Low cost electronic scents and smells

Lavender bulb electronic scent designed by L Williams, size approx 10mm x 10mm 

I have been working on scent generation since 2008, initially  financed by a research grant from the UK's East of England Development Agency, for  a cookery book with embedded electronic smells,   From 2009 -2011 I did some of the electronic design  for Dr Jenny Tillotson of the University of the Arts, London.
 Motion is detected by touch (e.g. accelerometers ) which triggers the smell.

The scent, for example synthetic chocolate, is added using a solid scent under microcontroller software. This  is released by embedding the liquid  scent oil  in solid silicone and using a 1- 5W heater to release smell.  There has always been a challenge with computer controlled liquid scent release in making it leakproof,  compact for mobile phones, low battery power and with no lingering smell. Some liquid oils are toxic and need a solid enclosure.   However solid materials can be used to embedded the scent, technology as here from 2008  in silicone scented bulbs which use low cost silicone bath sealant.  Another example are scented silicone wristbands, the body heat releases scent.
 In this example, a  heater (nichrome wire embedded  inside the silicone) is switched on to release fragrance and a non contact thermopile temperature sensor with just milliseconds response time allows just  the correct amount of heat to be added to enable long battery life from a mobile phone battery. Nichrome heaters  have been used to emit scent from materials such as oils  for animal attractant  hunting activities.
 The scent is embedded in  liquid silicone rubber, which cures to a solid over several hours,  so no leakage or lingering smells as with liquid scents. The silicone is inert, and can be mixed with scented oils.  Custom shapes of silicone rubber can be created in a mould. One example is of  heater  resistor dipped in silicone rubber. The scent can be quickly terminated by the closure of a lid, e.g. closing a page in a book. A Flexinol Hinge can be used.

 Multiple scents can be mixed and proportional control of individual  scents added using the heaters with pulse width modulation in an x/y matrix arrangement to reduce cost. Alternative heating can be used e.g. Peltier heaters which can be switched from heating to chilling under software control to stop the odour release. Ultrasonic vibration  may be able to be used to release fragrance so no heat required, instant on/off  and longer battery life.

Apple iPhone with scent cartridge illustration

Prototype chocolate  heater

Lavender bulb, a LED can also be embedded

There are many possibilities for adding miniature scent emitters, e.g. in mobile phones. This will allows no visual or audio alerts to be sent, e.g. roses to your Mother, chocolate from your daughter   or coffee smell from your office. When the scent has expired, a new cartridge can be plugged in as illustration above with iPhone.  Medical applications e.g. sports,  relaxation and sleep devices can be built.
It was  found that embedding colour using  Red Green Blue mixer LED into the silicone aided the aesthetics. Tests are ongoing re adding  invisible UV LEDs.

3 Watt LED heaters from Philips,  can add colour,  Red, Green Blue and all colours of the spectrum, size of a coin

The silicone can be made into an ink and can be printed onto paper using screen printing. 

References


Some of my 2008  work on sensor triggered cookery scented books  as  here.

I  have worked for  Sensory Design and Technology Ltd, The University of the Arts, Central Saint Martins,  London and Northumbria  University 2009-2012 on computer control for scent research with Dr Jenny Tillotson and Prof Raymond Oliver.
2010 report on University of the Arts London research on scent generation. 

Here is a January 2011 patent on scent release from the University of Cambridge.



Contact Lyndsay Williams if you are interested in assistance with computer controlled scent designs.  sensecam@gmail.com or +44 (0)  7970 101578.

