Panic Attack Helper

This is a Panic Attack Helper made using a stuffed animal and has an Adafruit Circuit Playground Bluefruit that is connected with a heart rate sensor. It uses bluetooth to read in the heart rate and then uses CircuitPython code to activate the sound and light components of the build. I work on a suicide hotline and we get a lot of people calling in when they are having a panic attack. I wanted to use tech to monitor an individual's heart rate and if it reaches above 100BPM (which is usually the heart rate of a person experiencing a panic attack), the device will activate a sound talking the individual through how to calm down from the panic attack. The neopixel lights brightness pulses brighter and dimmer and the sound instructs the individual experiencing the panic attack to match their inhale with the lights getting brighter and their exhale with the lights getting dimmer in hopes that these deep breaths will help them calm down and bring down their heart rate.

You will need:

• Adafruit Circuit Playground Bluefruit
• NeoPixel Light Strip
• Stuffed animal (preferable to use one with a velcro back)
• Heart rate sensor
• You'll need a heart rate monitor that supports Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). I'm using a CooSpo Heart Rate Monitor Armband, but you should be able to use any monitor that uses the Bluetooth SIG Heart Rate service standard.
• Battery pack
• Spaker
• Wires

You are going to want to design your circuit and connect all the components. I soldered the NeoPixel light strip to the board to ensure that it was going to stay connected when I put it in the back of the stuffed animal. It has three wires on the end of it: red, black, and white. The red goes to VOUT, black goes to GND, and white is the signal which I put at A1. Next, I ground the speaker and connected it to the AUDIO output on the board. The speaker I am using has a battery of it's own so I did not need to provide it with a power source.

I have attached the code that I wrote for the Panic Attack Helper to function properly. You will want to make sure that you have put the sound below into a folder named "panic_sounds" and put this on your CPB for the code to run correctly. Additionally, you will need to make sure the heart rate sensor is on and functioning properly for the code to run.

Now it is time to put the Panic Attack Helper together. After the neopixel strip has been soldered to the CPB board, connect the speaker to the board. Next, I glued the light strips to the stomach of the stuff animal. Lastly, I connected the battery pack to CPB and placed the CPB, speaker, and battery pack in the back of the stuffed animal. Finally it is ready to turn on the heart rate monitor your heart rate and talk you through calming down from a panic attack if your heart rate shows you are having one!