Hand In Harmony

Hand in Harmony is an interactive rehabilitation tool that assists people with recovery from motor and coordination challenges. We use music as a fun and stimulating way to aid their recovery!

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💡 Inspiration 💡

Music has always been inspirational in our lives, it breaks down barriers and unifies people all around the world. The combination of harmony and sound stimulates brain activity. We wanted to use this as a method of helping people overcome physical challenges in a fun and interactive way. These physical obstacles may be caused by various medical conditions such as stroke, dyspraxia, and pathological changes with the brain. That is why we created Hand in Harmony, an assistive musical tool designed specifically for those with motor and coordination challenges.

⚙️ What it does ⚙️

Hand in Harmony is a (musical) glove that can be used to play up to a scale of six notes. LEDs at the end of each finger will light up based on the note being played. This assists the user in recognizing what direction or motion they are performing. Different notes are played depending on the rotation of the gloves in the X,Y, and Z directions. Up to six different notes can be played on one glove and programmable to be any of your choice. Get to jamming 🎵

⚒️ How we built it 😏

Hand in Harmony was built using: MOD-MPU6050, a sensor with an accelerometer and gyroscope Arduino UNO to control logic, input, and outputs Assembled with a breadboard, wires, and resistors Arduino Library to call data from our sensors Coded in C++ using Arduino IDE

🗻 Challenges we ran into 😲

During the Make-a-thon we faced several issues including:

  • Figuring out how to wire everything onto the breadboard and glove, due to the gloves small size and large number of connections
  • Countless issues with using unfamiliar sensors and technologies. Having to find data sheets for all the parts and using them in the correct way
  • Lack of resources issues. Due to not having as many materials as we expected, we had to adjust our plan and design to effectively utilize what we did have on hand

😀 Accomplishments that we're proud of 🏆

What we’re proud of:

  • Exploring + learning new sensors and technologies
  • Constructing a working prototype and expanding upon it
  • Debugging (most) of our problems
  • Collaboration and teamwork!

📚 What we learned 🤔

What we learned while working on Hand in Harmony:

  • How to use new hardware parts such as transistors and accelerometer
  • Creating a hardware projects comes with a lot of unseen circumstances
  • The skills to translate ideas into reality
  • Teamwork and friendship <3

⏭️ What's next for Hand In Harmony 👀

We have countless ideas to improve upon Hand in Harmony. Firstly, although the large Arduino speaker was the best option available to us, it still vastly lacks the level of sound quality that we desire. Thus, an upgrade to a higher quality speaker would be our first priority. Secondly, is the inclusion of the other hand. Due to the lack of available parts, we were only able to physically create our idea for one hand, although we had originally designed for two. This would provide rehabilitation for both hands. Next, we want to reduce the bulk of our prototypes. Even though Hand in Harmony aims to make rehabilitation fun for those with motor and coordination issues, the hefty bulk of the device makes it somewhat unwieldy. Tuning down the weight by switching to smaller batteries is an immediate improvement we can make. Finally, the addition of an assistive motor would decrease the amount of force the patient must assert to use the device, thereby making it more practical.

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