MeCoo

Menopausal Care for All.

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Inspiration

Menopause is a big part of a woman's journey during which there are many physical and biological changes. These changes can cause hot flashes, mood swings, irregular periods, cramps, excessive sweating, chills, and fainting.

There are not many resources available for addressing these issues. The hormonal therapies are very expensive and have harmful side effects. The limited technologies available currently are extremely expensive, and hence not accessible by many individuals who simply cannot afford it.

We created Mecoo to help provide accessible relief from hot flashes.

What it does

Our bracelet is designed to measure and record data related to hot flashes experienced by menopausal women. By connecting a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor to a microcontroller and attaching the setup to the bracelet, Mecoo measures the body temperature, and humidity of the wearer and feeds it to the mobile app. The app becomes an accurate and complete database of the wearer's hot flash incidences which they can present to their physicians for assessments and treatment recommendations.

Mecoo also has the novel ability to provide cooling effect and brining down the body temperature of the wearer when the experience a hot flash. It is supposed to use a semiconductor cooling chip for serving the purpose, but because of time and resource constraints, we are currently using a fan for representation of the function. The user can use the mobile app to instruct the bracelet semiconductor to start cooling, or they can use the push button provided on the bracelet.

A rapid solution to a randomly occurring health issue.

How we built it

We used Arduino programming to create a working model of the device. We are able to track the temperature and humidity of the wearer and display the recordings on a LCD screen. It also sends the information to the app for storage so that the user can view it at any time.

Using the Android Studio, we programmed an Android Mobile Application that the user can use to view their temperature and humidity readings and also instruct the device to start cooling.

We also made use of CAD design software to create a 3D prototype of our bracelet. It is designed to be seamless, so that women don't feel self-conscious when wearing it. The simple and elegant design can easily blend into their outfit and is perfect for every occasion. By using small metal rings in the design, we are making it more breathable and lightweight as compared to silicon or leather straps. The metal is all weather corrosion resistant. The compact design allows free wrist movement.

Challenges we ran into

It was the first time for all of us to code using Android Studio, so we had to first learn before writing the code. But because we wanted our app and device to be available to women from all backgrounds, and wanted to make it cheap we were determined to make it for Android devices.

We originally planned to include a semiconductor cooling pad to our device for serving the key function of bringing down the body temperature of the wearer on the incidence of a hot flash and providing a calming effect.

The bracelet design is compact but the current circuit is quite big given the time and fund constraints. Small microcontrollers would be required for making the functional device smaller, but they are not easily available and have less connection points.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

By creating Mecoo we are proud of being able to provide a solution to a severe problem faced by women all over the world. Embracing feminism and being confident and comfortable about addressing an issue that is not usually talked about is something that we are proud of.

Making a working prototype, a 3D Design, and coding a mobile app; delivering an elaborate complete package within time is an achievement in itself.

This was the first technical hackathon for all our team members and we are happy to have taken this big first step in our coding journey. We are glad to be here, and to meet everyone who’s interested in coding, designing, and solving problems.

What we learned

Researching on the problems related to menopause and their symptoms, we learned a lot about the challenges faced by women, the biology, and physiology associated with it. Because all of us are newbies to the world of coding, we were able to enhance our knowledge and learn totally new concepts and even new coding languages for our project.

We also learnt that technology can increasingly aid in creating solutions for problems in every field.

Communicating our ideas and opinions to the group members whom we met for the first time, helped us develop our personalities.

What's next for Mecoo

  1. Using the collected data and tracking patterns using Machine Learning to make predictions about possible hot flashes, mood swings, anxiety attacks and more.
  2. Adding more sensors to track heart rate and blood oxygen saturation to collect more data that can help in making better predictions.
  3. Develop features to address other menopausal symptoms such as Brain fog, mood swings, and loss of appetite.
  4. Use the microchips to design our own PCB.
  5. Customizing electronic components.

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