Students at the University of Calgary create an impairment-detecting headset
Science, meet engineering.
About 150 students from both disciplines spent the weekend creating innovative projects to solve challenges in the health-care system, including an impairment-detecting headset in the era of legal cannabis, a portable device to protect the brains of stroke patients by restricting blood supply and an app linking patients to mental-health resources in times of crisis.
“The clinicians and the scientists know what the problems are but they don’t know how to fix them, whereas the engineers have all the skills and tools to fix them but they don’t know what the issues are. Bringing them together is our way of addressing these challenges,†said Kristina Komarek, spokeswoman for the Neuro Nexus hackathon at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering.
Wyatt Cole is one of six team members building the impairment-detecting headset.
He said the current methods of assessing impairment, such as blood or urine tests, have been fraught with some controversy because they can’t show the level of a person’s impairment, since drugs and alcohol affect people differently.
“What our device seeks to do is to actually create an objective measurement through the use of brain waves,†he said.
The project is based on a previous study that showed a specific brain signal differed when people were intoxicated by cannabis. So far, the team has tested the electrodes on one person and received viable data. They are now developing a script, which shows the difference in brain waves when someone is impaired.
Ultimately, the headset would identify minimal to maximum impairment in a person, both in terms of drug use and fatigue.
In particular, Cole said it would a useful device for the trucking industry, which uses driving logs to determine if someone is fit to work. However, these logs only clock hours on the road and don’t take into account if someone slept before their shift or were under the influence. Use of the headset would determine if they were too tired, or high, to hit the road.
The prototypes will be showcased at a competition on Monday where $17,500 will be awarded to winning innovations.
Teams will present their projects to industry professionals and community members at the Calgary Central Library from noon until 4 p.m.