Names: Joseph Bolling, Evan Strasnick, Jacob Simon, Xin Yang Yak

Group Number: 17

What we built: We created an alarm clock, aimed at heavy sleepers and chronic snoozers, that shuts off its buzz only when the user actually gets out of bed. It accomplishes this using a simply force-sensing resistor located under the bed that responds to the change in force of a human weight being lifted. Overall, we were delighted with how well the system functions, and how simple it was to implement such a practical feature that solves a real-world problem. We were dissatisfied, however, that the coding of the actual alarm had to be done by setting a variable in the source code of the arduino (and that only one alarm could be set at a time). An actual implementation of the device would communicate with a real alarm clock (or alarm clock interface) to allow the user to more easily set and change his alarms.

Sketches:

Our first design was of an insole that could be inserted into any shoe to add pedometer functionality. A force sensing resistor measured the number of steps, which could be uploaded via USB at the end of the day.

Our next design was of a device which used a thermistor to alert the user if (because of a malfunction or power outage) their refrigerator or freezer was at a temperature at which their food might spoil. In the event of a power outage, the user would exactly when their food was no longer good.

Our final design, which we decided to implement, was the alarm clock which shuts off when the user actually gets out of bed.

Storyboard:

Final System:

Here’s a video demonstration of our prototype. Since, to our surprise, we were unable to find a bed in the lab, our user demonstrated the system by falling asleep in a chair instead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fJjzzmrqKU&feature=youtu.be

List of Parts:

• 1 x Arduino UNO connected to power supply
• 1 x Force sensing resistor
• Approx. 5 feet of wire
• 1 x 10 kOhm resistor
• 1 x 330 ohm resistor
• 1 x Buzzer

Instructions to recreate:

To construct our alarm clock, simply connect the parts as indicated in the diagram above.  The force-sensing resistor should be connected to the Arduino using two wires long enough to reach from the location of your alarm clock to the point where you’d like the force-sensing resistor to be located-] (we recommend near the center of your mattress or underneath one of the legs of your bed).  One of these wires should travel from the +5V pin on your Arduino, and the other should connect with a 10kΩ resistor.  The other end of the 10kΩ should connect to ground.  Connect analog pin 0 on your Arduino to the junction between the force-sensing resistor and the 10kΩ resistor. Then, connect the buzzer in series with a 330Ω resistor between pin 3 and ground, set how long you’d like to sleep in our code (the “secondsUntilWake” parameter), and upload to your Arduino!

Source Code:

/*COS 436 Lab 1
*Joseph Bolling, Evan Strasnick, Jacob Simon, Xin Yang Yak
*Force Sensing Alarm Clock
*/

int fsrAnalogPin = 0; // FSR is connected to analog 0
int buzzerAnalogPin = 3; // Buzzer is connected to analog 1

int fsrReading; // the analog reading from the FSR resistor divider
int fsrInitialRead; // the value of fsrReading when the alarm begins

int secondsLeft;
// PARAMETERS:
int releaseThreshold = -50;
int buzzerTone = 50; // default buzzer pitch

// -------------------------------------------------------------------
// SET THE TIME UNTIL ALARM HERE:
int secondsUntilWake = 5;
//
//--------------------------------------------------------------------
boolean alarmOn;

void setup(void) {
secondsLeft = secondsUntilWake;
alarmOn = false;
pinMode(buzzerAnalogPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop(void) {
if (!alarmOn) {
secondsLeft--;
}
else {
while (pressureOn()) {
buzzOn();
}

buzzOff();
while(true);

}

if (secondsLeft == 0) {
markPressure();
alarmOn = true;
}

delay(1000);
}

void markPressure(void) {
fsrInitialRead = analogRead(fsrAnalogPin);
}

boolean pressureOn(void) {
if ((analogRead(fsrAnalogPin) - fsrInitialRead) <= releaseThreshold) {
return false;
}
else return true;
}

void buzzOn(void) {
analogWrite(buzzerAnalogPin, buzzerTone);
}

void buzzOff(void) {
analogWrite(buzzerAnalogPin, 0);
}

Observations

When examining the behavior of students between lecture, I focused during two times, the ten minute period prior to an 11 AM class on a Wednesday as well as a ten minute period prior to a 3 PM course on Thursday. Some of the behavior I noticed from the students include talking with friends, browsing the web, checking Facebook, eating a sandwich, looking for the bathroom, and reading sheet music. Of the people examined, the most common activity for an individual during this time period is talking with his/her friends.

Brainstorm:

1. Alertness: Examine your alertness in your previous lecture. (provide recommendations)
2. BrushUp – pulls from piazza, blackboard, etc different sources that the student might need for the upcoming lecture.
3. Diary2Go – makes it easier to jot down a mini diary of what’s happening during your day
4. Puzzler – provides small engaging puzzles to stretch the mind
5. HealthChecker – provides health statistics based on that day’s steps walked, number of minutes sitting, etc.
6. InTidbits – Pulls from your immediate problem sets that are due soon and spits out one problem for you.
7. Time4Break – After pulling data from ICE, uses the distance to your next class and the nearest bathrooms and/or food locations to check if you have time for a break.
8. Notes4You – records the previous lecture and pulls what it thinks as key parts of the lecture, then the user can engage with these notes accordingly.
9. EnRoute – If friends sign up for this app, it checks to see if the route they are taking may intersect with yours.
10. PeskyReminders – Constantly reminds you of upcoming psets, projects, exams, until you finish them
11. VocabRefresher – Provides new words as well as quiz past words.
12. Reviewer – go over past slides pertaining to the upcoming class and reviews you.
13. CreationKit – Provides little origami/mini crafts/and cute projects to conduct.
14. AggregateUpdate – Provides updates from different sources with accounts such as facebook, email, youtube, etc.
15. MoodRecorder – provides few questions and maps your mood throughout the day.

