A Smart Wearable Gadget for Noninvasive Detection and Notification of Diaper Moister

Wearing a wet diaper for a long time can be uncomfortable and cause health issues such as diaper rash. The best way to avoid diaper rash is to change the diaper often and as soon as possible after the baby urinates or passes stool. Daycare caregivers or parents sometimes forget or do not have time to manually check the diaper condition of the babies throughout the day. In this age of smart devices, many people are busy with their cell phones or tablets for social networking, texting, gaming, music etc. In this project, a novel wearable gadget is developed which sends an automatic notification to caregivers smart devices whenever the baby urinates. The proposed wearable detects urination event noninvasively by sensing the temperature rise on the outer surface of the diaper. The gadget is a small size, low power, low cost and reusable electronic device that is attached externally to the outer surface of the diaper using hook-and-Ioop fasteners. The gadget can be used with any disposable diaper, thus no change in the diaper production process or price increase is required. The smartphone app logs the urination events and creates databases and reports. This record can facilitate treating disease such as dehydration, where accurate previous records of urination are required. A prototype of the hardware gadget and a smartphone app is developed and tested.