CASE STUDY SNAPSHOT
Customer : A start up based out of Chicago, USA in the Elderly Healthcare spaceSize : < 50
Project vertical : Consumer Electronics
Challenge : To monitor elderly persons and keep a tab on their activities
Solution : A turnkey BLE Wearable device design that monitor the activity of user and raise alarms on fall detection as neck/wrist wearable
Services Availed : Turnkey Product Engineering, Firmware Development
Tools and Technologies :
- MCU : TI CC2541 SoC
- Frameworks : TI SimpleLink
- Programming Language : C
- Compiler : GCC
- Tools : BLESuite, SimpleLink SensorTag
INTRODUCTION
The customer got acquainted with us during one of the events where we have been showcasing our services and solutions. Impressed by our work on very low power designs, they wanted us to help in creating a product for them to monitor the elderly, for which Embien supported.
CHALLENGE
Since it is the early 2010's, the wearable market was picking up and had a lot of challenges in realizing such advanced designs, especially for early stage start up. The product should cater to the elderly and hence quite easy to use and should last for weeks between recharges.
SOLUTION
Embien understood the nuances associated with designing a device specific to the use of elderly users. Considering this specific use case, together with the customer it was decided to design a single low power BLE firmware powered device but that can be either used as a wrist wearable or a neck wearable based on the user preference.
BLE Wearable device design
Embien designed and developed the wearable to meet the functional requirements. Texas Instrument's CC2541 was chosen as the wireless microcontroller in the system. Various sensors were added to the BLE Wearable device design in line with the requirements of the customer. Some of the sensors include a low cost and low power accelerometer, switches, etc. For the rechargeable version of device, that was to run on a re-chargeable battery, a few more special purpose IC's were added along with the battery charging and monitoring circuitry. Buzzer and LED were provided for audible and visual notifications/alarms.
Wearable Device Development - Architecture
Embien also developed the plastic enclosure for the product in dual neck/wrist wearable mode and 3D prints done to validate the concept. Since the board was to be placed on the custom designed enclosure that gives the final product a stylish look, our PCB design was taken care to suit the same. Component placements were made to take care of physical constraints. Antenna design was taken care for optimal transmission and reception.
BLE Firmware with OTA
Firmware for the neck/wrist wearable device was designed with consideration of BLE standards. Standard GATT profiles were supported along with a few custom profiles to include device specific functionalities. High-level configuration options were provided over these profiles to suit individual user needs.
A unique pairing mechanism was provided to enable users to lock their devices with a particular smartphone. Options were provided to track exceptional cases like loss of communication, low battery, and user generated emergency conditions etc.
Since it was important to be able to be upgraded on field, the device is provided feature to be updated over the air (OTA). The OTA feature was highly secure and protected against unauthorized access with advanced encryption/decryption algorithms.
Low power BLE firmware - BLE Power Optimization
As the whole system was expected to run on a low-cost coin cell battery - typically CR2032 - for more than 2 months. So, it was very important to do a careful profiling of power consumption and optimization. Backed by experience in working with battery powered embedded devices for more than a decade, our team worked on each peripheral and came up with individual power consumption. Optimization was done on the low-level hardware as well as on the higher-level firmware to obtain the best power performance. The low power BLE firmware stack was also configured suitably to complement the lean design of other modules.
BENEFITS
With our support in BLE Wearable device design and mobile app integration, the customer could successfully roll out the product on time at a very high return/cost ratio.
- Compact formfactor design with both neck/wrist wearable mode
- Very low power BLE firmware design that runs on CR2032 for over 2 months
- On field Secure OTA updates over BLE
- Highly accurate activity monitoring and fall detection algorithm
Our turnkey product engineering services covering hardware design, enclosure development, firmware design and prototyping support helped the customer reach out to his customer base in a short amount of time.
CONCLUSION
Backed by expert low-power design and development, Embien contributed to the start-up's vision of BLE Wearable device design and helped move it to the next stage of acquiring customers and getting the next level of funding. As a trusted partner, Embien always goes together with our customers in their success journey.