The two ideas that will be prototyped are Alertness and MoodRecorder.

Falling asleep in class tends to be a problem for certain individuals and Alertness serves to help those who are unfortunate to learn what they missed during their lack of alertness.

I think MoodRecorder is interesting because to some sense, it is equivalent to a diary for the day but the data recorded is more rich because it keeps track of your mood rather than recording the different events that occur during the day.

Alertness:

Here are two screens: left screen allows the user to enter the analysis screen. right screen is the analysis screen that provides a graph on the individual’s alertness in his/her previous class. Has buttons to allow closer analysis of the data as well as the option to save or go to home page.

Left: this is the home page. Allows user to start a new log, view a past saved log, or examine the most recent log. Right: The list with past logs.

Left: This shows the that the user’s condition was “alert” during this period. Right: This shows that the user’s condition was “not alert.” They have to option to hear segments of the lecture that he/she might have missed.

Left: The form where user inputs data before saving. Right: Shows that the log has been saved.

This screen shows that the app is running and recording the surrounding ambient data.

This is the playback process. Users can check to hear what the missed during their “sub-alert” state.

MoodRecorder:

User has two option to examine record of moods or record their current mood.

While looking at the happiness tab, the user can examine their levels of happiness throughout the day.

The user is able to toggle the bar to place an accurate depiction of their happiness, content, and concern levels. They can then record these values or examine past values.

Testing and Feedback: Arthur Phidd, Jamie Chong, Parth Parihar

Here are some photos to show how my users interacting with Alertness.

Things I noted and insights generated:

• The buttons under the diagram seem unclear
• Users seems to click the actual diagram.
• The save button captures too much attention during the analysis screen thus influencing the user to save before examining the data.
• After saving a log, users tend to be lost for a bit and eventually click the home button. It would appear that they want to go back to the data. Providing an option back to analysis may be appropriate.
• The user tends to mindlessly save whenever they have the chance. Maybe tamper with location or provide more awareness how much data might be stored with each save.
• Users tend to get lost for a bit when they start a new log. I noticed that they seemed confused that it records immediately. It may be necessary to have an intermediate screen where the user can understand that the next press will begin the recording process.

Feedback:

• The navigation of the app was relatively straightforward
• There is more potential for the data that can be recorded and used
• More contextual recording would be nice. Immediate recording for when you are not alert is too out of context.
• Immediate recording can be hard to deal with and comprehend.
• The ability to redirect to home for most screens made it easier to navigate the app.

Group 15: Prakhar Agarwal (pagarwal@), Colleen Carroll (cecarrol@), Gabriel Chen (gcthree@)

Description:
We chose to build a pressure sensitive cup because it was the most widely useful of all of our ideas, and we could imagine using it in everyday life for a number of different applications. The cup uses a force sensor to detect the amount of liquid in the cup and colored lights to indicate to the user how much they have filled/emptied the cup. The idea was originally inspired as an easy way to track your drinking on a night out. The best part of our design is that it requires almost no new interactions for the users to learn. You can fill or drink from the cup like you would with any other cup and the color scheme of the lights follows standard green/yellow/red signaling for go/slow/stop. In our video, we show the application of this to building an light-signaling overflow detector and our storyboard shows another application of this sort of technology to staying safe on a night out. As we have the cup now, it is easy to pour into, but hard to pour out of (because it is hooked up to the Arduino), which complicates certain use cases. With more time, we would make it more mobile, and we would also like to create a way for it to keep track of when the cup is filled/emptied multiple times.

Photos of Sketches:

Air Bass Sketch

Fat Belt Sketch

Overflow Cup Sketch

Storyboard:

Live in Action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wj1bbwfeVo

Photo of the full setup

Photo showing the outer cup with sensor and LEDs

Photo showing the bottom of the inner cup with a piece of styrofoam used apply pressure directly to the pressure sensor

Materials:

• 2 plastic cups
• FSR
• 3 LEDs (green, yellow, red)
• small piece of Styrofoam or cardboard
• alligator clips
• electrical tape
• Knife
• Arduino
• USB cable
• Breadboard

Instructions:

1. Start by cutting one cup to about half of its original height. This will make it easier to attach the electronic components to the bottom.
2. Pierce a slit in the bottom of the cup. Put the FSR through the slit so that the round sensor is centered inside the cup and the long end is sticking outside.
3. Next, pierce three sets of 2 small holes in the bottom of the cup. You stick one LED in each of these sets so that the light is on the inside of the cup and the wires are sticking out.
4. Fit the uncut cup inside the cut one. Notice the size of the gap between the bottom of the inside cup and the bottom of the outside cup.
5. Cut a piece of Styrofoam or cardboard to the shape and size of the head of the FSR and then tape it over the FSR. This will serve as padding between the top cup and bottom cup so that the top cup will put pressure directly on the FSR, through the padding, as it is filled with water. (Note: Ensure that the padding is taller than the LEDs.)
6. Set up the circuit as shown in the schematic so that each of the lights is connected independently to a digital input on the Arduino.
7. Test the FSR. Note the reading when the cup is empty, half way full, full, and about to overflow.
8. Write your program so that: If you are sensing an overflowing cup, the yellow lights up at half way, green at full, and red at overflowing. If you are sensing a draining cup, green lights up at full, yellow at halfway, and red at empty.

