HOLMDEL – Plastic drinking straws and middle finger rings have never been put to better use than in one teenager’s scientific invention.
Holmdel High School senior Shayna Ahteck, 17, has been chosen for inclusion in the next round of the Regeneron Science Talent Search after her knack for innovation was acknowledged on a national scale.
Shayna is among 300 high school seniors who will move forward in the competition, with her project “A Novel Low Cost Resistive Soft Crochet Stretch Sensors as Applied to a Wearable Bluetooth Keyboard Text Input Device – midiKEY.”
According to its website, “The Regeneron Science Talent Search is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science competition for high school seniors, providing an important forum for original research that is recognized and reviewed by a national jury of professional scientists.”
In an interview at the high school on Jan. 18, Shayna said if she is selected to move forward to the final round of judging, she will head to Washington, D.C., in March and compete for $1.8 million in prizes.
The competition dates to 1942. Shayna said she is the first student from Holmdel to earn recognition in the national talent search that analyzes and critiques scholastic inventions.
“I have a strong passion for science,” Shayna said. “I was cultured by a lot of my teachers in earlier science courses. I brought this together in my honors advanced research class. In that class, I learned to take all the classroom materials I use in my normal science courses and put them together, concepts, research, to form a more complicated project that produces something new.”
Her project, a wearable sensor Shayna said she designed herself, uses a LilyPad Arduino microcontroller that is attached to conductive thread crochet chains as sensors.
The sensors are stretched to sit comfortably below each top knuckle, which are fastened by stainless steel middle finger rings, allowing for full mobility of an individual’s hand.
Clear plastic straws cover the length of the sensors while the strings from cell phone charms connect finger rings to the sensors along an individual’s fingers.
As an individual makes specific gestures with their fingers, the gestures that are previously programmed to transmit keyboard characters allow an individual to type in the air without the use of a keyboard, Shayna said.
The device that is connected to a Bluetooth chip uses Bluetooth signals to send characters in the form of letters, numbers and symbols to a smart device, she said. The characters will appear on a device to which it is wirelessly connected.
“The conductive thread is made out of stainless steel fibers,” Shayna said. “The way that crochet works is that it creates loops out of a single piece of thread, which to me was analogous to a wire.
“The geometry of the loops, when you stretch it, it shapes and it shrinks, always going back to its original size … If you put a certain current through it, the voltage will change and that can be read by devices such as a micro controller. (The device) reads different voltages from each of its analog chords and from there I have programming from which sensors are being activated,” she said.
In order to transmit letters, numbers and characters to a compatible device, Shayna said “the stretching activates the controller.” However, she said the gestures needed to activate each programmed character needs to be memorized.
“For example, if I had my index and middle finger pulled down, (the device) would analyze that I have two signals and note what character that is mapped to, which may be the letter ‘A’ in this case,” she said. “There are still a few obstacles when integrating it fully.”
Having the option to type without the use of a keyboard, Shayna said, allows individuals to interact with their devices in way they do not usually use them.
“With time, practice and adoption, people with good dexterity can learn how to type with that system,” she said.
Ahtech said she believes the device has the potential, once it is 100 percent finished and functional, to be marketed to consumers. However, the device would need to be customized to fit an individual’s hand size, she continued.
“There are a lot of glove technologies on the market today, like the Nintendo Power Glove … I thought gloves like these were too bulky,” Shayna said, noting her design is lightweight and crafted to resemble fashion jewelry.
“I thought, why can’t we make something that is integrative in life and minimally intrusive?” she continued.
She said she has worn the device for an entire day in order to assess whether it was bothersome when conducting daily tasks.
Shayna said she believes the device can serve dual purposes, noting that the wearable technology could also be used as a medical rehabilitation device for patients with hand injuries.
“I was taking an anatomy class and we were doing a unit on muscles and tendons. These sensors kind of model an external tendon. If there were to be such a device, it could be connected to someone who may be regaining their hand strength.
“While they are doing physical therapy, the amount of stretching in the sensor could be read … A physical therapist can use that feedback to see if the person is developing the correct hand strength,” Shayna said.
Shayna said the device could also be used by visually impaired individuals who do not use a keyboard. She described the device as a “tactile” way to communicate at all times.
Josephine Blaha, who teaches Shayna’s honors advanced research course, described her student as the epitome of academic excellence who is a role model to her peers.
“She is amazing. I wish I could clone her,” Blaha said.