Project Shock - Other areas of the blog

We have made a few sketches of our product, as can be seen here -

We have also used several websites in our research. These are the websites we have used so far:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcolepsy

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/narcolepsy/detail_narcolepsy.htm

http://www.medicinenet.com/narcolepsy/article.htm

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/400/Motors/1.html

http://www.healthcentral.com/adhd/news-268269-98.html

http://www.instructables.com/answers/How-could-I-make-a-variable-interval-buzzervibrat/

Reflections：

Joshua

I have definitely learnt that IVP is not as easy as I thought it would be. Me and my groupmates have faced many ideas in thinking up ideas for out invention as it is very hard to find something which can suit a large target audience. However, I believe that this project is a good one, and will allow us to go all the way!

Shiguang

Overall, I feel very happy about this project as the project was my idea. However, initially, finding a good idea was very hard. many ideas were rejected. I am sure that we can do well and pass the semi finals.

Yiwen

I do agree that this project has been tough, and many ideas have come and gone. I have learnt that it really is very had to do a good inventions project, and there have also been difficult time constraints and the like, especially with Sec 2 being as difficult as it is. However, this project can help a lot of people, and I'm happy to be working on it.

Group

So far, IVP has indeed been a large challenge. We have come up with many different ideas for the project, yet in the end we had to reject most of them. We have learnt that having an invenHowever, I do believe that this current idea about the vibrating wristband has potential, and this idea can be developed into a good project for the year.

Project Shock

We have finally decided on an idea for our IVP project - a vibrating wristband. As many as 3 million people around the world suffer from a condition called narcolepsy, which causes people to fall asleep at times during the day, regardless of how tired they are. This is a very serious problem because it could cause people to fall asleep during an activity which requires concentration, such as driving. There is also the smaller problem of people potentially falling asleep in an examination or during a meeting.

What we are proposing is a battery-powered vibrating armband which will let off strong vibrations every few minutes or so. This will help in keeping such people awake, and for people who are also tired after, say, only a few hours of sleep can also use this so they can keep awake during classes.

This idea has not been done before, and the only other known way to help narcoleptic people is via drugs such as methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine, methamphetamine, and pemoline. However, whilst these drugs can control the narcolepsy, it results in undesired side effects such as irritability and nervousness, shakiness, disturbances in heart rhythm, stomach upset, nighttime sleep disruption, and anorexia. There is also the risk of addiction to use of these drugs and tolerance to their use, resulting in higher dosages.

Some further benefits are that since it is battery powered, it is rather cheap, and since it is just an armband it is very easy to carry around. This will mean that people will buy our product, especially since it helps them stay awake if they feel very tired or stressed out. As such, we believe our project will be able to help a large amount of people around the world.