Li Rui, Smith Aaron, Tadinada Harshitha, Hovet Sierra, Tse Zion Tsz Ho
1 College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
2 Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Proc Inst Mech Eng H. 2019 May;233(5):525-534. doi: 10.1177/0954411919837305. Epub 2019 Mar 18.
A heatstroke is one of the most serious forms of heat injury and is classified as a medical emergency. It is characterized by an elevated core body temperature along with the failed body cooling mechanism in response to the sudden heat-up. People vulnerable to a heatstroke are children, elders and sports professionals. Previous efforts have emphasized exercise adjustments and post-treatments, such as environmental-based activity modification and cold-water immersion. However, the general public, especially elders, will have difficulty to conduct such adjustments by themselves. Moreover, few studies have been conducted on the early preventive measurement stage. A wearable three-dimensional-printed thermochromic device proposed here can warn the people of a sudden rise in skin temperature and can advise them to take quick action. Combined with the smartphone applications, for both the android and iPhone platform, the device is able to monitor real-time skin temperature and alerts the people who are vulnerable to a heatstroke. The three-dimensional printable resin developed can change color at a specific activation temperature. The device has undergone a series of performance tests in order to optimize the color transition rate and stability of color change. The accuracy of our device is compared to the conventional thermometer; the regression analysis shows the R value is 0.7599 and the average error is 1.3 °C. Future work will be to mitigate the surrounding lighting effects on the smartphone camera and further improve our device accuracy.
中暑是最严重的热损伤形式之一，被归类为医疗紧急情况。其特征是核心体温升高，同时身体应对突然升温的散热机制失效。易中暑人群包括儿童、老年人和体育专业人员。以往的努力主要集中在运动调整和后期治疗，如基于环境的活动调整和冷水浸泡。然而，普通大众，尤其是老年人，自己进行此类调整会有困难。此外，在早期预防措施阶段进行的研究很少。本文提出的一种可穿戴三维打印热致变色装置可以警告人们皮肤温度的突然升高，并建议他们迅速采取行动。结合适用于安卓和苹果手机平台的智能手机应用程序，该装置能够实时监测皮肤温度，并向易中暑人群发出警报。所开发的三维可打印树脂能在特定激活温度下变色。该装置经过了一系列性能测试，以优化颜色转变速率和颜色变化稳定性。将我们装置的准确性与传统温度计进行比较；回归分析显示R值为0.7599，平均误差为1.3°C。未来的工作将减轻周围光线对智能手机摄像头的影响，并进一步提高我们装置的准确性。
