Thermal pain device

In this project you will be working with Smertecenter Middelfart to construct a device for measuring levels of pain in patients. Smertecenter Middelfart[1] is a place of research for pain and its implications on the lives of citizens. In their research they use various devices to induce pain on patients, to measure when a patient starts(!) feeling pain. The problem with their current equipment is, that it is either very expensive or not very user friendly.

The job will be to construct a device to induce a measurable amount of pain on patients and log the data.

Example of device

One example is using a Peltier module (heating plate) that the patient will place his hand on, and remove the hand when he starts feeling pain. A thermistor wil then sense the temperature and the data (temperature + time on plate) can be logged for further use. The interface on the device could be made simply with an LCD screen and a few buttons connected to an Arduino.

Perspective

The aim is for this (or a similar) device to be available for clinicians nation-wide, so any patient can be easily tested.