Loop by Oliver Florek

Loop is a suite of jewellery based devices designed to alleviate the symptoms of Raynaud’s Phenomenon.

Overview

Raynaud’s phenomenon affects up to 10% of the adult population, it causes numbness of extremities. This numbness is caused by a triphasic system of vasoconstriction and vaso-dilation. the symptoms are painful for suffers and can impact on quality of life. The attacks are triggered by stress and changes in temperature (it is most commonly associated with cold).

Operation

Loop aims to alleviate these symptoms by stopping the attacks before they can get too bad. The ring worn skin temperature sensor detects a drop in skin temperature, in turn triggering radiant rewarming from the wrist bands. Radiant warming provides the user with a greater sense of thermal comfort that standard contact warming, this helps to manage the psychological stress aspect of the condition. Furthermore, the warming is pulsed avoiding the user from acclimatising to the heat other the duration of the rewarming. This further accentuates the pleasant sensation of thermal comfort from the devices. As well as thermal comfort, Loop using biofeedback in the form of a subtle LED display and haptic motors to visualise the rewarming process, further helping to manage the attacks. As Raynaud’s affects each individual differently, the devices learn about how the user reacts to cold and how the attacks affect the hands. By sensing initially a 10% drop the device can efficiently predict the onset of an attack. By using the accompanying app the user can notify the device when attacks do happen, helping the device learn the associated physiological sign of an attack.

How it works

A 4 watt polyamide heating element sits within each of the custom fit wrist bands, this is powered by a 7.6 volt 500mAh battery. The heating element sits against the internal machined aluminium casing radiating over the back of the hand. The ring has a small thermocouple which sits against the aluminium casing monitoring skin temperature, this communicated via Bluetooth LE to the bands and a paired mobile device. The ring itself is powered by a compact 120mAh battery curved to the contour of the finger. Both devices charge wirelessly using Qi Induction via a portable charger. This itself has a 6000mAh battery providing up to 5 full recharges for both devices and ring, as well as any other device through a USB port on the side. The charger can be recharged via a separate micro-USB or simply powered via mains from the micro-USB.

Custom fit

The wrist bands are custom fit to each user. This is achieved using scan data acquired through a separate app. Photogrammetry is used to scan the users wrists and finger, though which custom outer casings can be manufactured with nylon SLS.. Due to the one off nature of the devices, near unlimited customisation options are available to the user including different anodised finishes for the aluminium casings and various designs of the outer SLS casing.

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