Code:

const int ledYellow = 2;
const int ledRed = 4;
const int ledGreen = 7;
int fsrPin = 0; // the FSR and 10K pulldown are connected to a0
int fsrReading; // the analog reading from the FSR resistor divider

void setup(void) {

// We'll send debugging information via the Serial monitor
Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(ledRed, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledYellow, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledGreen, OUTPUT);

}

void loop(void) {

fsrReading = analogRead(fsrPin);

if (fsrReading < 500) {
digitalWrite(ledRed, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledGreen, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledYellow, LOW);
}

if (fsrReading > 500 && fsrReading <= 600) {
digitalWrite(ledRed, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledGreen, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledYellow, HIGH);
}

if (fsrReading > 600 && fsrReading <= 680) {
digitalWrite(ledRed, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledGreen, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledYellow, LOW);
}

if (fsrReading > 680) {
digitalWrite(ledRed, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledGreen, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledYellow, LOW);
}

Serial.print("Analog reading = ");
Serial.println(fsrReading); // the raw analog reading
delay(100);
}

Brainstormed Ideas:

1. Posture helper—Detects and notifies you when you do not have the right posture.

2. Push-up monitor—detects motion along your body as you do push-up and ensures that your push-up form is at tip-top shape; can also add some sort of motivational game that helps improve your form

3. Built-in shoe sensor—help improve the monitoring of a runner; detects how many steps you have taken, how fast you have taken them, distance, and impact, and compares to previous runs/makes suggestions about how to avoid injury

4. Alarm clock stimulator—Uses a combination of features: tactical, sound, touch, and smell to guarantee that user wakes up

5. Sleep-movement regulator— detects lapses in the REM cycle; plays soothing sounds when movement is detected to help user sleep better

6. Classroom alarm clock— detects when a student is beginning to fall asleep and uses sensory stimulation such as vibration to keep the student awake

7. Pen that does not write, but senses pressure and shapes and identifies writing so you can write on any surface and it will compile it into a digital document.

8. Proximity reminder—signals to you what types or errands or tasks you should do when you’re within a certain area (or within proximity of something like the grocery store)

9. Office-hour scheduler—helps coordinate meetings with other people (allow them to see your location)

10. Parking-locator— Indicates where you have parked and sends you the location; also can issue an alarm that emits from the car if button is pressed (alarm button attached to key only works within small distance)

11. Item-locator—helps locate most valuable misplaced items simultaneously (cell-phone, wallet, keys, etc.)

12. Smart shower: before shower, collects data from skin contact and determines water
temperature and duration needed for skin’s dryness and dirtiness

13. Expanding on #12, during the shower, skin sensor that prevents skin from becoming too hot (proven to be unhealthy), gives you/shower feedback)

14. Small wearable sensor worn on skin that detects skin’s dryness and suggests when lotion should be applied.

15.  Better sensing techniques for a blind person—modify a cane with additional detection of distance and sound/touch feedback

16.  Breath detection—resolves the problem of bad breath; detects the chemical composition of breath and warns user whether or not they need mints or breath-refreshers

17.  Hydration detection— building off of #16, resolves the problem of bad dehydration; detects the chemical composition of breath and warns user whether or not they need to drink water

18.  Bacteria detecting utensils—prevent user from ever getting stomach-viruses by warning user whether the food they are picking up with their utensil has potentially harmful bacteria.

19. Interactive learning game (e.g. for multiplication tables) with sensory feedback such as vibration, sounds, or smells that correspond to the associations (helps user remember by using multiple senses)

20. Visual note-taking: Records what you write, detects circled terms, and creates a digital version of your notes with images of the terms you circled. Could also automatically detect keywords in your notes and create a “collage” for visual learners/quick refreshing.

21. Glasses that display notifications on the lenses, could be used for emails, schedule notifications.

22. Discreet texting device: personal projector/video camera that projects a keyboard onto the surface in front of you, detects which letters you press, and allows you to send texts discreetly during classes, meetings, etc.

23. Discreet device attached to arm or clothing that warns you when your stocks are going down with vibrations, includes a quick sell button or a more complex interface based on personal projector (see texting device).

24. An accelerometer or flex sensor for hand and arm motions that senses and remembers if you’ve done certain actions (locking doors, closing door, etc)

25. Commute to-do list — user uploads to-do list (quick calls, small articles/memos to read), and device detects traffic/stop-and-go motion of car and suggests appropriate to-do list for commute (may give warning/turn off when car is in motion)

26. Shoe/step sensor — worn inside shoe, gives information about step style, detects pronation and supination and recommends appropriate shoes/insoles

27. Smart closet — takes data about weather and suggests appropriate clothing (if complete integrated system, might move those pieces of clothing to front/middle of closet)

28. Habit-fixer — a small accelerometer device that is affixed to appropriate part of body and detects habits that you want to fix (biting nails, jiggling legs)

29. Cell phone as Mouse – attach your cell phone to your computer, and then use that as a mouse / menu options to reduce clutter on the screen, use ultrasonic information too.

