Posted 08.22.2012 at 11:02 am
11 Comments
Laser Baby
Three lasers create point sources of light that are tracked by a Wiimote to ensure the baby is breathing.
Gjoci's Baby Monitor
Preparing for a newborn baby is a lot of work, from buying the bassinet to arranging the diapers. And soldering apart the Wiimote, installing the crib lasers and turning on the camera.
A new Hungarian dad, concerned about monitoring his baby’s breathing, did what any modder would do: He built a baby-breathing-tracker. His name is Gjoci and here are his plans.
Other baby trackers use capacitive sensors or microphones, but this one senses motion by triangulating points of light. A Wiimote camera reports the position of the light points, and a microcontroller computes the relative change in motion to indicate breathing. Initially Gjoci planned to use LEDs, but the lights weren’t bright enough and he worried the baby might “gulp the components.” He settled on lasers instead, using 1-MW laser diodes to project four points of light. Newborns don’t move much, so there’s not much danger of the tot moving into the lasers’ path, but he is still searching for a safer alternative.
Meanwhile, the system works beautifully, according to Gjoci’s tests, as you can see below. The camera from a Wiimote reads the location of the light spots, then waits a few milliseconds and measures them again. Gjoci modified some code from a Japanese hacker and his system searches for the difference between the two measurements. Here’s how he explains it on his blog: “If the total difference is higher than the threshold, it effects good conditions. Otherwise no or low movement is detected.” If there’s no motion for 10 seconds, the system sounds an alarm. An LED display shows movement data for each light point.
In two weeks, Gjoci had only a couple false alarms, and the hardware is still working well. Head over to his site for the full schematics.
[via Hackaday]
Want to read more articles like this, plus tips and tricks, home hacks, DIY projects, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
11 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Regular Features
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
February 2013: How To Build A Hero
Engineers are racing to build robots that can take the place of rescuers. That story, plus a city that storms can't break and how having fun could lead to breakthrough science.
Also! A leech detective, the solution to America's train-crash problems, the world's fastest baby carriage, and more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Most Emailed
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Contributing Writers:
Clay Dillow | Email
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Colin Lecher | Email
Emily Elert | Email
Intern:
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
What a little squirmer
Kudos for DAD want to protect his baby! As long as this is a temporary device, I be worried once the baby starts sitting up, reaching for wires, standing and grabbing things. But, I really applaud the DAD. Great JOB!
One laser for each retina, plus a spare. What a deal!
He should, later on, switch to infrared emitters and detectors.
If he wants to get really simple and safe, get a thermal detector to detect the hot air the baby breathes out near its lips.
Regards,
Marc Brown
Mechatronics Engineering Inventor/Innovator/Programmer/Designer/Entrepreneur
Vale Varka Systems.com
He should, later on, switch to infrared emitters and detectors.
If he wants to get really simple and safe, get a thermal detector to detect the hot air the baby breathes out near its lips.
Tips for Reducing the Risk of SIDS:
Placing healthy infants on their backs to sleep [FAILED]
Place your baby on a firm mattress to sleep, never on a pillow, waterbed, sheepskin, couch, chair, or other soft surface. [Unable to determine]
To prevent rebreathing, do not put blankets, comforters, stuffed toys, or pillows near the baby.[FAILED]
Do not use bumper pads in cribs. Bumper pads can be a potential risk of suffocation or strangulation.[FAILED]
Make sure your baby does not get too warm while sleeping. Keep the room at a temperature that feels comfortable for an adult in a short-sleeve shirt. Some researchers suggest that a baby who gets too warm could go into a deeper sleep, making it more difficult to awaken. [FAILED]
Nowhere on the list of recommendations is the use of lasers.
(Cool projects[like this one] do not replace common sense safety!!)
Stupid idiot. The lasers have warnings on them. Those seemingly safe things are very dangerous if the baby were to be looking into them.
Lasers are safety rated by the power that they develop, as well as how sharply they're focused.
I'd guess that 1mw lasers are relatively safe, but I don't know. Lasers used in products have to be labelled with appropriate warnings, but I'm not sure if that applies to a laser sold as a 'part'.
In any event, it's definitely worth seriously checking out.
Wonder if you could somehow use ultrasound range detection to get adequate results.
Very interesting! Speaking of medical/monitoring technologies that are powered by video game peripherals. I recently saw a tech demo from Sense.ly where they used what looked like an xbox kinect camera to assist with remote doctor-patient interaction.
Coincidentally, I'm helping to host an event in San Francisco where the tech I just mentioned will be demonstrated. It's going to be a blogger only event hosted by eCairn and Orange Silicon Valley on Sept 17th. Anyone who's interested can let me know at arthurh(at)ecairn(dot)com
I am using iBabyGuard Infant Snooze on my 1 month old baby. The sleep monitor uses the latest state-of-the-art Fiber-Optics sensing technology to sense the baby's breath movement non-invasively, detects & shows your baby real time breath count. Check it out @ ibabyguard.com
How to blind a baby, use lasers in a crib monitor system....
So, how much solar energy have you used today?as