PROGRESS 6: METHODOLOGY

The Urine Test Indicator (Diabetes) is the project, which needs to examine the presence of glucose from the urine by using colour sensor. Therefore, the device must be design and create. In this project, there have three parts, which are hardware part, programming part and monitoring part.

A few of urine sample will be taken to make tests. The urine sample will be taken from the people that do not have diabetes and having diabetes. From this method, we can see the differences of result between the people that do not have diabetes and having diabetes.

The sample of urine will be tested by using urine reagent strip. These are some types of urine strips with different parameters found in the markets.

                              Figure 6.1: Examples of Urine Strips

Figure 6.2: Examples of Reference Colour Chart

The colour changes on urine strip can be seen with naked eye. Unfortunately, we cannot differentiate the result accurately. By using a colour sensor, we can determine the result accurately. The colour sensor that will be used will be Colour Sensor Colour Recognition Module TCS230.

Figure 6.3: Colour Sensor Colour Recognition Module TCS230

A microcontroller will be used to get the result. Arduino Uno with ATMega 328. 

Figure 6.4: Arduino Uno with ATMega 328

The result of the urine strip will be displayed by using LCD 16x2.

Figure 6.5: LCD 16x2

 

PROGRESS 5: SELECTING SENSOR

As we know, the Urine Tester Indicator (Diabetes) analyzed result by the changes colour of urine strip. So here, I am deciding to use a colour sensor as main sensor for this project. I had decided to use Colour Sensor Colour Recognition Module TCS230 as the main sensor.

Figure 5.1: Colour Sensor Colour Recognition Module TCS230

By using the eBay website, I had order this Colour Sensor Colour Recognition Module TCS230 priced estimately RM50 including postage. This sensor had been postage from China with ETA 7-20 days. The datasheet were downloaded and studied to get detail technical working principle of this sensor.

PROGRESS 4: INTRODUCTION

Before I get started with this project, I had done some researches about the Urine Tester Indicator (Diabetes) to get overview for more understanding.

What is Urine Tester Indicator?

Urine Tester Indicator can be used in many field of the healthcare chain including screening for routine examination, treatment monitoring, self-monitoring by patient or general preventive medicine. Indirectly, this applies particularly to diabetes, where the idea of self-monitoring of the metabolic status is self-evident. Screening for diabetes and kidney disease amongst high-risk population is becoming very familiar and popular.

Procedure to Make Urine Test

There are some steps to be followed to make the urine test. The operation is begin with taking the urine from the specimen and pours it into a small beaker. A urine reagent strip is dip into a small beaker. The urine reagent strip will change colour in the presence of glucose in the urine. The colour changes will be detected by sensor that has been installed in urine tester. The sensor will send the result to the microcontroller and the result will be displayed and analyzed.

Figure 4.1: Roche Urisys 1100 Urine Analyzer.

PROGRESS 3: CURRENT TREND

It is found out that most of the measurements for blood glucose concentration tests are done manually by using the invasive method like blood drop and test. So, another approach with non-invasive method is developed to measure blood glucose concentration by just testing on urine using a colour sensor.

There is a wide range of urine reagent strip tests available in the markets with many types of parameters can be tested. Range of parameters that is available in the markets nowadays can be from 1 to 11 parameters. These parameters are glucose, ascorbic acid, ketones, protein, pH-value, blood, nitrite, leukocytes, specific gravity, bilirubin and urobilinogen. The colour changes of the urine reagent strip after test can be seen by naked. Unfortunately, we cannot get the accurate reading just by looking at the colour changes of urine strip test. The level of diabetes cannot be obtained accurately.