30. Calorie detector – probes food items and determines the nutrition information.

31. Smart Room – changes music and TV upon entering a room according to predetermined tastes of the users who enter (using device carried by user or mobile data). If more than one user enters, it will figure out the common interests among them all.

32. Athletic-form helper – for any type of athletic activity, a certain technique is necessary; use some sensors that detect the motion of the user, and the movement can be shown through a video feed, and thus, the form of the athlete can be improved (ice skating, pitching a baseball, etc.)

33. Hand sensor for playing violin, guitar, etc, that detects hand posture and gives advice on improvement, also can download specific pieces and it can tell you which finger intervals were wrong

34. Orchestra section communication device: attaches to music stands, detects when changes are made to music of principal stand, and notifies rest of stands about type of change (bowing, etc) and location (measure number)

35. Building off of #34, Kinect-type device attached to music stand that detects when bowings within section are not coordinated.

36. Contextual music page-turner: detects the notes that are being played or sung and lights up the corresponding notes on the sheet music; mechanically flips the pages when the end of the sheet music page is detected

37. Instrument upkeep device — small device that can be run over stringed instruments to detect moisture of wood, rosin/oil buildup, and state of varnish to detect when humidifier should be used or cleaning/varnishing should be done (already analog devices fro humidity, but need more exact/holistic sensor)

38.  Urine characterization – takes input of color, chemicals, etc. and determines certain characteristics about your healthiness, and suggests improvements.

39.  Virtual mouse – acts like a mouse, you can move around empty space to control the mouse on a computer.

40.  Smart baking pan — detects which areas have been greased, so you can cover whole surface and grease enough

41. Smart beat – Creates music based on your interactions with the environment (if you are walking, takes up the beat of your steps)

42. Remote button pusher – you can have a button that will adapt to whatever device you want to click (camera so you don’t need a self-timer, turn off a light from far away, etc.)

43. Handheld scanner — scan a physical page (notes, etc), and uploads it with good design (checks alignment, spacing, etc)

44. Interactive scanner for physical books — looks like (and may act as ) clip-on reading lamp, but detects when words are underlined or notes are taken, and scans those pages for easy recap of significant passages

45. Individual temperature-sensing thermostat — has infrared sensor that detects the temperature of individuals inside the room and adjusts (if someone is exercising within the room, the heater would turn off/air conditioner would come on).  Right now thermostats only detect the overall temperature of the whole room, which adjusts very slowly to individuals’ movement or activities.

46.  Instant feedback for lecturers — projector-like device that can be mounted in front of blackboard, is given information about dimensions of lecture hall, and immediately gives feedback to instructor about whether they are writing too small for those in farthest seats.  Could also be implemented with device that measures microphone input/speaker output to tell if lecturer is speaking loud enough to be heard

47.  Light-detecting window blinds — detects brightness of sunlight and opens/closes automatically in order to create appropriate amount of light in room and prevent overheating in room (saves energy)

48.  Kinect-like device in doorway of retail stores, connects to mobile device to tell customers as they walk in what size they should look at for different articles of clothing (shirt, pants, etc), specific garments or styles that would be flattering to their body type (sizing for different stores vary greatly, would reduce time trying on different sizes, helps marketing for each store)

49.  Accompaniment-producer: Sound-detecting device that listens to the piece you are playing, identifies it, detects the speed at which you are playing it, and prepares/plays accompaniment at appropriate speed.  Works for singing (karaoke soundtrack) or instrumental pieces/ concertos (orchestral or piano accompaniment recording), and can speed up/slow down recording to match your speed.

50.  Plates/cups that detect content volume and give information to central device (can be used by restaurants to detect which diners need drink refills/are done with their courses)

51. Alternative to #50: Proximity sensors in restaurant tables that detect when devices worn/carried by waiters stop near the table for an extended period of time, gives data about which tables are being neglected/allows waiters to see which tables have already been visited by waiters who were not assigned that specific table

52. A wearable device that creates your own personal soundtrack – all of your movements are converted to sounds. For example, as you’re walking, your rate may be converted to the tempo of the song.

Selected Project:

Target Users:
Our target users are musicians, who often sheet music but have difficulties turning the pages at the appropriate times. This is particularly true for pianists, who often have people turn their pages for them during performances.  In addition, page turns often do not occur at appropriate times in the music, and are often during complex or fast passages that require a player’s full attention and do not lend themselves well to pauses.  Turning pages by yourself or using a human page-turner can introduce error into musical performances. Musicians would therefore benefit from an automated page-turning device, to eliminate the need for extra people during performances and make the page-turns more accurate and dependable.
Problem Description:
The problem is the lack of an automated way to reliably and robustly turn pages of sheet music.  This problem occurs most often for solo performers, who are currently forced to break the music’s rhythm and their concentration in order to flip these pages. Because this problem is most important for live performances, the solution must be discreet, and not disrupt the performance (quiet, be able to detect a single user’s instrument even when playing with accompaniment, and function even if performer does not follow music exactly).  Currently, there are some mechanical page-turners implemented primarily for organ players that respond to mechanical input (pushing pedal), but the process has not been completely automated.
Why the chosen platform/technology?
An Arduino-based solution would be ideal for this type of problem. Beforehand, the Arduino must have access to an online version of the sheet music, where it can read in the notes and know where the page breaks are for the given sheet music. The sound played by the musician would then be detected by an Arduino’s microphone, so that the Arduino could detect different pitches and speeds of notes played. It would then compare the given note to the sheet music stored in its online database, and identify where the user is currently playing the music. When the user reaches a note that is near the end of the current page, it will automatically turn the page for the musician.The Arduino is a good platform for these functionalities–specifically for powering the motor to mechanically flip pages, and also detecting analog inputs from sound changes.