Sentinel Sensing Computer for your kitchen

Design concept Feb 2013 

If you lived on your own and were ill or fell, how long would it take people to find out? Hours, days?
What if you can't reach your mobile phone? Also not everyone is on the internet e.g. the elderly. We don't all want to wear sensors 24/7.
29% of households in the UK have single occupancy in 2011 as here.
This Sentinel computer can care for you in your home, young and old.  This device is placed in a room you normally use frequently, e.g. the kitchen.  It is useful for those who live on their own, it watches for inactivity of person, e.g. in the kitchen, and sends an SMS  text message to a friend or carer if no activity for a pre set time period. It can be placed on the  window ledge, and so no interference from movement from cats and dogs. Sentinel is like a simplified mobile phone but just with sensors. There are multiple sensors including person detection, light, temperature, humidity,  etc  to provide accurate alerts.  The device is mains powered with a battery backup. A suitable place to put the Sentinel is a  kitchen window ledge so your activity can be monitored by sensing washing and cooking. There is no invasion of privacy as no cameras or microphones used,  alerts only sent by SMS Text message to  selected friends.  A PAYG Sim is used. The Sentinel also provides warm led lighting to indicate it is watching over you. Intelligent software learns normal usage of the room to avoid false alerts.
Sensors include infra red detections of person and also kitchen safety sensors for gas and humidity. Size approx 4 x 4".

There have been several  devices for caring for people who live on their own.=, but with possible disadvantages.  They can be dependant on the internet, installation or wearing of equipment, false signals from pets, invasion of privacy  or subscription services.  The Sentinel is much simpler to use and lower cost.

The Sentinel is an engineering prototype at the moment but the working components are based on Technology based on existing working components from Girton Labs, e.g. SenseBulb as shown on BBC news in 2009. Sentinel is based on this technology but lower cost and more accurate alerts.


The Weather in your Kitchen.

There is also another Sentinel  variant, lower cost, based on a wifi interface. This has applications for social networking and broadcasts via Twitter "The Weather in your Kitchen". (or office) It is a research project and based on multiple sensors, thermal, light, POR, humidity and can broadcast, Quiet Kitchen, Hot Kitchen, Stormy Kitchen,etc. It is a simple way of indicating your physical status at home or in the office in a playful but non intrusive way. People can be so busy nowadays but here is a measure of it....

Source

More details, Lyndsay Williams, Girton Labs Ltd,  sensecam@gmail.com, 07970 101578

SenseEgg - The Caring Egg for you and your family

This good egg monitors the wellbeing of those who live on their own, young and old. We may have an accident, fall and who will know? You may know someone elderly or with Alzheimer's. If you are at home and possibly unwell and not eating regularly, the sensors in the egg will automatically send a text message to a friend or carer.  This is done by monitoring the status of your fridge, for example has it been opened recently?  No installation is required, just a simple setup of phone SIM card. A total of 5 sensors inside the egg monitor the well being of the fridge and it's usage, which can then infer the health of the person.   The fridge was chosen as a  frequently used appliance at home, for when we eat, drink tea or beer, or feed our pets.   If you have not opened your fridge for a few hours, a time you can choose yourself, then a text message is sent to a friend. An added benefit is a fridge light, a warm white LED which comes on automatically to light your fridge, just in case your fridge does not have one.  The battery life is estimated to be a year. Girton Labs  plan on using a trusted  UK partner and  manufacturer .

The image shows a 3D CAD rendering but the technology has the component parts (sensors, software,  GSM  modem) built and tested by Girton Labs. A mobile  phone signal will transmit and receive from inside a normal metal  fridge, tested with Samsung Galaxy S3.
It is the latest version of SenseBulb, the caring lightbulb,  as covered by the BBC News in 2009 here. This design was in the formfactor of a lightbulb but new mobile phone  technology  has enabled the monitoring system to be built into an egg sized formfactor.

Example SMS  text message

The 5 sensors monitor:

• Fridge door opening, by ambient  light detected from kitchen and also movement of door
• Correct temperature of fridge.
• sound and motion sensor - if picked up in hand can determine user state and send message
• touch - tap for settings
• power saving sensors
• fridge door left open alert

The entire egg will glow a variety of colours to indicate status, Red, alarm, fridge not opened for a while and text message sent. Other alerts  are  fridge temperature over 4C - amber flash , status ok -  blue , flashing green -  warning to user that you have not eaten for a while. An audio alert is provided.
There is no on/off switch required. Initial installation requires a phone number programmed into the egg. The case design will be waterproof and can be washed and dropped  (Protection to IP55). The two halves clip together with a waterproof seal to allow battery fitting.


