WaveSense

Design (Illustration)
Design (Illustration)

Inspiration

A tragic drowning incident in my apartment, where a child lost his life due to a delayed response, highlighted the urgent need for a solution to prevent such accidents. This heartbreaking event brought the issue to light and inspired me to develop a system that could help save lives

What it does

WaveSense is a smart band designed to improve water safety by immediately alerting authorities and family members in the event of a drowning incident. It works on the principle that the human heart drastically slows down during drowning (bradycardia) . It detects distress by monitoring heart rate patterns using the MAX30100 pulse sensor. Upon detection of decreasing heart rate, the system instantly sends an SMS alert, including the wearer's exact GPS location to designated contacts, ensuring swift intervention. This solution aligns with SDG 3 by promoting good health and well-being through advanced drowning prevention technology.

How we built it

The key components used in this project are -

ESP32 :- It is the central microcontroller handling data processing and communication
MAX30100 pulse sensor :- It moniters the heart rate to detect distress
Ublox Neo-6M GPS module :- It provides real-time location tracking
HTML – Provides the structural foundation and semantic layout of the web app.
CSS – Used extensively for custom styling, responsive design, and creating visually distinct sections using variables, shadows, and layout grids.
JavaScript – Powers interactivity and multimedia support, including the background video.
Google Fonts (Inter) – Ensures a clean and readable typographic experience across devices.

Challenges we ran into

Ensuring the MAX30100 pulse sensor is accurately calibrated, and is able to detect a critical heart rate drop flawlessly while differentiating it from normal activity
Transmitting SMS alerts and GPS location with minimal delay for swift response
Overcoming the challenge of signal transmission through water
Making the grid-based layout adapt cleanly across various screen sizes, especially for the 3-column component and stats sections
Ensuring cross-browser consistency of the website for identical experience experience across browsers

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully built a virtual working simulation of the project on WOWKI
Developed a fully functional code for the system and started the hardware assembly
Built a Website using HTML, CSS and Javascript to visually demonstrate the idea
Had meaningful conversations with people who believed this idea is capable of saving lives
Winner in HackEMinds 2025
Winner of Best Overall project in HawkHacks 2025
Top 5 in CodePi 2025.1
Winner in Innovision 2025, Hosted at DPS Kolar

What we learned

The application of technology in life threatening situations
Gained practical experience in working with pulse sensors and the pulsesensor playground library and its real-world applications
Developed a deeper understanding of heart rate monitoring and its significance in life saving scenarios
Developed knowledge of building a Website and demonstrating the idea with clarity
Learned how to read GPS coordinates and determine precise locations through triangulation
Increase in patience and resilience

What's next for WaveSense

Ability to detect other heart related conditions
Direct communication with hospitals in order to decrease response time
Improving ability to function over extended periods of time
Improving the system’s waterproofing for real world usage
Exploring more reliable sensors for improved accuracy and efficiency
Collaborating with NGOs to manufacture this solution and make it accessible to families in need