• Losing items (tags, training, warning for ‘out of order.) / forget proxes, keys, etc.
• No date for Valentine.s Day/Speed Dating (compatibility tools, remotely trigger incidental things) (note: we compiled this list on Feb. 13)
• Not knowing how to approach a girl (text about relevant details)
• Don’t know when there is no reception/signal on a phone, etc.
• Don’t know when your phone has vibrated
• Temperature control
• Not knowing point A to point B, or the travel time of point A to point B
  • arrows on brim of hat, accustoms to your avg. walking speed)
• Waking up snoring kids in lecture
• Non first-world-problems:

• Monsoons destroying farms (either prevention OR facilitating repairs)
• Political corruption
• Transporting water over large distances
  • Embedded water quality sensor

• Waiting for elevators/Call elevators earlier
• Folding clothes
• Typing forces you to find a flat surface and use both hands — egg-shaped keyboard in your pocket?
• Kinect teaching clothes matching/right fashion
• Printing/reminders to do tasks in certain areas as you pass by them
• Measuring awkwardness level
• Discovering who’s a mean person
• Selfadapting clothes (to temperature, i.e. ski pants with auto venting)
• Lying down but laptop doesn’t go sideways
• Detect when the refrigerator/cupboard/sock drawer is empty
  • for that matter, it’s sometimes unclear if the fridge is working at all
• Bad singers are really annoying — it’d be nice to automatically autotune everyone around you
  • Getting a stuck song out of head
• Not knowing when subway/transportation shows up
• How much money left on a metro card
• Clothes online: don’t fit (kinect, shoes) or DIY measuring of your body
• Staying awake in class head nod/accelerometer, need info on how people fall asleep, have the target user be the lecturer?)
• Waking up for lecture (sleep cycles?)
• Starting to rain, leave now or 5 minutes from now?
  • not knowing whether to bring an umbrella — have the umbrella stand flash when it’s about to rain?
• Bad drivers/ anything to dissipate road rage
• Reading a book on a treadmill (have book bob up and down with you/display 1 word at a time)
• Remembering people’s names
• Way to trigger something remotely — ChemE friend needs to walk all the way to the E-Quad just to turn a knob
• Timers on events
• Knowing when things are done baking — keep jabbing until food is done? thermometers? scent measuring?

• Microwaves too — alert you when your meal is heated all the way through
• Don’t want to burn the house down by accidentally leaving the oven on overnight(every 1 hour the oven is on, alert?)
• Drunk people (noise too loud call Psafe)
• Watch/clock changes (emoticon faces?) based on time of day or if you’re late for scheduled events (programmed into it, or it is synced with your google calendar?)
• New GPS system interface involving glove with LED lights (as opposed to using your smart phone)
• Telemedicine/using a machine for testing physical ailments (i.e. arm sock + pressure sensors)
• Wanting hugs
• Maintaining longdistance relationships in general
• Health issue, avoid germs spread via contact by using gestures to open doors, windows, cabinets/Specific gestures as a password. ESPECIALLY BATHROOMS!!!
• Dance to turn off alarm (shake your booty, oh yeah)
• For dance groups, being able to mark lines and formations (especially moving ones) with something other than tape on the floor (maybe LEDs embedded in the floor you can activate somehow, or projector on ceiling)
• For joggers/cyclists, being able to trace out circular routes for training (current map apps just calculate quickest or shortest route from point A to point B.
• For sports teams, training glasses(?) used as a screen that show the proper form/followthrough for certain actions (i.e. being able to view a shadow or outline of someone doing a proper golf swing or tennis swing) using a kinect perhaps?
• A fridge that you can program what groceries go in, and based on how often you buy certain items, will inform you of where/what nearby stores those foodstuffs are on sale at!
• A phone with basic functions controlled by eye movement for when you.re in class or wearing gloves
• For dance groups or any interested party, all dancers have earphones/headphones and being able to sync up all the dancers with the same music; distributed realtime playback of music/videos/etc. on personal, discrete device
• Sharing multimedia experiences discreetly on discrete devices. (i.e. a series of tables have ‘domes’ or ‘transmitters’, as you get closer to a ‘dome’ or table, your personal device ‘tunes in’ to whatever video/channel/music that table is currently playing or set to. If you like it, you stay, if you don’t, you can jump to another table; alternatively you could share material and view shared material with all users within a dome area)

Flashing words one-at-a-time at very large font size on treadmill, to work around bouncing problem

Chorded keyboard to use one-handedly without looking and without flat surface, eg texting from inside pocket

Occasionally, students fall asleep in lecture and snore. Wouldn’t it be great if we could detect that and zap them awake automatically?