Prototype proof of concept is based on Arduino. This reads sensor data and does the digital signal processing to decide when to send an alert.


Further Designs

The goal is for an initial low cost simple monitoring egg.
The Egg can also infer if the person in the house (e.g. mobile phone present).
Later designs may use  GPS location.
There is also a design for a finger sensor that can detect the health status of the person and decide is an alert needs to be sent.
A gas sensor may be used to detect decaying food.
Depending on how often  text messages sent and therefore battery drain, a contactless charger in the form of an eggcup may be used.


Designed by Lyndsay Williams, Girton Labs Ltd.
Contact Details Lyndsay Williams sensecam@gmail.com tel : +44 (0)7970 101578

www.SenseEgg.com

The "Internet of Things" , some 2012 Research from Northumbria University P3i Lab

I  was a  Reader in Hardware and Software for Northumbria University from January to October 2012  at the new P3i Lab at White Lion Street,  Islington, London as set up by Professor Raymond Oliver. This Lab is part of Northumbria University School of Design.

some 2012 designs - click to enlarge

 I helped set up the P3i  lab, some of the research directions and initiated designs  for Smart Sensing Clothes, Anticipatory Medicine and the Internet of Things. Some of the sensors we used (one bit of memory) were smaller than a grain of sugar.








The below sensor and medical research is now continued at Girton Labs, Cambridge.


Anticipatory medicine -  Glxcam

This is a lifelogging camera with medical sensors and haptic controllers. The plan is for it to anticipate medical issues.  Device can also link to a mobile phone and get brief text alerts to glance at. Glxcam  is the next stage  from  my design of SenseCam for Microsoft. There are additional thermal imaging sensors. Printed 3D model as below. Slides as here.

E-Ribbon, a novel bidirectional sensing ribbon, 2mm wide for medical sensing. See image below of 3D CAD design  next to a standard 5mm Light Emitting Diode for scale.  This can be woven into a fabric for medical sensing, e.g. temperature, touch, pressure or acceleration. More details here. There were possible applications for Early Onset Epilepsy Detection as discussed here.

We used semiconductors (one bit memory)  that were smaller than a sugar grain from NXP.

Smart Sensing bandage controller and data logger, based on Arduino Mini. See image below. 

SmartTumble. We will require in future  smart sensing clothes for medical and sportswear. These clothes have built in health care sensors, e.g. temperature or motion sensors, e.g. accelerometers, that can be used for fall detection in senior people or people who live on their own.  However people do not want to be concerned with recharging  batteries every day or we might even forget. If this can be done automatically every day "in the wash" this can be useful. The sensors could be built into buttons and so garments manufactured by machine in the normal way. The energy storage can use small Aerogel capacitors.   Various electromagnetic, chemical  and mechanical charging systems were investigated, as a possible method of power harvesting,  as the washing machine provides a variety of powerful sources. This is ongoing work at Girton Labs.

Smartbuttons as used in SmartTumble

image taken from "How it works"

Repurposing Tyre Pressure Measurement Sensors.  These TPMS semiconductors  are low cost ($5) vehicle sensors for pressure, temperature and 2 dimension acceleration monitoring with wireless monitoring. We investigated repurposing these for medical sensors for the body. This is ongoing work at Girton Labs.


Haptics

Simulation of new surfaces, e.g. wetness. In enhancing the sense of touch, we require new ways of thinking. We tested a Peltier Chiller, which as well as chilling, the cold provides a sense of evaporation and so the feeling of wetness on the human skin. This system was also found to be effective for an alternative analgesic for headaches and is in test Jan 2013. See image below.

