Category: Innovative Switch/Sensor

1. Team Ahaar – The Get Back! Brooch
Oomung, Phuong Anh, Tzu-Ching and André

2. Ideal Product:

Get Back! is a brooch/pendant that visually and audibly shows the comfortable amount of personal space by the user. It uses a built-in infrared sensor to judge distance, and a Neopixel to show different colors. With these pieces, the product would judge the distance between the user and another person, and glow green to indicate acceptable, yellow to indicate discomfort, red to indicate anxiety, and pulsing red to indicate panic depending on distance. Ideally, it can also:

• Produce sounds when others are getting too close to the wearer
• Have an on/off switch
• Allow the wearer to set his/her own comfortable distance

Ideal User Scenario:

We envision this product as a discreet, daily wearable for those with crowd anxiety disorders, personal space issues, or women subject to subtle harassment by unknowingly aggressive people. This product would be switched on continually throughout the day, and act as a social advocate of sorts, alerting others to their behavior in a subtle way without pressuring the user to do so themselves.

A user scenario could be a young man with anxiety who wears the product as a lapel pin on his suit jacket. During a normal day at the office, whenever a colleague got uncomfortably close, the product would flash and alert them to slightly back away, at once restoring personal space for our young man and avoiding embarrassment for his colleague.

Where the Product Would Be Sold:

This product would be marketed as a “smart” fashion accessory, and could be sold at premium menswear clothiers, women’s fashion boutiques, and department stores.

3. The technical steps to our prototype:

1. Design the look
   
   
2. Design the circuit diagram
3. Code it
4. Get the materials: Sharp IR Distance Sensor, Neopixel ring (12 x WS2812 5050 RGB LED Ring), plastic case for the dome, 3D model design and some wires
5. Construct the device
   • Solder wires
   • 3D model and printed case
   • Attach everything together

We had some run-ins with the sensor not working properly as it was placed behind the transparent dome. Thus, we decided to sawed the front off. And it worked!!

4. If given more time on this project, we would:

Work out a way to hide all of the wires and it would have a small battery pack encased with the Neopixel.

5. By building this project, we learned:

How to design a form with the intention of a circuit board inside. We also learned to troubleshoot and try to fix the problems that came up along the way (both in coding and the process of making the casing and attaching all the parts together.

Oomung’s experience: Every time the code was iterated upon to solve old problems, new ones arose. This experience reaffirmed the difficulty and importance of coding and bug-testing. The key element for me was understanding the use of arrays to generate an average ‘smooth’ input from the raw and glitchy analog input. Also, understanding the circuit board and electronic components helped in form development, wherein our design fit together all the pieces while maintaining our core sense of aesthetics.

6. Other potential applications

• Mounted on a wall next to paintings in a gallery, to let people know if they’re being too close
• Late night protection wear on the back: warning people with bad intention that the wearer is aware they are there.
•  Don’t touch my hairpin

7. Our code

/this code requires the Sharp.IR code libary and a sharp ir sensor, the VFL has them to lend out
#include

//this specifies what model and pin the sensor is on, i called it sensor
SharpIR sensor(GP2YA41SK0F, A2);

#include
#ifdef __AVR__
#include <avr/power.h>
#endif

#define NUM_LEDS 12

#define BRIGHTNESS 5

const int numReadings = 50;

int readings[numReadings]; // the readings from the analog input
int readIndex = 0; // the index of the current reading
int total = 0; // the running total
int average = 0; // the average

//you all know what this is

#define PIN 6

//specify the which type of neopixel strip this is, RGBW
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(12, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
strip.begin();
strip.show(); // starts with all the pixels off
// initialize all the readings to 0:
for (int thisReading = 0; thisReading < numReadings; thisReading++) { readings[thisReading] = 0; } } void loop() { // subtract the last reading: total = total - readings[readIndex]; // read from the sensor: readings[readIndex] = sensor.getDistance(); // add the reading to the total: total = total + readings[readIndex]; // advance to the next position in the array: readIndex = readIndex + 1; // if we're at the end of the array... if (readIndex >= numReadings) {
// ...wrap around to the beginning:
readIndex = 0;
}