Project lines and formations onto the floor, because anyone in a dance group knows that marking up the floor with masking tape is a pain

Direction-finding without looking at a map! We’ve illustrated several potential ideas: a “magic compass” on your watch, arrows on the underside of the brim of your hat, a vibrating belt…

This pod broadcasts media to everyone around it, on their own screen.

The idea that we chose to work on was a hands-free method of providing directions. We think this is something that has wide applicability and is also a problem that we have personally experienced. In addition, the problem seemed of an appropriate size for a semester project, and had the benefit that after we framed the problem we saw several very different approaches to solving it that seemed viable, so there is room to explore.

Target User Group:

Our target users are people using smartphones to find their way around an unfamiliar city while their hands are busy.

Problem description:

The normal way people use smartphones to find directions raises two problems. Firstly, the user needs to hold the phone in his hand, which makes it difficult to perform tasks that need the use of both hands, and might also be uncomfortable if the user is outdoors in a cold climate. Secondly, the phone also demands the user’s visual attention, which could be distracting at best, preventing him from enjoying the sights of the place he is visiting, and possibly even dangerous, since pedestrians using it might not notice hazards like oncoming vehicles while crossing a road. In addition, obvious displays of wealth (such as a smartphone) are bad ideas when traveling, if the user is worried about theft. Our solution will need to be lightweight, because it will often be used when traveling in a foreign place, possibly having arrived via airplane; it will have to stand up to reasonable amounts of jostling, moisture, and pressure; it needs to be as close to absolutely failproof as possible or at the very least fail gracefully in a way such that the user can still find his way around; it needs to be intuitive to use, since users will probably not want to put in substantial learning time to use a system that they may not use very often, and the entire point is to put direction-finding in the background of the user’s mind, so that they can better enjoy the place they’re exploring; and it will need to be cheap and easy enough to make that we can iterate quickly — anything requiring large amounts of custom hardware that we cannot make ourselves will not work.Previous solutions to the problem include audio prompts (which are unintuitive, slow, and can block out outside sounds).

Platform

The key element of our proposed solution to this problem is a belt with many small buzzers embedded along its length, inspired by the haptic belt from Stanford’s AI lab. The buzzers along the belt will be controlled by an Arduino which in turn receives direction information from the user’s smartphone over a wireless link. This will be paired with an app in the user’s phone that will determine the user’s current location and bearing using GPS and then obtain routes from a publicly available mapping service and send signals to the Arduino to activate the appropriate buzzer on the belt to indicate the direction the user needs to move in. This is an appropriate solution because it is lightweight and simple, and an Arduino is really the only feasibly way to provide tactile output, which seems to be the best way to convey this information unobtrusively. Because the Arduino can’t download directions on its own, a smartphone is the best way to add extra CPU power, internet access (including access to an online direction-finding API), and GPS coordinates. We are also considering a number of other possible places to position the vibrating motors on the user’s body — an ankle bracelet, around the rim of a cap, one on each foot — but a belt is easy to use, much less dorky-looking than the other options, and it is in contact with the user’s body all the way around; it is also less prone to being knocked off or stepped on than other parts of the body.

Final Project Ideas

Bereket Abraham
Andrew Ferg
Ryan Soussan
Lauren Berdick

Part I
Final Project Ideas

1. Smart food bin:
Problem: forgetting / not knowing how much food is left in your fridge
Possible solution: special bins for certain common foods that get used a lot. Use a (pressure?) sensor to detect how much is left. A computer will then send you alerts if you are running low. Or you can look up recipes based on what you have left.

2. Automatic bartender:
Problem: the amount of liquid poured in each cup can vary a lot. We desire a system to pour standard, repeatable amounts into each cup.
Possible solution: A small reservoir tank and an arduino controlling a valve. Similar to a water cooler.
Possible solution: Same as above but now the cups travel on a convenient conveyer belt.

3. E-composer:
Problem: Writing music down on a score is annoying / difficult.
Possible Solution: create a computer program where you play an instrument and the computer transcribes the music.

4. E-composer II:
Problem: We want something to transcribe a music file, and break it into individual instrument parts.
Possible Solution: Some computer programs take in a music file and convert it into a score with notes. We just need to separate the individual instruments.

5. Smart light switch:
Problem: Hard to remember to turn off the light and leaving them on wastes electricity. It’s also annoying to turn off the lights from bed.
Possible Solution: Programmable light switch.
Possible solution: monitor a person’s light switch and then use machine learning to look for patterns. Similar to an implementation used for eco-friendly thermostats.

6. Indoor Directions:
Problem: It’s hard to make good directions for buildings and wall maps are annoying to use.
Possible Solution: Have a central screen where you input your destination. The lights in the floor will guide you to your destination. Your movements are tracked with (pressure/vibration?) sensors. Or just light up the entire path.

7. Shower Notes:
Problem: Can’t take notes during a shower.
Possible Solution: Create a waterproof iPad case. Create a way to use the touchscreen across the plastic casing. Indirect contact.

8. Networked Alarm Clock:
Problem: Several time keeping devices, including your online calendar, alarm clock, and cell phone.
Possible Solution: Program that interfaces mostly with google calendar. You can sleep until a set time or until your next class. Sets alarms on the clock and text/calls you on your phone.

