DeepLink

DeepLink, powered by LoRa & Starlink, brings an AI-driven health monitoring belt to rural communities. Doctors, family, or 911 are alerted when AI flags risk. It saves lives when every second counts.

Comment

Inspiration

Growing up, I witnessed friends and family in remote regions struggle to access timely medical care. In places where a clinic is hours away and reliable internet is spotty at best, even changes in blood-oxygen levels or heartbeat can go unnoticed until it’s too late. We wanted to create something that brings hospital-grade vigilance to rural communities: something lightweight and affordable that works off-grid. That spark became DeepLink, an AI-driven wearable that connects hearts to doctors, loved ones, and emergency services, no matter where you are.

What it does

  • Always-On Monitoring
    Continuously tracks vital signs (O₂ saturation, heart–rate trends) using low-power sensors.
  • Edge-AI Triage
    An ML model on the belt classifies readings into Healthy or detects conditions like Hypoxemia, Tachycardia, Bradycardia, HeartSpike, O₂ Anomaly, or Sleep Apnea every few seconds even without internet.
  • Seamless Rural Connectivity
    Uses LoRa protocol to hop data across village gateways, and Starlink backhaul to the cloud, so no one is left offline.
  • Multi-Tier Alerts
    1. Stable → periodic “Stable” ping to the doctor’s dashboard
    2. Caution → instant SMS to family or carers
    3. Critical → automated voice call to *911 *
  • Doctor Oversight & Historical Trends
    All data streams into a lightweight dashboard where physicians can review real-time charts, set custom thresholds, and analyze week-long patterns for early intervention.

How we built it

  1. Hardware & Dev Boards

    • Micro:bit as an ultra-low-power proof-of-concept and demo platform
    • ESP32 for Wi-Fi prototyping and real-time data uplink
    • Arduino for connecting smart home devices to the cloud

  2. Connectivity Layer

  3. UART → LoRa: Belt MCU sends data via UART to the LoRa radio for long-range transmission.

  4. LoRa Relay: Gateways receive data via LoRa and forward it onward across the network.

  5. UART → WiFi: Gateways take the LoRa-received data and pass it via UART to WiFi for internet/Starlink backhaul.

  6. AI & Software

    • Languages & Frameworks: C#, JavaScript, PHP, C, Python, Wolfram, MySQL
    • ML Stack: TensorFlow, NumPy, scikit-learn
    • Model Architecture: LSTM-based time-series predictor

  7. Backend & Dashboard

    • API & Server: Pure PHP backend handling authentication, ingesting LoRa data, and triggering alert workflows.

Challenges we ran into

  • Hardware Debugging
  • Communication Protocols: Orchestrating UART↔LoRa↔UART↔WiFi handoffs
  • Interoperability: Harmonizing diverse dev-boards (ESP32, Arduino, Micro:bit) and their firmware stacks for smooth end-to-end data flow.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Reliable Communication: Smooth data flow between ESP32, Arduino, Micro:bit, LoRa protocol, and PHP server during our demo.
  • Fully Functional Emergency Alert Assistant: Automated 911 calls are triggered accurately on critical events.
  • Interactive User Interface: A responsive PHP dashboard for doctors and families, optimized for low-bandwidth environments.
  • High-Accuracy AI Model: LSTM-based predictor achieving over 90% accuracy for disease risk classification.

What we learned

  • How to Use Conductors and Workflows for orchestrating complex, multi-step data processing in cloud environments.
  • Connecting Hardware to Software end-to-end, from sensor signal acquisition to real-time web dashboards.

What's next for DeepLink

  • Clinical Validation: Initiate pilot studies and clinical trials with healthcare institutions to measure impact and refine AI models.
  • Feature Expansion: Integrate sensors and enhance predictive analytics for broader health monitoring.
  • Scale to More Communities: Deploy additional gateways across rural regions and partner with NGOs for greater reach.
  • Manufacturing & Cost Optimization: Streamline production processes and secure component supply chains for mass manufacturing.
  • Regulatory Approvals: Pursue FDA, CE, and other certifications to enable global market entry and healthcare integration.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates