Savior Sleeve

Close-up of Savior Sleeve on user.
Savior Sleeve on the arm of a user.

Inspiration

Savior Sleeve was inspired by the growing smart fashion and wearable technology industry, as well as the need for more creative medical and recovery-focused applications of these devices. The idea was also inspired by the recent injury of a friend of several team members, which made us realize how primitive casts and recovery technology can feel compared to the wearable technology available today.

What it does

Savior Sleeve is a high-tech wearable sleeve that tracks heart rate, range of motion, and arm strength. It measures heart rate using a heartbeat sensor, tracks arm bending and flexibility through a rubber band resistor mechanism, and estimates pressure/strength through a pressure sensor placed on the top of the forearm.

How we built it

Savior Sleeve was built using a breadboard and an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, along with a heartbeat sensor, pressure sensor, and rubber band resistor mechanism.

The sleeve itself is not a traditional compression sleeve. It was made from an upcycled, repurposed pair of leggings from a local Westwood thrift store. This helped demonstrate Savior Sleeve’s potential for versatile fashion design while also reflecting our commitment to sustainability.

Challenges we ran into

Savior Sleeve was initially planned to include a muscle sensor. However, due to issues with soldering availability and part availability, we were unable to implement it during the hackathon. A muscle sensor would have allowed us to track muscle use and muscle strength more directly over time.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We are proud that all three sensors work using only one microcontroller and one breadboard, making the entire device simple and plug-and-play.

We are also proud that Savior Sleeve does not require any additional software downloads because tracking can be done live through the website we built.

What we learned

We learned how to control and display hardware data through a website in order to reduce the need for customer downloads. We also learned how to approach fashion from a health, accessibility, and equity perspective, and how to use the ESP32-S3 microcontroller to connect multiple sensors into one wearable system.

What’s next for Savior Sleeve

Savior Sleeve may return in another hackathon or continue as a side project. Ideally, we want to keep developing it as a high-tech wearable hobby project, with future improvements including Bluetooth support for wireless connectivity, a more refined sleeve design, and eventually stronger muscle tracking capabilities.