Brian’s Color Sensor Project is a Light-to-Sound Alarm for his Optune Device #cancer
Brian from Brian’s Workbench was recently on Show-and-Tell (2016/04/20 episode) and showed off his homemade light sensor project, built to remind him to power on his novocure Optune device (it’s the battery, the computer, and the bag itself, in the image below – the LiPo battery, mini piezo, and components in the clear tube are Brian’s “add on” project). The Optune device is intended to track GBM4, or glioblastoma multiforme, a type of brain cancer (thus the ‘netting’ on his head in the Show-and-Tell video). Sometimes forgetting to turn on the unit after a power cycle, Brian cobbled together his “add on” that tracks the light from the Optune device and beeps if it isn’t on. It’s a really smart use of the TCS34725 RGB color sensor and I really appreciate Brian sharing this personal health project both on our Hangouts on Air and on his blog. Hopefully this inspires other makers with health issues to consider ways to use technology to improve their health-tracking needs.
You can view some videos about the Optune device and GBM4 treatment on this page. And read more about Brian’s project and track his progress here on his blog.
Featured Adafruit Products!
RGB Color Sensor with IR filter and White LED – TCS34725: Your electronics can now see in dazzling color with this lovely color light sensor. We found the best color sensor on the market, the TCS34725, which has RGB and Clear light sensing elements. An IR blocking filter, integrated on-chip and localized to the color sensing photodiodes, minimizes the IR spectral component of the incoming light and allows color measurements to be made accurately. The filter means you’ll get much truer color than most sensors, since humans don’t see IR. The sensor also has an incredible 3,800,000:1 dynamic range with adjustable integration time and gain so it is suited for use behind darkened glass. Read more.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
