Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Keimyung University, Daegu 999007, Korea.
B2B Smart Solution Team, LG U+ Inc., Seoul 999007, Korea.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Apr 23;20(8):2405. doi: 10.3390/s20082405.
Today, taking a bath is not only a means to keep clean, but also to reduce fatigue and stress. However, taking a bath with hot water for a long time can also be dangerous, leading to scalding or even a heart attack. To prevent these risks, several studies based on measuring bio-signals have been conducted, but due to high prices, difficulty of use, and restricted functions, these studies' recommendations cannot be easily adopted by the public. Therefore, developing accurate methods to measure bathing temperature and bathing time should be the most direct approach to solve these problems. In this study, a smart bath assistive device based on an inner water temperature measurement function is proposed. Prior to development of the device, a bathing environment was emulated with six temperature sensors affixed to different depths to find the optimal depth for measuring bathing temperature. According to the measurement results, the device was designed in a mushroom shape with the cap part floating on the water's surface and housing the electronic components, and temperature sensors within the stem part were immersed in the water approximately 5 cm below the surface to measure the inner water temperature. Due to the low-power consuming Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) processor and waterproof design, the device is able to float in hot water and monitor the bathing temperature variation over a long period of time. The device was compared alongside a commercial analog bathing thermometer to verify the performance of temperature measurements. In addition, a compensation algorithm was developed and programmed into the device to improve the accuracy of measurements. Processed data is transmitted by Bluetooth to a dedicated Android app for data display and storage. The final results show that the proposed device is highly accurate and stable for monitoring bathing temperature.
如今，洗澡不仅是一种保持清洁的方式，还可以减轻疲劳和压力。然而，长时间用热水洗澡也可能存在危险，导致烫伤甚至心脏病发作。为了预防这些风险，已经进行了一些基于生物信号测量的研究，但由于价格高昂、使用困难和功能受限，这些研究的建议公众难以轻易采纳。因此，开发准确测量洗澡水温和洗澡时间的方法应该是解决这些问题的最直接途径。在这项研究中，提出了一种基于内部水温测量功能的智能洗浴辅助设备。在开发该设备之前，使用六个温度传感器贴附在不同深度来模拟洗浴环境，以找到测量洗浴温度的最佳深度。根据测量结果，该设备设计为蘑菇形状，帽部分漂浮在水面上，容纳电子元件，并且温度传感器位于茎部分，浸入水面下约 5 厘米处，以测量内部水温。由于低功耗的高级精简指令集计算机（ARM）处理器和防水设计，该设备能够在热水中漂浮，并长时间监测洗浴温度变化。该设备与商业模拟洗澡温度计进行了比较，以验证温度测量的性能。此外，还开发了一个补偿算法并编程到设备中，以提高测量精度。处理后的数据通过蓝牙传输到专用的 Android 应用程序，用于数据显示和存储。最终结果表明，所提出的设备非常准确和稳定，可以监测洗浴温度。