// calculate the average:
average = total / numReadings;
// send it to the computer as ASCII digits

Serial.println(average);
delay(1); // delay in between reads for stability

//an if+else reacting to 3cm-10cm distance with a specific color for every individual pixel

//first led
if (average >22) {
strip.setPixelColor(0,strip.Color(0, 217, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(0, 0);
strip.show();

//second led
}if (average == 22) {
strip.setPixelColor(1,strip.Color(10, 217, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(1, 0);
strip.show();

//third led
}if (average == 21) {
strip.setPixelColor(2,strip.Color(30, 190, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(2, 0);
strip.show();

//fourth led
}if (average == 20) {
strip.setPixelColor(3,strip.Color(60, 150, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(3, 0);
strip.show();

//fifth led
}if (average == 19) {
strip.setPixelColor(4,strip.Color(150, 120, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(4, 0);
strip.show();

//sixth led
}if (average == 18) {
strip.setPixelColor(5,strip.Color(150, 100, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(5, 0);
strip.show();

//seventh led
}if (average == 17) {
strip.setPixelColor(6,strip.Color(150, 70, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(6, 0);
strip.show();

//eighth led
}if (average == 16) {
strip.setPixelColor(7,strip.Color(150, 60, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(7, 0);
strip.show();

//ninth led
}if (average == 15) {
strip.setPixelColor(8,strip.Color(150, 40, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(8, 0);
strip.show();

//tenth led
}if (average == 14) {
strip.setPixelColor(9,strip.Color(180, 20, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(9, 0);
strip.show();

//eleventh led
}if (average == 13) {
strip.setPixelColor(10,strip.Color(217, 0, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(10, 0);
strip.show();

//twelvth led
}if (average <=12) {
strip.setPixelColor(11,strip.Color(0, 217, 0));
strip.show();
} else {
strip.setPixelColor(11, 0);
strip.show();
}

}
/

Team: Xuan, Rhea, Hannah, Micah

Update

The code is working and the lights are reactive to sound. Unfortunately, the fill lights in the background are not working, there may be a wiring issue. It will have to be looked into later.

Previous

It doesn’t quite work, but it will soon! We were pretty ambitious with the design of this project and perhaps aimed a bit too high for the “rough prototype” level. But it’s just so pretty and we’re pretty proud. Below are the pictures of the prototype of the model:

Continue reading “Shhhhhhhhhh! ambient sound sensor”

Team 👻 Group Member Names: John Boran, Evie Cheung, Eugenia Ramos, Yangying Ye

In an Ideal World: An Uplifting, Immersive Bubble Experience

If our project had worked as planned, this motion-sensor bubble machine would be great in multiple settings. It could be used for the following:

+ To bring delight to children at a hospital and be an uplifting reminder against the typical, drab hospital environment Continue reading “Bubble Experience Fail? 😰”

The technical steps you took to achieve your prototype:

We first came up with the idea to make a product which helped let someone know when they are playing music too loud.

The first step was to figure out the coding and try to understand the mic and coding for the mic. Once we got the mic to work with coding found from Becky’s recommendation, we decided to use a pixel stick as it would be bright enough to send off a visual sort of alarm to the person playing music too loud.

We played around with the coding for many hours and finally were able to figure out the right “if statements” and the right threshold for the volume of sound we wanted the sensor to react to.

We decided we wanted the design of the product to look somewhat like a fire alarm, where it would be white and mounted on the wall. We built our prototype for this out of wood and painted it white and made it so that the breadboard and circuit could fit nicely inside of the box with a transparent plastic on top for the light to shine through. Below are some of our process photos:

SoundSnitch2 from Antya Waegemann on Vimeo.

What did you learn from building this project?

Even though the whole mechanism is quite simple, there are still details needed to be work on very well in order for it to work properly. For example, we needed to transfer the measurement volume of the sound from the numbers in the Arduino code to the decibel in real life. This was something what we did not fully expect. How we completed that was to using a sound measuring app to measure the volume of some music we thought to be on a level exceeded which would be annoying. So even to make a very simple ideas into application, many unexpected details will need to taken care off.