Research from October 2012

SenseBulb Plus.  (Aka Deathwatch ) This is a device for assisted living, and for people who live on their own. Here is an earlier prototype SenseBulb.  If a person has become ill, for example, fallen, an alert is sent via  phone  text message (Sensebulb version 1) or  Twitter if not movement for a number of hours.

 It has the advantage of other monitoring systems:
1.  not needing sensors installed in every room of a house.
2. no device attached to person
3. reliable message sent to multiple sources, e.g. Text Message, Twitter
4. no intrusion of privacy
5. multiple sensors including temperature, light  and electricity usage.

 It works by monitoring electricity usage in a house, currently AlertMe is used. Normal home activity can consist of switching on and off lights, e.g. visit to bathroom etc and if this is not done for a period of several hours an alert is sent. Image below  from AlertMe. The advantage of using Twitter is that it is an automated  more public broadcast that could save a  life.
Multiple sensor sources can be used e.g. heat and motion detection using thermopiles.

 Saturday 19th Jan 2013 activity, using computer, housework, cooking, washing etc.
Peaks are kettle on, cooking

inactivity - day off ill Jan 2013

Using water flow for detecting wellbeing.

Prior work done by Williams (Kent Meters, Luton)  included water monitoring, using older magnetic water flow sensors,  but this was possibly intrusive and not desired.  e.g. monitoring fresh water usage in a bathroom and therefore hygiene monitoring of person. However there is new Girton Labs design on a system that uses an high frequency sensor  to detect water flow on the mains water pipe inlet  and product alerts if no usage for several hours.



Older work pre 2011



Here is my introductory presentation to Northumbria University in Sept 2011. It covers some of  my prior research in Digital Audio, sensing for mobile phones,  Microsoft and Apple.

Designs by Lyndsay Williams and financed by Girton Labs Ltd.

contact Lyndsay Williams sensecam@gmail.com

www.sensecam.co.uk

caring clothes

DRAFT  

Sensor button

The average new car has over 100  sensors, our smartphones have at least 10,  the average new washing machine has over 8. The car sensors look after  the engine and safety aspects of our vehicles, and in the washing machine the sensors calculate an efficient wash cycle. Aircraft have black box accident recorders to do crash analysis and make planes safer in future. However our bodies for generally healthy people have no such 24/7 care.
Why is this? One reason is the devices have not yet been developed, we do not like to be thought of as ill people,  and current devices are costly. We design our clothes to be beautiful and to keep us warm. We do not want geeky lumps,  bumps, switches,  or batteries  detracting from these features. Many would find useful clothes and shoes  that can care for us, warn us of dangers, measure sports performance etc. When our clothing measures (using accelerometers) that  we have been sat in front of the computer too long, a gentle nudge from our clothing to switch us out of "couch potato" mode can be useful.   Some of us might like sensors to warn others of  falls in the home, baby nappy care, or just to wake us up in the morning when our Smart  T- shirt detect we have had enough sleep. These are all old ideas, but with all our technology, we still hear of cyclists and car drivers  falling into ditches,  and being so injured for days  they cannot even use their smart  phone to call for help.

What design features can help to embed these sensors into clothes ? The sensors must be invisible and not detract from the clothing. We don't all want to look like astronauts! The sensors should not need on/off switches and should be able to send messages to our phones. If we do want to switch our sensors on and off, this should be as intuitive as doing up a button.   Being small and  able to stitch  the sensors into the seams of clothes during manufacture would help as seams would be able to disguise any additional thickness of the sensors. We do not want the inconvenience of being able to change batteries. Can we  harvest power from the wash cycle motion of our washing machine? There is research to indicate that is possible for low currents.
Much of the hardware for this health monitoring exists already. We have our smartphones for the high end processing and communicating to others if we need help. Re the tiny sensors,  from Nov 2012 every new car in the UK will need Tyre Pressure Measurements systems. (This has been law in the USA for a while). These legal requirements have provided   tiny sensors 7 x7 mm for monitoring our car tyre pressure, acceleration in 2 dimensions, temperature, with the  microcontroller and radio built in. These sensors just need power.

