1 vertebrae will be paralyzed from the neck down and may require a ventilator for respiration.

As the Canadian population continues to expand, the number of quadriplegic patients will become more prevalent. Consequently, there will be greater cost for long-term personal care. Evidently, there is a need to reduce this financial burden on Canadian taxpayers. An assistive device, therefore, is necessary to reduce the roles of the long-term health worker, while helping quadriplegic patients achieve an increased level of autonomy and improving their quality of life.

Project description

The main goal of the project is to create a low-cost, user-friendly assistive device for quadriplegic patients, allowing them to control multiple electrical appliances with the purpose of increasing their level of autonomy and quality of life. There are several objectives that have been devised to meet the goal:

The Primary objectives

· The device must be capable of receiving an input signal from the quadriplegic user

· The device must capture the signal, convert it to digital signal to be processed appropriately in a well-defined algorithmic system

· The device must output a response to control various electronic appliances (such as TV, radio, light, etc.) of interest

Design methodology

A design approach was defined on a step-by-step basis to address the primary and secondary objectives of the project. The step-by-step approach is broken down into four parts in the project, which will be implemented in a modular fashion, thereby offering many advantages. Figure 1 shows the outline of the module approach for this project.

Diagram of QuadrAssist design with modules

Figure 1: Diagram of QuadrAssist design with modules

1. For the input module, the design will use a sensor such as a sip-puff tube to acquire an analog input signal from the patient, which will then be amplified and converted into a digital signal using an ADC.

2. The digital signal will be passed into the back-end module, which filters and samples the signal.

3. The signal is then subjected to analysis through implementation of an algorithm by the back-end module, which in-turn notifies the user at the display terminal and sends an output signal to the output module.

4. The output module receives the signal through a universal remote controller, which will transmit the output signal to the desired electronic appliance via infrared light.

the QuandrAssist System of a wheelchair pointing to a disabled child, RAM chips, monitor, and a remote