Dr.

Akhilesh Das Gupta Institute of Technology & Management

New Delhi
HAND WASH TIMER USING ARDUINO

Aayush Kathuria, Mohit Jangir, Trunmay Deshpande, Ankit Rao

on, you have washed your hands long enough to kill

Abstract - With the current pandemic in the world, the
most of the germs, and you can wash the soap off
situation seems pretty scary. The Corona virus might be with water.
anywhere. As far as we know, one might carry the virus

for a few days without even showing any symptoms. Scary

indeed.

But hey, don't get too scared. There are some easy ways

we can fight against this virus. One is to wash our hands,

properly. Our hands are the main carrier of all sorts of

germs. We frequently touch our eyes, nose, and mouth

without even noticing it. Germs from unwashed hands

might get into our food as well, some of which may even

grow in the food and when we eat those, they can make us
Fig. 1. Circuit Diagram
seriously sick. And washing hands with soap can mostly
TOOLS USED
kill them.
I. For Coding : Arduino
But how long do you think you wash your hands? Do you
II. Components Used :
sing the happy birthday song? Once or twice? Is it always
III. ARDUINO UNO -Arduino Uno is a microcontroller
enough or do you actually just scratch your hands a little board based on the ATmega328P . It has 14 digital
for 5 seconds and wash it off? If we actually count our input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM

typical hand washing time, most of us barely washes for 10
seconds, which is definitely not enough. So here at The
Tech Lab, we wanted to make something simple,
IV.
something to force us to wash for at least a good 20
second.
This simple timer sits next to your hand soap dispenser. It
has a sensor on top that detects when you take your hand
outputs). It can be powered by the USB cable or by an
external 9-volt battery, though it accepts voltages
between 7 and 20 volts.
ULTRASONIC SENSOR (HC-SR04) -The HC-SR04
Ultrasonic Distance Sensor is a sensor used for detecting
the distance to an object using sonar. It's ideal for any
robotics projects your have which require you to avoid
objects, by detecting how close they are you can steer
away from them

in front of the soap dispenser. Then it starts counting down
20 seconds, lighting up one LED after another. Once the
green LED turns on, you have washed your hands long
enough to kill most of the germs, and you can wash the
soap off with water.
Keywords – ultrasonic sensor, arudino
BATTERY 9volt - Battery is a device that stores
chemical energy and converts it to electrical energy.
LED-A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor
light source that emits light when current flows through
it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with
electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons.
RED LED
YELLOW LED X 4
GREEN LED

• This simple timer sits next to your hand soap

dispenser. It has a sensor on top that detects when
you take your hand in front of the soap dispenser.

• Then it starts counting down 20 seconds, lighting up

one LED after another. Once the green LED turns
 Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta Institute of Technology & Management
New Delhi

1)HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

A. Arduino UNO:

Fig. 2.3: Arduino UNO

The Uno is a microcontroller board based on the

ATmega328P. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6
can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz
quartz crystal, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP
header and a reset button. It contains everything needed to
support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer
with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or
battery to get started. Differences with other boards: The
Uno differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use
the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the
Atmega16U2 (Atmega8U2 up to version R2) programmed
as a USB-to-serial converter.
B. Fig. 3 (a) & (b) Actual Photograph of Proposed
ULTRASONIC Model

An ultrasonic sensor is an instrument that measures the

distance to an object using ultrasonic sound waves. An
ultrasonic sensor uses a transducer to send and receive
2) SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION
ultrasonic pulses that relay back information about an object's
THE ARDUINO SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED TO
proximity.
YOU "AS IS" AND WE MAKE NO EXPRESS OR
This is the HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor. This
IMPLIED WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER WITH
economical sensor provides 2cm to 400cm of non-contact RESPECT TO ITS FUNCTIONALITY,
OPERABILITY, OR USE, INCLUDING,
measurement functionality with a ranging accuracy that can
WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED
reach up to 3mm. Each HC-SR04 module includes an WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR
ultrasonic transmitter, a receiver and a control circuit.
INFRINGEMENT. WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM
ANY LIABILITY WHATSOEVER FOR ANY
There are only four pins that you need to worry about on the DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,
HC-SR04: VCC (Power), Trig (Trigger), Echo (Receive), and INCIDENTAL OR SPECIAL DAMAGES,
INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST
GND (Ground). You will find this sensor very easy to set up REVENUES, LOST PROFITS, LOSSES
and use for your next range-finding project! RESULTING FROM BUSINESS INTERRUPTION
OR LOSS OF DATA, REGARDLESS OF THE
FORM OF ACTION OR LEGAL THEORY
This sensor has additional control circuitry that can prevent UNDER WHICH THE LIABILITY MAY BE
inconsistent "bouncy" data depending on the application. ASSERTED, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OR LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH
DAMAGES.

V. DESIGN METHOD AND IMPLEMENTATION

Various Algorithms has been used for Hand wash timer.

 Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta Institute of Technology & Management
New Delhi
EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS & RESULT . RESULT

Hand Wash Timer is ready to use. It will sits next

We made this project super simple so that anyone can
build it on the weekend. Not only is it fun to make with
children but it is also educational, and definitely useful in
the current situation. The main brain of this countdown
timer is an "Arduino". It's a tiny computer that can be
programmed using personal computers. Arduinos are
widely used for learning, prototyping and even actual
to your soap dispenser and when you will take the
soap from the dispenser the sensor will detecs your
presence then the Arduino turns on the red LED and
waits for 4 second for you to take some water and
soap on your hands. Then it starts the 20 seconds
countdown. Eventually the 5 blue LEDs light up,
one by one, over the period of 20 seconds.
• Once the green LED turns up, you have washed
your hands for long enough and you can rinse off

products. If you don't have any experience with it then the soap.

don't worry, we will walk you through the process easily

and you will be able to get started with Arduino, maybe REFERENCES

even make more future projects with it if you like the idea • Create.arduino.cc
of it.
• https://www.wikipedia.org/

So the Arduino is connected to an ultrasonic distance • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino_Uno

sensor, and 6 LEDs. The Arduino is sending ultrasonic
• https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/the-tech-
sound waves with the distance sensor and checking the lab/fight-coronavirus-simple-handwash-timer-
4dc8ac
time it takes for the sound waves to be reflected bac k to the

sensor. Using the time, it measures the distance of anything

right in front of it. So the Arduino is always reading the sensor,

waiting for your hand to appear within 20 centimeter. As soon

as it detects something within 20 centimeters, the Arduino

turns on the red LED and waits for 4 second for you to

take some water and soap on your hands. Then it starts the

20 seconds countdown. Eventually the 5 blue LEDs light

up, one by one, over the period of 20 seconds.

Once the green LED turns up, you have washed your hands

for long enough and you can rinse off the soap

APPLICATIIONS

•This project turns the LED red when you start

washing hands & will turn green once
twenty seconds are complete thus reminding
you to wash hands for twenty seconds.

ADVANTAGES

 This simple project can help keep you safe from the
scary virus and bacteria all around us.
 In test we found that we actually used to wash our hands
for a much shorter time before we used this timer.
 This is a simple project to teach the importance of
cleanliness & washing hands properly in the current
times.