WEBVTT

00:00:00.771 --> 00:00:04.135
What's the fastest growing threat
to Americans' health?

00:00:04.135 --> 00:00:06.973
Cancer? Heart attacks? Diabetes?

00:00:07.603 --> 00:00:09.449
The answer is actually none of these;

00:00:09.449 --> 00:00:11.250
it's Alzheimer's disease.

00:00:11.250 --> 00:00:13.276
Every 67 seconds,

00:00:13.276 --> 00:00:16.221
someone in the United States
is diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

00:00:16.761 --> 00:00:20.149
As the number of Alzheimer's patients
triples by the year 2050,

00:00:20.149 --> 00:00:23.446
caring for them, as well as
the rest of the aging population,

00:00:23.446 --> 00:00:26.005
will become an overwhelming
societal challenge.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:26.585 --> 00:00:28.465
My family has experienced firsthand

00:00:28.465 --> 00:00:30.967
the struggles of caring
for an Alzheimer's patient.

00:00:30.967 --> 00:00:33.107
Growing up in a family
with three generations,

00:00:33.107 --> 00:00:35.262
I've always been very close
to my grandfather.

00:00:35.262 --> 00:00:36.689
When I was four years old,

00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:39.192
my grandfather and I 
were walking in a park in Japan

00:00:39.192 --> 00:00:40.497
when he suddenly got lost.

00:00:40.497 --> 00:00:43.710
It was one of the scariest moments
I've ever experienced in my life,

00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:46.117
and it was also the first
instance that informed us

00:00:46.117 --> 00:00:48.412
that my grandfather
had Alzheimer's disease.

00:00:48.682 --> 00:00:52.025
Over the past 12 years,
his condition got worse and worse,

00:00:52.025 --> 00:00:55.823
and his wandering in particular
caused my family a lot of stress.

00:00:55.823 --> 00:00:57.302
My aunt, his primary caregiver,

00:00:57.302 --> 00:01:00.349
really struggled to stay awake at night
to keep an eye on him,

00:01:00.349 --> 00:01:03.047
and even then often failed
to catch him leaving the bed.

00:01:03.047 --> 00:01:05.858
I became really concerned
about my aunt's well-being

00:01:05.858 --> 00:01:07.599
as well as my grandfather's safety.

00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:11.130
I searched extensively for a solution
that could help my family's problems,

00:01:11.130 --> 00:01:12.490
but couldn't find one.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:15.693
Then, one night about two years ago,

00:01:15.693 --> 00:01:19.158
I was looking after my grandfather
and I saw him stepping out of the bed.

00:01:19.158 --> 00:01:21.150
The moment his foot landed on the floor,

00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:24.412
I thought, why don't I put
a pressure sensor on the heel of his foot?

00:01:24.412 --> 00:01:26.809
Once he stepped onto the floor
and out of the bed,

00:01:26.809 --> 00:01:30.516
the pressure sensor would detect an
increase in pressure caused by body weight

00:01:30.516 --> 00:01:33.971
and then wirelessly send an audible alert
to the caregiver's smartphone.

00:01:33.971 --> 00:01:36.312
That way, my aunt could sleep
much better at night

00:01:36.312 --> 00:01:39.002
without having to worry
about my grandfather's wandering.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:39.002 --> 00:01:42.934
So now I'd like to perform
a demonstration of this sock.

00:01:45.134 --> 00:01:47.802
Could I please have
my sock model on the stage?

00:01:48.831 --> 00:01:50.560
Great.

00:01:52.170 --> 00:01:55.950
So once the patient
steps onto the floor --

00:01:55.950 --> 00:01:57.510
(Ringing) --

00:01:57.510 --> 00:02:00.182
an alert is sent
to the caregiver's smartphone.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:04.571 --> 00:02:06.057
Thank you. (Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:06.057 --> 00:02:09.225
Thank you, sock model.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:12.045 --> 00:02:14.649
So this is a drawing
of my preliminary design.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:15.819 --> 00:02:18.441
My desire to create
a sensor-based technology

00:02:18.441 --> 00:02:21.969
perhaps stemmed from my lifelong love
for sensors and technology.

00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:23.465
When I was six years old,

00:02:23.465 --> 00:02:25.795
an elderly family friend
fell down in the bathroom

00:02:25.795 --> 00:02:27.505
and suffered severe injuries.

00:02:27.505 --> 00:02:29.606
I became concerned
about my own grandparents

00:02:29.606 --> 00:02:31.958
and decided to invent
a smart bathroom system.

00:02:31.958 --> 00:02:35.566
Motion sensors would be installed
inside the tiles of bathroom floors

00:02:35.566 --> 00:02:39.404
to detect the falls of elderly patients
whenever they fell down in the bathroom.

00:02:39.404 --> 00:02:41.416
Since I was only six years old at the time

00:02:41.416 --> 00:02:43.739
and I hadn't graduated
from kindergarten yet,

00:02:43.739 --> 00:02:48.073
I didn't have the necessary resources and 
tools to translate my idea into reality,

00:02:48.073 --> 00:02:50.706
but nonetheless, my research experience

00:02:50.706 --> 00:02:54.957
really implanted in me a firm desire
to use sensors to help the elderly people.

