VietNamNet Bridge – Two high school students in the northern province of Ninh Binh have invented a smart chair for disabled people, reported Vietnam News Agency.

Hung (right) and Tan with his product. – thieunienvn Photo

Cao Nguyen Hung and Nguyen Dinh Nhat Tan, 12th-grade students of Hoa Lu A High School, made a multi-purpose chair to help those without limb mobility move, eat, take medicine and alert their relatives to danger via the internet.

According to Hung, they came up with the idea to help his mother, as her legs were broken in an accident which forced her sit in one place.

 “I studied, designed and programmed the product with the help of my friend Nguyen Dinh Nhat Tan”, Hung said.

“The product made the care and monitoring of patients simpler”, said Hung.

“Even remote carers can interact with their patients through the internet”, added the student.

The bed named I.o.T has two basic systems.

The first includes a bed frame, lifting and moving motors, cleaning mode, an eating table with lifting and rotating parts, and a robot arm.

The second system is the control circuit including a computer and manual network control mode, heart rate sensor button and camera.

The operation mechanism of I.o.T is very simple as the user controls the bed manually or by the control panel via the internet.

For those who can use their hands, they can use the control panel to move, eat food, take medicine and measure blood pressure by themselves.

For those without the ability to move their limbs, their family members can access a webpage to control the chair. 

Through the web the carers can give patients water or medicine or feed them with the robot arm.

The internet connection also helps patients send and receive warnings or alerts to and from their family members via email.

Tan said: "A special feature of the I.o.T bed is that it’s designed to be intergrated with an ecting table, water bottle and medicine box so that it makes patients comfortable".

"Besides, we also integreated an infrared sensor to keep the table, faucet head and funnel to the pre-set distance to avoid causing danger to the patient," said Tan.

“If the patient wants to drink water, he or she will use a slight force of the tongue to apply the ball at the nozzle to drink. And when the patient wants to take medicine, they just put their mouth to the top of the funnel, the infrared sensor sends the signal to the motor to release the drug according to the preset quantity or type”, the student said.

The two high school students are studying the possibility of adding more functions to the smart chair for the disabled. — VNA/VNS Photo Hai Yen

The initiative of the two students won the first prize in the province-level Science and Technology Contest for High School Students in 2018-19 in the field of robots and smart computers.

The product was selected to attend the National Science and Technology Contest which will take place next month.

Nguyen Manh Tu, the physics teacher of Hung and Tan, said: “Hung and Tan both loved science and technology creation and they are very smart.

“In just two months, the two students completed the product”, he said.

Next time, the two inventors plan to complete the bed designs with new features such as a massage pads for patients to relax and put voice into the bed control panel to improve products and make disabled persons more comfortable, the teacher added. 

Hai Yen

Source: VNS