BreathEZ: Using smartwatches to improve choking first aid

Abstract

Choking first aid is an important tool for all individuals as choking is the cause of nearly 5000 deaths per year in the US. Normally for incidents like this, the local emergency medical services (EMS) could be relied up on to respond and provide necessary lifesaving aid. The average EMS response time is almost eight minutes and someone choking only has four to six minutes before permanent brain damage occurs. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) trained individuals are often also trained in choking first aid for this very reason, though relying on bystanders presents its own problem. Many individuals assume others will be more qualified to help and therefore will not involve themselves, a psychological phenomenon known as the bystander effect. In order to combat this problem, we present BreathEZ, a smartwatch application that provides both choking first aid instruction and real-time tactile and visual feedback on the quality of the abdominal thrust compressions. To the best of our knowledge, prior to this there has been no feedback device developed that targets choking first aid. BreathEZ uses the onboard accelerometer on an Android smartwatch to identify an abdominal thrust and measure the peak acceleration. It then analyzes the data collected and provides feedback on the quality of the thrust to the user.