00:02:54.957 --> 00:02:59.573
I really believe that sensors can improve
the quality of life of the elderly.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:00.944 --> 00:03:04.425
When I laid out my plan, I realized
that I faced three main challenges:

00:03:04.425 --> 00:03:06.194
first, creating a sensor;

00:03:06.194 --> 00:03:07.773
second, designing a circuit;

00:03:07.773 --> 00:03:09.519
and third, coding a smartphone app.

00:03:09.519 --> 00:03:12.927
This made me realize that my project
was actually much harder to realize

00:03:12.927 --> 00:03:14.982
than I initially had thought it to be.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:14.982 --> 00:03:18.476
First, I had to create a wearable sensor
that was thin and flexible enough


00:03:18.476 --> 00:03:21.237
to be worn comfortably
on the bottom of the patient's foot.

00:03:21.237 --> 00:03:24.656
After extensive research and testing
of different materials like rubber,

00:03:24.656 --> 00:03:28.191
which I realized was too thick to be worn
snugly on the bottom of the foot,

00:03:28.191 --> 00:03:29.758
I decided to print a film sensor

00:03:29.758 --> 00:03:32.660
with electrically conductive
pressure-sensitive ink particles.

00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:36.236
Once pressure is applied, the connectivity
between the particles increases.

00:03:36.236 --> 00:03:39.200
Therefore, I could design a circuit
that would measure pressure

00:03:39.200 --> 00:03:40.967
by measuring electrical resistance.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:41.267 --> 00:03:44.026
Next, I had to design
a wearable wireless circuit,

00:03:44.026 --> 00:03:47.338
but wireless signal transmission
consumes lots of power

00:03:47.338 --> 00:03:49.101
and requires heavy, bulky batteries.

00:03:49.101 --> 00:03:52.728
Thankfully, I was able to find out
about the Bluetooth low energy technology,

00:03:52.728 --> 00:03:56.251
which consumes very little power
and can be driven by a coin-sized battery.

00:03:56.251 --> 00:03:59.880
This prevented the system
from dying in the middle of the night.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:59.880 --> 00:04:03.343
Lastly, I had to code a smartphone app
that would essentially transform

00:04:03.343 --> 00:04:05.821
the care-giver's smartphone
into a remote monitor.

00:04:05.821 --> 00:04:09.497
For this, I had to expand upon
my knowledge of coding with Java and XCode

00:04:09.497 --> 00:04:12.984
and I also had to learn about how to code
for Bluetooth low energy devices

00:04:12.984 --> 00:04:15.860
by watching YouTube tutorials
and reading various textbooks.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:17.230 --> 00:04:21.019
Integrating these components, I was able
to successfully create two prototypes,

00:04:21.019 --> 00:04:23.347
one in which the sensor
is embedded inside a sock,

00:04:23.347 --> 00:04:25.743
and another that's
a re-attachable sensor assembly

00:04:25.743 --> 00:04:27.949
that can be adhered anywhere
that makes contact

00:04:27.949 --> 00:04:29.782
with the bottom of the patient's foot.

00:04:29.782 --> 00:04:32.682
I've tested the device on my grandfather
for about a year now,

00:04:32.682 --> 00:04:34.593
and it's had a 100 percent success rate

00:04:34.593 --> 00:04:38.089
in detecting the over 900 
known cases of his wandering.

00:04:38.629 --> 00:04:41.052
Last summer, I was able
to beta test my device

00:04:41.052 --> 00:04:43.598
at several residential
care facilities in California,

00:04:43.598 --> 00:04:45.770
and I'm currently incorporating
the feedback

00:04:45.770 --> 00:04:48.733
to further improve the device 
into a marketable product.

00:04:48.733 --> 00:04:50.841
Testing the device on a number of patients

00:04:50.841 --> 00:04:53.350
made me realize that I needed
to invent solutions

00:04:53.350 --> 00:04:56.235
for people who didn't want
to wear socks to sleep at night.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:56.805 --> 00:04:59.630
So sensor data, collected
on a vast number of patients,

00:04:59.630 --> 00:05:01.959
can be useful for improving patient care

00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:04.777
and also leading to a cure
for the disease, possibly.

00:05:04.777 --> 00:05:06.620
For example, I'm currently examining 


00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:09.848
correlations between the frequency
of a patient's nightly wandering

00:05:09.848 --> 00:05:12.714
and his or her daily activities and diet.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:13.854 --> 00:05:16.615
One thing I'll never forget
is when my device first caught

00:05:16.615 --> 00:05:18.833
my grandfather's wandering
out of bed at night.

00:05:18.833 --> 00:05:21.784
At that moment, I was really struck
by the power of technology

00:05:21.784 --> 00:05:23.761
to change lives for the better.

00:05:24.011 --> 00:05:26.131
People living happily and healthfully --

00:05:26.131 --> 00:05:28.156
that's the world that I imagine.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:28.156 --> 00:05:30.216
Thank you very much.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:30.216 --> 00:05:33.526
(Applause)