Carpal tunnel prevention wearable
February 2025
A wrist device for proactive physical therapy reminders that holds users accountable; MakeHarvard 3rd place overall.
tldr
- Role
- Packaging, electronics and sensor selection · 4-person team · MakeHarvard, Feb 2025
- Built
- Built a wrist wearable that uses an IMU and pressure sensor to track inactivity and physical-therapy exercises, vibrating until the user stretches
- Result
- Team won 3rd place overall at MakeHarvard 2025 with a working wearable prototype
- Tools
- ESP32, 6-DOF IMU, pressure sensor, 9 V-to-3.3 V power, CAD, 3D printing
MakeHarvard was the first time I ever won something at a hackathon. When I landed in Boston with my friend Fillip, we had no plan or idea on what we'd do. We teamed up with Amishi Mittal and Gabriel Nech, arriving at a 'good enough' idea to pursue a few hours in.
After discussing the difficulty of managing carpal tunnel syndrome, we designed proaCTive to solve the unaddressed problem of holding users accountable for their physical therapy. The wearable device used a 6-DOF IMU and a pressure sensor to gauge how sedentary a user was, and to track if they were actually performing their physical therapy exercises. Reminders were presented with vibration at dynamic intervals dependent on activity, and would persist until the user began to stretch.
I was responsible for the device packaging/mounting, electrical design, and sensor selection. Our wearable operated off a 9V battery which was stepped down to 3.3V for the ESP32 and sensors.
We took down 3rd place overall. I made a slide deck for the pitch with renders/more information, which can be found here.
