This week’s main goals were to integrate image scanning with OpenCV, to work on our decoding algorithm, and to get the Raspberry Pi encoding system working. Shivani and Snigdha worked together to get the CV to output data that could easily be processed by the decoding algorithm, which we also developed this week.
Caroline
This week, I set up the first Raspberry Pi with WiFi, git, and javascript libraries. I also installed CUPS to get the Raspberry Pi to work with the HP printer we got, but did not realize that I needed to order a printer cable, so now we are waiting on that. I also got I2C communication working with the LCD screen, and I have the pi running our image encoding system, as well as a button for input. For next week, my goal is to get the system running end-to-end with the button, the screen, the keyboard, and the printer.
Snigdha
This week, I worked on adding randomization and encryption to our encoding algorithm. I did this by varying the selected shapes for a character such that a pattern that requires a 4 edged shape could randomly pick between squares, rectangles, and diamonds, for example. I also added an encryption algorithm that relies on mapping the alphabet to a qwerty pattern to shuffle around the letters of the message. I also spent time this week writing a decoder that took in the results from the CV detection in a CSV format, and processed them to determine the input message. This requires a bit more integration testing with the CV but works with manual unit tests. I also discussed a couple alternative encoding ideas with Shivani regarding encoding the data in an existing image that was not a direct 1-to-1 mapping, taking advantage of the existing attributes in various images. This idea is something that we will look into a bit more after preparing for the midpoint demo.