SMART Balancer
Full Invention Name:
The SMART Balancer
Team Name:
S.M.A.R.T (Super Malfunctioning yet Awesome Robotics Team)
Team Number:
4500
Team Description:
Team SMART is a second year team from a small school called Word of Life Lutheran School. We have two fourth graders, one sixth grader, three seventh graders, and one eight grader. We are very energetic and have a lot of fun. At our qualifying competition, we won the Core Values Award, and at the Eastern Missouri State Championship we won the Gracious Professionalism Award. Our team motto is "Destruction is the Key to Success" this means that we are not afraid to try and fail. Failure leads to learning and eventually success. We also like to program in monkey and fish measurements; a fish is 1.05 rotations and monkeys means a little bit more/less power. It comes from the movie Toy Story. We are currently mentoring a Jr. FLL team at our school.
Category:
Independent
Brief Submission Description:
We've learned that falls are the leading cause of death by injury for our senior population and currently there is no cure for this problem. In 2010, 28.2 billion dollars was spent on falls. Our revolutionary product, the SMART Balancer, won’t cure the problem, but will help prevent falls! The SMART Balancer is a custom insole with built in touch sensors. These sensors will monitor the user's balance and gait. If the sensors detect a misstep they will alert the user that a potential balance issue is occurring by causing the insole to vibrate and sending a message to the user's smartphone. If the user has neuropathy, a belt will be available which will vibrate at the waist. Then the user can make adjustments to their gait or look for something to grab onto to prevent a fall. The insole will have Bluetooth to allow it to send information about balance and gait to a smartphone app, which can be shared with a doctor. It can also alert a loved one if a senior falls.
Team Website
http://smartfll.webs.com
