We have been trying to come up with the best and convenient design for the suction pump add-on. We came up with the idea that we should come up with a circuit that will contain sensors that will transmit and receive light thereby sensing the level of fluid in the bottle.

The recommended sensors are the Ultrasonic sensor and Infrared sensor. The ultrasonic sensor is used to measure distance by transmitting sound waves and then reading the reflected wave from any surface. The infrared Sensor has a transmitter on one side and a receiver on the other end. The receiver gets light from the infrared LED.

We brainstormed about the good housing which is going to be efficient as well as not bulky. We came up with three designs: belt design, stand design and plastic-cover hole design.

I. Belt design
• The belt design would have a transmitting sensor on one end and a receiving sensor on the other end.
• The belt would wrap the bottles that contain the fluids. It is required that the sensors should be aligned so that    the receiver should receive the light and reflect it (light travels in a straight line).

II. Stand design
• We came up with the stand design idea after considering that the bottles need to be cleaned. The stand would be  movable so the sensors will not be affected when cleaning the jars.
III. Bottle-cover hole design
• This design will have a sensor in it which will be put in a hole which will be cut on each bottle.
• The sensor will then sense the level of fluid.
• This is the simplest design but it is not practical because we asked the Biomedical Engineer at Physical Assets Management at QECH who did not recommend the idea.
When we came up with all the designs, I and Emily went to Chatinkha Nursery as well as Chatinkha Operating Theatre to ask the nurses and doctors of their preferred designs. We met one of the nurses who recommended that it is better that we implement the Belt design since it is simple to use as well as not requiring a lot of space. She said that the stand design is also a good one but because of space, it will not be efficient therefore the nurses will be reluctant to use it.