During the last few months of the year, we undertook a project under STEM II. The goal of the project was to engineer an assistive device for a client or the general community. This was a group project during which I worked with Kyle Klamka, Ashwina Bangari, and Naga Vikram.
Dehydration is a major issue within the US and beyond. The average American only drinks 20 ounces of water each day. But did you know that the ideal daily intake for the average American is about 90 ounces? This is 4.5 times the typical intake! In fact, 75% of people in the United States are chronically dehydrated. Symptoms of dehydration include lethargy, dizziness, accelerated aging, weakened immune systems, and even death.
Our approach to this issue was to make a water bottle that’s able to track your daily water intake! To do this, we brainstormed three designs: a weight sensor, an infrared sensor, and capacitive sensors. We decided to use capacitive sensors because our proposed design would work with any fluid and would be relatively simple to implement.
Our final prototype (left) had its structure 3D-printed using PLA. The main components include the inner casing, outer casing, cap, and circuit base.
The inner casing holds an array of screws which are wired to capacitive sensing pins on an ESP32 board in the circuit base. The circuit base is also equipped with a rechargeable battery. We’re able to extend the life of this battery using metal contacts at the lip in the bottle and a copper wire in the cap. When the cap is placed on the bottle, the circuit is completed, which activates the sensing capabilities of the bottle.