9. Printed To Do List:
Problem: There are many good productivity tools online. How do they convert to the real world?
Possible Solution: Create printed post-it notes for each task or set of tasks.

10. Laundry folder
Problem: folding laundry is a pain.
Possible Solution: robot.

11. Breadboard Simulation / Avatar
Problem: Making circuits is hard.
Possible Solution: When using a breadboard, your parts are simulated on a computer. Computer can tell you stats on every wire/part.

12. Better oscilloscope
Problem: hard to use. Needs better interface.

13. Traveling Salesman
Problem: When you have a lot of destinations/errands, it is hard to plan the optimal route / order of events.
Possible Solution: event planner that takes into account opening/closing times, map directions, relative proximity, etc.

14. Digitizing notes
Problem: Lots of old notebooks are thrown away to save space.
Possible Solution: save your notes with some kind of automatic scanner. Enable searching.

15. Save energy
Problem: Several types of exercise can also produce energy.
Possible Solution: Attach a generator to a exercise bike, treadmill,

16. Dry shoes / socks
Problem: Canvas shoes and loafers get wet very easily. Uncomfortable.
Possible Solution: chemical treatment.
Possible Solution: Some kind of quick drying system.

17. Automatic tailor
Problem: Hard to find right size for online clothes shopping.
Possible Solution: special shirt / pants that finds your size.

18. Outlet finder
Problem: Hard to find a plug.
Possible Solution: detect radiation from AC current.

19. Bathroom finder.
Problem: Can never find the bathroom when you need it.
Possible Solution: App looks up the building plans and finds the nearest bathroom.
Possible Solution: tag bathroom with homing signal.

20. Lost Keys
Problem: Always losing your keys and other small objects.
Possible Solution: Close range tracker

21. Hologram
Problem: We don’t have holograms.
Possible Solution: use sound to set up standing waves. Trap gas in the nodes and shine a laser through it. Thus you get pixels.

22. Singing trainer
Problem: Hard to sing / embarrassed to practice in front of other people.
Possible Solution: program with feedback, scales, and other tools.

23. Music Updater
Problem: Hard to keep up to date with all of the musicians you like.
Possible Solution: Make an app that tracks whenever one of you artists releases a new song or album on Spotify or iTunes.

24. Outdoor refrigerator
Problem: During the winter, people heat their houses then cool them again to refrigerate food. Wastes energy.
Possible Solution: Pipe in outdoor air to cool the refrigerator. Somehow connect it to the outside world without cooling the rest of the house.

25. Robot Puppy
Problem: Usual robotic pets are stupid / unfeeling.
Possible Solution: Mod a robotic dog so that it recognizes faces and/or gestures.

26. Personalized ads
Problem: A lot of ads are not relevant.
Possible Solution: look at the clothes / other of a person to determine what types of ads to display.

27. Input automation
Problem: It’s annoying to do long sequences of clicks or enters on a computer, especially if you have to do it a lot of times.
Possible Solution: Have a program that monitors a sequences of clicks and turns them into an exe. Thus, you can simply a difficult or annoying interfaces into a series of chunks.

28. Commercial muter
Problem: TV commercials are annoying.
Possible Solution: Make a device/app that mutes ads and/or plays music. Maybe also include a short game during the commercial break.

29. Read while moving
Problem: It’s hard to read or watch movies while on the treadmill, bike, erg, etc.
Possible Solution: create a program that tracks your head and moves the display to match you.
Possible Solution: create a simple version of Google Glass to read books. Miniprojector / Mini screen?

30. Color Blind
Problem: People who are color blind might accidently mismatch clothes.
Possible Solution: Create an app that checks colors to make sure they are what you think they are. Or converts them into RGB numbers or sounds.

31. Artificial Synesthesia
Problem: It would be cool to experience colors / sounds in a new way.
Possible Solution: create a program that converts paintings into sounds or music into colors in an interesting way. Also leads to a new way to interface with music / painting.

32. Regular laptop into touchscreen
Problem: Regular laptop is not a touchscreen.
Possible Solution: use an attachable sensor to detect either finger touches or a special pen on the screen, turning any normal screen into a touchscreen.

33. Auto Tie Tyer
Problem: When tying a tie, it’s hard to judge the proper length of the end ahead of time.
Possible Solution: program measures the tie and determines how much slack you should give to get the right length.

34. Noise cancelling
Problem: Sometimes you want to play an instrument late at night.
Possible Solution: Use the same tech as noise cancelling headphones. A device at the end of your instrument will exactly cancel out its noise. Only someone in its immediate vicinity can hear it.

35. LateX Math Handwriting Recognition
Problem: It’s annoying to use LaTeX – why can’t we just write math and digitize it? but computer-typeset math is very readable and modifiable. let’s build a system that lets you interact with a LaTeX document with just a hand-edited document.

36. Gesture control TV remote
Problem: this does not exist.
Solution: Wear gesture detecting device, i.e. a camera or kinect thing. Then hack a TV remote and use gestures to control a TV.

36. Gesture control bluetooth
Problem: It’s hard to easily move files.
Solution: Wear gesture detecting device, i.e. a camera or kinect thing. Then use gestures to move files between a computer and your wearable device (possibly with cloud storage).