Texas TPMS is the size of a shirt button.

Girton Labs and Associates plans to prototype some of these systems.

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Batteryless sensing medical computers in our clothes

Using our washing machine to clean and charge up our clothes 
Design by Lyndsay Williams 

The future of clothing and wearable computer  technology will include clothes with invisible  inbuilt medical, sports and wellbeing sensors embedded  into the fabric.

Computer rendering of future sensor - sensing shirt button

We may want  smart sensing to be embedded in our clothing including shoes,  that can measure biomedical parameters , e.g. motion, body temperature and  transmit this data  via radio to the mobile phone for healthcare applications.
Health applications also include fall detection for people living alone but nobody wants cumbersome pendants as used as present.

 The clothes must also be  washable (up to 90C) and preferably have no battery, as batteries do not cope with  the temperature range in a hot wash.


We also want our clothes to light up for decoration and for safety, we can also have them emit relaxing signals if it detects we are stressed. We might want them to talk to our smartphones for 24/7 medical care.

Here is an example of a sensing light up cycle jacket which uses sensors to indicate movement and cyclist turning left and right.

We want tiny sensors no larger than a shirt button so as to be unobtrusive. Where can we get these from?

There is a established  area of the consumer market in Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems TPMS  which can  provide a solution to sensors for clothing. From Nov 2012 all new UK cars will require TPMS. This allows more  safety, re braking,  longer life tyres  and better fuel economy. There will be millions of these low costs sensors so we can re purpose  them.  These sensing semiconductors provide pressure measurement, acceleration in 2 dimensions, temperature, microcontroller,  complete with a 315MHz radio transmitter. Here are some examples,  from Texas Instruments 

Texas Sensor more here.

and Melexis below, radio transmitter not shown 

There are other manufacturers of  TPMS sensors and they cost less than  £5 for one off.

These TPMS sensors  can be re purposed for clothing sensors, and are washable up to 150C.


 However there is still the problem of batteries,  changing them and making them  waterproof.  It  is preferred  to use power harvesting rather than Lithium cells. All clothes need to be washed, we use a washing machine. The spin cycle provides a large amount of vibration (particularly if load unbalanced) and energy, some via centrifugal force  for power harvesting, here is some research on using the motion of a car wheel to charge up the TPMS. Piezo sensors are a possibility as here.  There is also the possibility of using the varying electromagnetic forces inside the drum from the washer motor. This system  needs further research to see how much power can be derived from a normal spin cycle e.g.  4 mins at 900 RPM. An Aerogel SuperCapacitor can be charged in this period of time. These capacitors operate up to 70C.

Image of Bosch Washer from John Lewis

The TPMS semiconductors can have a shock survival of up to 4000G.


This prototype design  will enable our clothes to have built in sensors, lights and just a normal wash cycle with spin to charge up the clothes every few days.

Rendering of Girton Labs HexSensor size 10 x 10 mm

There are other advantages to embedding sensors into our clothes, an ID tag, with radio transmitter so we don't loose them, and when clothes put in washing machine the care tag data is transmitted to washer for correct wash, at the correct temperature so no more mixing of whites and coloured. The clothes can transmit a signal when due for a wash or record in a database the last time clothes were one. Some people do not like to be seen in the same outfit twice so a date log of wearing the clothes sent to mobile phone with help the fashion conscious!

Additional areas to research, using the TPMS  pressure sensors to monitor pressure points on the body, power requirements etc.


We can maybe also use these tiny sensors to track our glasses which can get lost...

Notes:

  Girton Labs in conjunction with Northumbria University had already built  proof of concept designs for early onset epilepsy detection using accelerometers, and work is in progress with Smart Sensing Bandages for healthcare.



Contact Lyndsay Williams, Girton Labs, Cambridge, UK sensecam@gmail.com +44 (0) 7970 101578

2012 Girton Labs designs, click to enlarge