What you would do next/differently if given more time on this project:

If we had had more time, then we would have incorporated an app remote into our project.

This would have allowed for the user to adjust the threshold. Thereby, the user would be able to customize the product to their need and linking.

Furthermore, it would be interesting to explore the input sensor our product and utilizing the output possibilities build within the smartphone.

Maybe, we could make the phone vibrate, when the threshold was reached?

Code:

 // NeoPixel Ring simple sketch (c) 2013 Shae Erisson
// released under the GPLv3 license to match the rest of the AdaFruit NeoPixel library

#include 
#ifdef __AVR__
#include <avr/power.h>
#endif

// Which pin on the Arduino is connected to the NeoPixels?
// On a Trinket or Gemma we suggest changing this to 1
#define LED_PIN1            (5,6)
// How many NeoPixels are attached to the Arduino?
#define NUMPIXELS      16
// Defining the mic
#define SAMPLE_WINDOW 33 // Sample window width in mS (33 mS = ~30 Hz)
#define MIC_PIN       A1 // ANALOG pin # where microphone "OUT" is connected
#define THRESHOLD     625

// When we setup the NeoPixel library, we tell it how many pixels, and which pin to use to send signals.
// Note that for older NeoPixel strips you might need to change the third parameter--see the strandtest
// example for more information on possible values.
Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels = Adafruit_NeoPixel(NUMPIXELS, LED_PIN1, NEO_GRBW + NEO_KHZ800);

  int delayval = 200; // delay 


  void setup() {
  // This is for Trinket 5V 16MHz, you can remove these three lines if you are not using a Trinket
  #if defined (__AVR_ATtiny85__)
  if (F_CPU == 16000000) clock_prescale_set(clock_div_1);
  #endif
  // End of trinket special code
  // Start mic setup
  pinMode(LED_PIN1, OUTPUT);
  // initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  // make the pushbutton's pin an input:
  pinMode(MIC_PIN, INPUT);

  pixels.begin(); // This initializes the NeoPixel library.
}

  void loop() {
int inputaudio = analogRead(MIC_PIN);
Serial.println(inputaudio);
  // For a set of NeoPixels the first NeoPixel is 0, second is 1, all the way up to the count of pixels minus one.
if (inputaudio > THRESHOLD){
  Serial.println("Threshold has been exceeded");
  for(int i=0;i<pixels.numPixels();i++){

  // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255
    pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(255,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color.

  //pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware.
  
  //delay(delayval); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds).
  //   
  //pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255
  //pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color.
  
  //pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware.

  //delay(delayval); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds).

  }
  pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixe
  delay(delayval); // Delay for a period of time (in milliseconds).
  for(int i=0;i<pixels.numPixels();i++){

   // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255
   pixels.setPixelColor(i, pixels.Color(0,0,0)); // Moderately bright green color.
    
}
  pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixe
  delay(delayval); // Delay 
}

//  // Listen to mic for short interval, recording min & max signal
//  unsigned int signalMin = 1023, signalMax = 0;
//  unsigned long startTime = millis();
//  while((millis() - startTime) < SAMPLE_WINDOW) {
//    int sample = analogRead(MIC_PIN);
//    if(sample < signalMin) signalMin = sample; //    if(sample > signalMax) signalMax = sample; 
//    { 
//    int peakToPeak = signalMax - signalMin; // Max - min = peak-peak amplitude
//  int n = (peakToPeak -1) / 4;          // Remove low-level noise, lower gain
//  if(n > 50)    n = 50;                 // Limit to valid PWM range
//  else if(n < 0) n = 0;
//  analogWrite(LED_PIN1, n);   // And send to LEDs as PWM level
//  // read the input pin:
//  int buttonState = digitalRead(MIC_PIN);
//  // print out the state of the button:
//  Serial.println(buttonState);
//  delay(1);        // delay in between reads for stability 
//  }
//  }
  }