I have been busy researching and figuring out my Headache Tracking – Physical Computing project. Today, I had a mind-blowing conversation with Eric Rosenthal. It probably wasn’t very mind-blowing for him. But I left blown away. There are so many awesome things I can do with this project! Therefore, mind-blown.
It’s probably lucky that I think a) light and b) cameras are interesting and have a background in photography as it is definitely going to be helpful in making this project happen.
As I suspected, I will need to measure light as it relates to human perception. Luckily, AMS-TAOS makes sensors/chips that measure illuminance as it relates to human vision. However, human perception of light is beyond what any sensor currently available can measure. This is also a factor in photography, as the human eye can perceive degrees of lightness/darkness beyond what consumer cameras can capture (typically 5-7 stops without losing detail – thinking to Ansel Adam’s Zone System.)
Luckily, and this is my very basic understanding of it, but apparently you can take some of the AMS chips and use the Arduino to increase or decrease the range captured depending on the ambient light conditions. That’s pretty cool!
While I will be able to capture the intensity of light in a room with these chips, and (I think the amount) as perceived by humans, these chips will not capture wavelength. For that, I will need to make a spectroscope that I attach to my iPhone. Basically, when you pass white light through a prism and/or diffraction grating, you get a rainbow effect where you can see all the wavelengths that make up the light (i.e. the colors). Apparently I can build a spectroscope and use it with an iPhone camera and Processing to analyze the wavelengths that make up the light! spectraSnapp (mobile app) will teach me how to make a spectroscope that can be used with my iPhone.
And lastly, Eric Rosenthal posed a great question:
Once I have my sensors and expose someone to light, how will I measure when this person is getting a headache? will I measure by heart rate? stress level? blood oxygen level?
I will admit this question threw me for a loop, as I don’t know if it is possible to sense the moment when something is changing in my brain and I am getting a headache. But it makes sense that I should be able to sense this in some way perhaps?
I was under this idea that I would track everything about my health along with when I get headaches, and then make subjective conclusions. But it would be great to sense when I am getting a headache too, and what that might look like within my body and brain. I am about to turn in to one giant medical experiment!
So how do I accomplish this aspect of the project? Eric mentioned there is an ITP student named Rose who is creating a helmet sensor that measures stress levels in the body (I believe captured by blood changes in the brain). Other ways I might capture this information:
- Blood oximeter: measures heart rate and blood oxygen (this is what is measured when you are at the doctor’s office). Blood oxygen levels change when you are sick. So it turns out nurses aren’t just measuring nothing and wasting your time on your way to see the doctor.
- Philips Vital Signs Camera app analyzes your image in order to ascertain heart rate and breathing rate. Apparently the MIT Media Lab published all of the formulas/algorithms and it is possible I could create this app on my own using Processing. Amazing!
- Heart Rate app measures heart rate by using your camera to illuminate your finger and read the color change. And, apparently it is possible to do something like this on my own using an LED and photo cell.
I have a lot of research ahead of me, and many new aspects of this project to explore. I am also anxious to read “The Migraine Brain: Imaging Structure and Function.” Hopefully NYU is going to pull through and get me a copy soon!
