Anthony Hon Rose Hills
Hot Car Studies - Prevention of Vehicular Heatstroke
Young children trapped in a car without adult supervision may suffer life-threatening complications such as hyperthermia and heat stroke from extreme temperatures—which may rise to 130 °F in some cases. Our research aims to ascertain child presence within two to three minutes of unsupervised activity by probing increases in the levels of carbon dioxide emitted during human exhalation. Non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensors are employed to measure car carbon dioxide concentrations every two seconds. Specific numerical metrics are then derived from the data, and the presence of a child can be predicted with a simple logistic regression algorithm. Preliminary data acquisition is in progress to evaluate the accuracy and feasibility of this NDIR-enabled method, using a single adult passenger as a representative situation. Models for carbon dioxide increase and carbon dioxide diffusion are currently being developed to supplement and confirm trends in our measurements. Currently, the gathered data seems promising, yielding algorithms with accuracies up to 80%.
Message To Sponsor
Thank you so much for funding my project! My research, while it's not the most technical and complicated, will hopefully be the start of a new form of child detection that's going to be more and more crucial as temperatures rise globally. Being able to work on my research unhindered by a lot of my financial worries is a great opportunity. Once again, thank you for contributing and furthering my research experience and the SURF program.