Problem Statement
Each year hundreds of thousands of Americans suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. To increase survival rates, it is imperative to apply an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) as soon as possible. But all too often, the location of the nearest AED is unknown and poorly marked.
As a term-long project, my group tasked ourselves with solving this problem and developing a fast and efficient way to direct necessary persons to the nearest AED in the event of an emergency. At the end of the term, we presented our solution to a board of engineers and were evaluated on our design process, presentation, and final prototype. The prototype presented serves as a proof of concept, which can be further polished in future phases of the project.
Solution
Our solution was to utilize a system of highly visible directional signs to guide users to and from the nearest AED. A survey of the building would be done to figure out the optimal placement of each sign and to designate the positions of each AED. When set up, the signs utilize a graph theory algorithm to determine the shortest path between the medical event and the nearest AED and bright LED indicators would light up to guide any bystanders.