Category Archives: Projects

CycleSafe, Projects, Uncategorized

CycleSafe

Team Members: Andrew and Emma

What We’re Going To Do: We’re developing a cycling jacket that incorporates sensors and LEDs as brake lights and turn signals to eliminate the need for hand signals. Additional features may include pressure sensors to contact emergency services in case of an impact, and vibrators to provide directions.

  Inspiration: We felt that hand signals made by cyclists are not always clear or visible to drivers. Wearing this jacket could greatly improve the safety of cyclists.

Materials and Costs:

Fabric, Zippers, Velcro, Elastic, Seam Tape. Estimated cost: $90

LEDs, Accelerometer, Battery, Arduino. Estimated cost: $150

Steps/Timeline: We just ordered sample fabrics last week so we’re hoping they come in soon and will have a final fabric picked and ordered by next week. The technology has also been ordered. We hope to have a final muslin sample of the jacket completed by November 18th. The remaining time will be dedicated to completing the final jacket and testing.

Backup/Fallback: We are hoping to allow ourselves enough time for troubleshooting so that we will not need a backup/fallback plan. If this doesn’t happen to work we will create something less intensive than a full jacket and something that would be more like encased wire that you can put on over whatever you’re wearing (similar to what Jess suggested last week).

Concept Art:

 IMG_0136 IMG_0137

Projects, Safeband

11/2 Safeband

Project Title – Safeband

Project Team Members – Eric Freitas and Victor Tavares

Description of what you are going to do – We want to build a wristband that allows the user to send messages in times of emergency. The wristband will connect to the user’s smartphone and by presenting a number of conditions and effects it will be able to send messages for help when something happens.

Concept Art –

mockup  contact screen

Description of what inspired this project – There are already some improvements on security and awareness when you are on the streets, but when something like a car accident happens you need to receive help immediately and by sending messages to your family and to emergency numbers you will be able to receive the needed help sooner. There is a project in which they have put sensors on a hair clip and when sudden movements happened it would trigger the alarm and warn family and authorities, this project seems similar, but we think that a wristband is usable by both men and women and also that being able to customize the messages and who receives it is a major feature.

Description of Materials you plan to use along with the costs for these materials –

Small Arduino board – US$10,00
Bluetooth shield – US$25,00
Pulse sensor – US$30,00
RGB LED – US$8,00
Button – US$1,50
Battery – US$2,00

Steps/Timeline –
1st Week – Buy materials and see Bluetooth Communications
2nd Week – Work on send email
3rd Week – Design the app
4th Week – Work on vital sensors
5th Week – Testing and Debugging
6th Week – Final fixes

Backup Plans / Fallback plans – To use the last two weeks to test it thoroughly and, if needed, to simplify the project.

Gaming Gloves, Projects

11/2 Gaming Gloves

Project Title: Gaming Gloves
Project Members: Vinicius Furlan, Jhonatt Lima

Description of what you are going to do – We want to build gloves that will be used to replace keyboards necessary to play games. Our idea is to facilitate the game play when you are not in a good environment to play certain games.

Design Sketch

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Description of Materials you plan to use along with the costs for these materials :

Arduino Nano board: $8
Velostat pressure fabric: $4
Bluetooth module: $6

Timeline:

11/11 – Circuit finished and start of the software

11/26 – End of the software and beginning of the tests.

 

Lights-up Dress, Projects

11/2 Lights-up Dress

Project Title – Lights-up Dress

  • Project Team Member – Jeeyoung Wang
  • Description of what you are going to do –  žLEDs blinks when a person have the specific movements.žMake the different pattern of LEDs’ blinking to match the each of the proper and different movements.
    1. Person Turns- LED make patterns and blinks from top to bottom until stops.
    2. Person Walks- LED blinks one by one in order & LED keep blinks from top to bottom.
    3. Person Stops – Led stops.

 

 

  • Concept Art
  • 사진
  • 사진 1사진 2

 

  • Description of what inspired this project
  • images1YM72XWNimagesPDJC6VB5

 

  • Description of Materials you plan to use along with the costs for these materials –
  1. žADXL335 – 5V ready triple-axis accelerometer (+-3g analog out)- $14.95
  2. ž13 x Adafruit LED Sequins – Warm White & Ruby Red -130EA – Maximum $100
  3. Shift Registers – $20
  4. žHook-up Wire – $10
  5. žConductive Thread – $20
  6. žLilypad
  • Backup Plans / Fallback plans –žWhen LEDs effected by the environment[Sounds and Lights] not a person’s movement.
  • Steps/Timeline – žOct 30 : Garment will be doneNov 4 : Decide all the materials and orderžNov 6 : Research about the materials & programming                                 žNov11 ~ 18 : Work on sewing the LEDsžNov 2o ~Dec 2: Programming the

                       Accelerometer

    žDec 4~ 9 : Test the programming

    žDec 11 : Ask final Questions & Make the

                   Project Poster

Projects, TypeSafe

11/2 TypeSafe

TypeSafe: Hand-worn Device for Promoting Healthy Typing Habits

Tomislav Pejsa

Wristband-mockup2

The goal of my project is to build a hand-worn device that promotes healthier postures and habits during keyboard typing. The device will track the wearer’s typing activity and hand posture; it will provide auditory and haptic warnings about stressful postures; and it will alert them to take period breaks. The device will also record data about daily keyboard usage for later download and analysis.

