Infant SOS

Infant Car Seat Alert and Cooling System

 

Member profile details

Membership level
2014-2015 Team
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Team Name
Infant SOS
Project Title
Infant Car Seat Alert and Cooling System
Design Challenge
Nationally, over 560 children have died while being trapped in overheated cars since 1998. Our goal is to create a car seat accessory that would not only notify the caregiver that an infant has been left in the car, but also to keep the baby's core temperature below 100 degrees F for as long as possible. We are developing the second-generation, smaller microcontroller system that will incorporate visual, audio, and texting alerts. Our goal is to make the removable accessory easy to use, and accessible to a large market.
Design Summary
Team Infant SOS is designing the car seat accessory that will protect infants who are accidentally left in unattended, overheating cars. Each year, about 40 infants will tragically pass away from such incidents.

Our device will be the first among its kinds because it will solve this problem by incorporating both an alert system and a cooling system. The alert system will give auditory, visual, and text alert to the parent when it senses that the infant is in danger. The cooling system will keep the infant core temperature below critical point for an extended amount of time until emergency response arrives.

Alert system is the primary means of protection:
• An accelerometer, reed switch, and temperature sensor together will detect if an infant is present when a car is heating up while parked.
• If the infant is detected to be in danger, the Arduino Mega micro-controller will activate the proper alert responses.
• The LED and speaker will give the visual and auditory alert.
• The GSM Shield, which receives and stores inputs of critical phone numbers from the parents, will send text alert as well the location of the infant.
• Upon receiving the alerts, parents and emergency responders will rescue the infant immediately.

In case of delayed responses, the cooling system will act as the secondary, emergency backup to extend the infant’s chance of survival:
• Heat-triggered PureTemp phase-changing material will act as the main heat absorber to keep infant core temperature below 100 Fahrenheit.
• Specially woven, temperature sensitive textile as well thin aluminum covering will aid in transferring excessive heat away from the skin surface of the infant.
• Heat absorbance from the car seat accessory will combat rising internal car temperature to delay onset of hyperthermia while responders arrives.

From the beginning of the project to Cycle Two, our team Infant SOS have made significant progress toward a final design of the car accessory. Coding in Arduino has been complete for most individual components of the alert system, and each part has been tested and proven functional. Different phase changing materials has been tested. PureTemp was selected as the ideal substance to use as the most efficient, least hazardous, and easiest to manipulate.

In Spring 2015, the working components of the subsystem will be checked and incorporated into a full functioning car seat accessory. We will validate the reliance of the alert and cooling subsystem by additional testing in a realistic environment inside a car. To assess the design as a whole, we plan on performing simulation using a model infant, logging temperature, and recording phone responses. The results will help finalize a finished Infant SOS product.

Last Updated: 12/14/2014
Date Updated3
12/14/2014
Sponsors
Mamoru Enterprises, LLC.
Dr. Susan Baldwin
Sponsor Logo
Department(s)
  • Mechanical Engineering
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Faculty Advisor 1 - Name
Dr. Ghorbel
Faculty Advisor 1 - Department
  • MECH
Faculty Advisor 2 - Name
Dr. Andrew Meade
Faculty Advisor 2 - Department
  • MECH

Contact us

Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen
Rice University

6100 Main Street MS 390 | Houston, Texas | 77005

Phone: 713.348.OEDK

Email: oedk@rice.edu

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