Avoiding sudden death

1993/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

An eighteen-year-old invented a device capable of preventing the sudden death of children. The success contest organized by the British Industrial Confederation involved 4,000 inventors, but the prize went to Colin Paton for 3,000,000 pesetas or 150,000 pounds.

According to official statistics, 1,134 children died in the UK in 1991. When her sister was born seven weeks before her time, Colin Paton decided to develop her research.

Since then, Patón has continuously improved its control device in its leisure time. According to their estimates, 12,000 pesetas. or the price of the device would be 600 pounds (remember that the current ones are 8 times more expensive). According to Paton, the electronics of your device is very basic and also makes the assembly by hand.

The operating system is as follows: “In the belly of the child a bag with foam is glued by velcro. Breathing the child moves the stomach out and into. Through these movements, the air trapped in the foam is driven by a 60 cm tube to the device located at the edge of the cradle. This device is similar to the remote control unit of the TV (variable capacitor) and in it there is a sensor.

Thus, the air that reaches the device becomes a signal. Amplifying this signal, the system analyzes the time interval between the harnesses. If this time is equal to or greater than 15 seconds, that is, if the child remains without breathing more than 15 seconds, the alarm is activated."

After this time, if the child starts breathing, the signal that is heard is inactive, but the auditory signal remains active so that parents know that the child has had breathing problems.