Carl Demolder | Portfolio

During an internship for Kidprint Infant Biometrics, I worked on an infant biometrics identification device. Infant identification for vaccination administration is challenging, especially in remote environments with limited resources. Accurate and quick identification of infants presents an unsolved, complex sociotechnical problem. Current solutions to identify infants and track vaccination records are vaccination cards; a notoriously unreliable and easily lost device. Recent technology-centered attempts have used biometric solutions designed for adults, however when applied to neonates, these have failed. In order to develop a new, infant-centered solution from the ground up, we assembled a diverse team of engineers, clinicians, ethnographers and designers while following a Human Centered Design approach of ethnography, rapid prototyping and testing. We prototyped many infant-centric devices that utilize common modalities in adult biometrics (ear, iris, retina, face, foot, palm, and fingerprints), and by comparing the technical feasibility, usability and acceptability of these methods, we narrowed to 3 distinct approaches: a non-contact fingerprint reader, a contact fingerprint scanner, and a palm-print scanner. Frequent design-prototype-test cycles were critical as new failure modes were discovered only through live subjects that required an ever evolving software, hardware, and design complexities. Preliminary results show our non contact devices outperform contact methods, can identify infants from as early as birth, and differentiate among hundreds or even thousands of children.

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Skills/Tools used:

• 3D CAD using Solidworks

• PCB Design using Altium Designer

• 2D drawings for manufacturing

• Optics prototyping: culminators, diffusors, light refraction/reflection, and bandpass filters

• Mathlab

• Prototype fabrication utilizing: CNC, 3D printing, water cutting, and 2D/3D lathe

• Technical presentations

• System Design