36. Gesture control magnets
Problem: I do not have superpowers.
Solution: Wear gesture detecting device, i.e. a camera or flex sensors. Then use gestures to control electromagnets in your gloves.

37. Surveillance Orb
Problem: It is difficult to monitor an entire room by looking at multiple camera feeds.
Solution: Stitch several cameras together and display them onto an orb (panoramic view). Then use control stick or gestures to move around in the room.

38. Surveillance Drone
Problem: Need to move to a different city, and need to apartment hunt.
Solution: Attach a camera to a robot (drone). Drive around the apartment.

39. Latex Checker
Problem: There’s no way to check the math in a latex document
Solution: Send the latex math to a math solver (like Mathematica) to make sure results are correct

40. Shortcut Recommender
Problem: Do lengthy or repetitive tasks inefficiently
Solution: Monitor computer use and automatically recommend shortcuts (keyboard, external buttons) for actions

41. Software/Hardware Recommender
Problem: We don’t know what efficient technology is available
Solution: Program to monitor computer use, recommend software and hardware devices that might help the user improve efficiency or generally improve their computing experience

42. Facial Hair Planner
Problem: Don’t know what facial hair would look awesome on face
Solution: Program to display different facial hair styles on image of user

43. Foot Pedal Interactor
Problem: We don’t use our feet when we use computers
Solution: Foot Pad/ Buttons to control actions on computer and games

44. Projectable Interactor
Problem: Some actions in software, games don’t map well to the keyboard
Solution: Have image projected on desktop, sense touches on the image and respond the the actions, change image/layout for each program

45. Guitar Ear Trainer
Problem: Hard to learn to play by ear, inefficient feedback or need a second person
Solution: Program to play notes on a guitar, listen to guitarist’s response and note mistakes and accuracy

46. Resistive Electronic Pen
Problem: Electronic pens don’t have any resistance / feedback.
Solution: Make a pen with a magnet in the tip. Underneath the surface will be an electromagnet. More strength = more attraction = more surface friction. Maybe different brushes are more resistive.

47. Repelling Electronic Pen
Problem: Electronic pens don’t have any resistance / feedback.
Solution: Same thing as above, but now the electromagnet is repelling. You would also have a way of forcing the electromagnet to be directly under the pen. Now, the pen will have a buffer directly over the surface that it cannot penetrate. But, you could push down with different strengths, which controls about an inch of z direction. Would make for a really interesting click or button.

48. Rotation Cubes
Problem: Its hard to rotate in 3D modeling or AutoCAD software.
Solution: A series of networked cubes. Each cube rotates and translates selected objects. A special cube can be assigned to rotate globally.

49. Thermal Beanie/other piece of clothing
Problem: Clothes don’t always keep you at the temperature you want
Solution: Have heat pads in clothing item that adjusts heat to keep you at desired temperature.

50. Magnetic Adjuster knob
Problem: Traditional slider knobs are boring / uninteresting.
Solution: Create a floating magnet suspended between two electromagnets. You can move the magnet up and down within the field, and the electromagnets will detect this and adjust accordingly.

51. Child Tracker
Problem: Nerve racking leaving a child alone in a room
Solution: Have the child wear a specific color and track them with cameras. Make sure they don’t go to dangerous areas.

Part II

Winner: Smart Food Bins
Why This Project: Out of our 51 ideas, this one had the most direct plan to carry it out, a very obvious utility, and easily fits within the budget. We liked the magnetic gloves and synesthesia idea as well, however, they gave difficult mechanical and creative concerns, respectively. The food pads had a clear cut implementation and utility that we felt we could create during the semester.

Part III

Smart Food Bins
Target user group: Very busy adults who have to cook for a household. This would most likely benefit families, where the parents often cook for three or more people, or roommates who cook for themselves, or co-ops who cook for a group. Their hectic lives mean that keeping track of food amounts is a very burdensome chore, and the fact that there are multiple people in the household means that it’s harder to keep track of what’s available since everyone is constantly eating and changing the amounts left. Their needs mainly center around adequately feeding their families. Their wants include saving time by reducing the number of trips to the grocery store and saving money by reducing waste.

The closest group we could find to model our target group is college students eating independently in large groups. This would include members of food cooperatives and residents of Spellman that cook together.

Problem Description: People are not always aware of the amount of groceries they have in their refrigerator or food pantry, especially when they are away from home. They might forget to buy certain items at the store and not be able to make certain recipes. Also, refrigerators and pantries can get very cluttered and disorganized. Thus, people may not be able to easily figure out they have left and what they are able to cook.

Possible Solution: We would make pads for food that would stream to a website the amount of each food that is available. We would make pads out of a durable, waterproof fabric with pressure sensors inside them to detect the food’s weight. The pads would communicate wirelessly over Bluetooth to an arduino, which would then stream data over wifi to a website. Users can login to the website to check the percent of each food that they still have. Users can label each pad on the website (i.e. eggs, milk, cereal) to indicate what it stores. The pads would have buttons to set (by measuring or by manual entry) their minimum and maximum weight, so that for example if a box of cereal is being used, the minimum weight would be the empty box, and the maximum weight would be the full box. The pads could come in different shapes and sizes.

An extension on the website could be a recipe checker, that allows the user to check what they still need in order to make a certain amount of servings for a dish. Additionally, the website could recommend dishes to make based on the ingredients that the user has.