InvEasy

Inspiration (Abstract)

Patient adherence is one of the major concerns providers of invisible aligners face today. Many patients either wear their aligners less than the required twenty-two hours per day or don’t properly size down throughout the progression. This creates conflict when patients inevitably complain about insufficient results at the end of their treatment, hurting the provider’s credibility and potentially leading to financial disputes. Our smart invisible aligner helps providers who want to improve patient adherence by tracking and displaying usage data, which it collects by scanning the case's contents for an aligner with a distinct color code. These data are then sent out via Bluetooth, where the provider, user, and potentially a parent can view their progress. During periods of improper behavior, flags are triggered and sent to the concerned parties, allowing for information transparency and early intervention.

What it does

Tracks the amount of time the aligner has been out of use/in use. Provides real time feedback and scans the aligner to determine which model is being used.

How we built it

We 3D-printed a case using a Solidworks model and outfitted it with our hardware, which included a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a picamera, two LED's, and a push button. This allowed us to collect the data and broadcast it to the connected mobile phone, where it was sent to Firebase and broadcast on the web app.

Challenges we ran into

The inter-operability of the multiple components of our project was not as seamless as expected. We had to switch out components multiple times before getting something that worked as a cohesive system.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting everything working together at a size that could fit in the case was a great achievement for us.

What we learned

Theory and practice are miles apart. It's important to read the fine print and think ahead before ordering any parts. It won't guarantee that everything will work, but it will save effort down the line.