This is the first of a two-semester phased project that will begin with technical and market feasibility study, and progress through conceptual design. The second phase is planned for Fall 2004 in... Show moreThis is the first of a two-semester phased project that will begin with technical and market feasibility study, and progress through conceptual design. The second phase is planned for Fall 2004 in order to refine the design concepts and progress through prototype development and experimentation. Mr. James Adducci is very interested in working with this team of students to explore the potential for an idea he has been developing that is related to muscle development, monitoring and control during exercise. Mr. Adducci has experience as a personal trainer and has also been studying various research publications that focus on muscle development. Combined with discussions that Mr. Adducci has had with Professor Opara, there is an opportunity to explore the potential for designing a system that is integrated with clothing in order to actively and selectively control blood pressure in the vicinity of certain muscle groups, while monitoring blood pressure and other critical parameters. As a starting point for the summer 2004 project, Mr. Adducci will share his ideas with the team for the various functional components of the smart clothing system, and the benefits of each. This includes the type of materials and the type of sensing, feedback and control functions that would be integrated to create the system that would monitor blood pressure and other critical parameters. The team will explore the state-of-the-art of wearable sensing systems, including the identification of currently available products that have similar functionality. The team will then proceed to investigate the feasibility of the concept in the context of: (a) its scientific validity and engineering constraints, (b) the availability of the enabling technologies to create a system, (c) the potential for miniaturization and economic manufacture of the system, (d) the regulatory, safety and intellectual property issues that will guide its development, and (e) other factors that may be identified. The results of this investigation will be a set of design requirements. It is anticipated that the actual development of prototypes of one or more viable design concepts will be undertaken in the fall 2004 semester. Show less
