January - February 2018

Flexo - Internet of Things

Flexo is an IoT device with the aim of helping patients achieve their set targets efficiently and get physically stronger. It is a hand therapy activity tracker that efficiently measures the patients’ performance. It transmits the collected data to a mobile app, the data can then be analysed and shared with health professionals as well as the patient.

Research has shown that patients who adhere to their prescribed exercises are significantly better at achieving their goals and demonstrate a greater increase in physical function. A large part of the physical therapy segment is the hand therapy, which helps rehabilitate the hands, fingers, and wrist disorders and injuries by using physical methods and devices such as grips, balls, bands, stacking cones, and weight bars. It can also be used for acute or chronic pain.

The device that our team of 4 designed used an FS7548 flex sensor in conjunction with an ADC amplifier which connected to our ESP8266 module via an Inter-Integrated Circuit bus. The module was programmed in Micropython, and the Android app was programmed in Java.

All wireless communication was done through the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport protocol with QoS 1. There was emphasis on keeping the communication;

• lightweight,
• secure,
• tolerant of poor connections,
• scalable for large numbers of devices.

The code is publicly available along with a Pitch Deck for the product.