Device will include the following parts: wristband housing the microcontroller, buzzer and/or vibe, and battery; ring with an IMU. May also include a MicroSD card reader and an electromagnetic sensor for better typing detection. The total price of all parts will be $80+.

Project plan:

1. Build a prototype that can capture hand tracking data

2. Perform analysis of the captured data [milestone: mid-Nov.]

3. Develop heuristic activity and posture classifiers

4. Iteratively build prototypes and improve/fix sensing and classification [milestone: end of Nov. for first iteration]

5. Implement recording and download of usage statistics

6. Build final prototype

Fallback: Simplify and shed features. Usage recording gets the axe first.

Projects, TEB

11/2/2014 TEB Update

Project Title–  TEB (Thermoelectric Bracelet) *name still in progress

Project Team Members- Jason Sylvestre

Description of what you are going to do- I will attempt to construct a working prototype that is capable of sending tailored thermal stimuli to the wrist using pulse width modulation (PWM) and a thermoelectric cooler. To adjust the temperature, you will use two push buttons to determine the frequency of the pulses and whether the pulses are cold or warm. There will be a RGB LED bar that corresponds to the pulse frequency and the thermal stimuli being sent.
Concept Art– Capture

Description of what inspired this project– Earlier this year, I read an article about a project engineered by some MIT students that was capable of sending regulated pulses of cold stimuli to the wrist to induce a perceptual change in body temperature.  It would essentially be a personal air conditioner. I thought I could improve this by making the device capable of sending both warm and cool stimuli to the wrist.

Description of Materials you plan to use along with the costs for these materials- Click here for the Bill of Materials

Steps/Timeline

10/28/2014- Finish complete design (electrical, 3D model, parts list, programming block diagram)

10/30/2014- Finish PCB design

11/11/2014- Assemble physical prototype (except PCB)

11/25/2014- SMT PCB board should be soldered and functioning

12/02/2014- Complete program that has been debugged

12/15/2014- Testing, Redesign, Implementation Complete

Backup Plans / Fallback plans

The part that I see most likely to fail is my circuit board design so as an extra precaution, I  have inserted extra vias into the PCB design in case there are faults.  My fallback plan is to assemble it on perfboard using through-hole components. I will also buy extra discrete components in case those fail.

Since the presentations, I have made great progress on the PCB design, which you can see below.   I designed this using Altium software.   As you may notice, it’s a very compact design.

PCB png

Assignments, Projects

FINAL Project Pitch (Due 10/28)

For Tuesday, 10/28, please prepare a 5-minute (or more!) presentation on your final project. This should be in powerpoint, keynote, or similar format. Use a flash drive, dropbox, or laptop to present.

* 5-10 slides
* Include inspiration images/artists/designers/projects that are relevant to your idea.
* Include digital or scanned sketches of your project- if your design alters as part of the goal, please show the change concepts.
* Include a bulleted list of the steps of your process
* Include a bulleted list of the materials/tools you’ll use/need (this is a great way to find out if your classmates have resources you can tap into)
* Include a blurb on hypothetical/ideal production costs and quantities (if this is intended as a unique piece, please discuss where you see your piece fitting into the design world- i.e. couture, designer, off the rack, runway, art, performance, etc.)
* a list of ideas/concepts that you will need to master for completion.
* Include a fallback plan- what can you do to recover your project if it doesn’t go as planned?
* Include a loose calendar or schedule of when you’d like to be where in the process.

Projects

Wristband Monitoring Hand Activities

My goal is to design a wristband which tracks the wearer’s hand activities and alerts them of activities that are potentially harmful to their health. Specifically, I am considering two types of activities. Firstly, I want to detect unconscious self-manipulator gestures such as scratching and alert the user when they occur – this could be user to prevent people from scratching at injuries, rashes, etc. (Basically, I want to build a human version of the flea collar.) As a secondary (or alternative) feature, I want to track repetitive movements such as typing and mouse usage and notify the wearer to take periodic breaks.

I intend to work alone on the project. I feel confident that I can quickly prototype a wristband with a microcontroller and IMU that can track 6DOF hand movements and classify them using simple heuristics. However, I expect I will need to utilize a trained model to perform robust, reliable classification, which may prove challenging due to hardware limitations and the need to collect and annotate high-quality training data. Moreover, reliable detection of self-manipulator gestures is likely to be impossible using just 6DOF tracking data and may require integration of additional sensors into the design.

Wristband-mockup

Assignments, CycleSafe, Projects, Uncategorized

Cycling Safety Jacket

Cycling is dangerous.  As a cyclist, it is difficult to command attention from drivers, and drivers often have a difficult time predicting what move cyclists are about to make. Hand signals are difficult to execute, and difficult for drivers to understand.

Our project looks to solve these issues by creating a jacket to be worn for cycling, that includes a brake-light and turn-signals that the wearer can operate quickly and easily to make drivers aware of their presence and future actions.

This project will be challenging from both a design and technical standpoint, but fortunately we have skill sets that complement each other. We believe the most challenging aspects to designing an interface that is lightweight and comfortable, and also easy to operate when on the go.

– Andrew & Emma

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