Category: Team’s Status Reports

A – Our product is a low cost alternative to other motorized pin displays. Our low cost and modular approach enables accessibility that can be sourced internationally, allowing replication in museums worldwide. This open and scalable approach encourages cross cultural collaboration in art installations. The ease of use enables users who are not well versed in technology.

B – LivePin is designed with sensitivity to cultural diversity and inclusivity in communication and collaboration. As an interactive system for museums and for children/adults, the device enables users to communicate three-dimensional ideas without reliance on a shared language or cultural context.  This visualization system reduces the potential for misinterpretation of visual or linguistic descriptions and promotes equality regardless of language proficiency. Moreover, by enabling hands-on, physical interaction with digital content, LivePin aligns with cultures that value craftsmanship and learning. The design also respects differing cultural expectations of professional communication by providing a neutral, technology-driven medium for expression and art.

C- Our solution addresses the need for rapid, tangible 3D visualization in classrooms and small exhibits without generating one-off physical waste. Instead of printing and discarding plastic prototypes for every iteration, the system renders forms on a reusable pin board, then resets for the next concept. This directly reduces consumables (no filament, supports, or failed prints) and cuts the time and material tied up in single-use models, while still giving viewers a clear, physical sense of shape and depth.

Environmental considerations are built into the design. The frame uses durable, recyclable aluminum. The guide plates are laser-cut for low scrap, and the pins are wooden dowels that are inexpensive, repairable, and biodegradable. During operation, staged actuation keeps power draw modest relative to continuous additive manufacturing, and the system produces no consumable byproducts once a visualization is complete, the board simply resets. Taken together, the design conserves materials, lowers operational waste, and supports responsible end-of-life handling through reuse and recyclability.

A was written by Crystal. B was written by Tedd J. C was written by Safiya

The most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project is the actuator and rack and pinion mechanism not working properly. In order to successfully actuate the pins, we will need this system to work or we will experience speed delays and inaccuracies. Another risk is the depth map not giving us accurate results. This could lead the wrong pins to be actuated even though they are just following the information from the depth map. The first risk is being managed by ensuring that we have proper design requirements so that the hardware does not run into any issues. The second risk is being managed by doing rigorous testing of the depth camera and ensuring that the heightmap from the camera is accurate. Further testing is currently being done to convert the heightmap to a depthmap. We have contingency plans set up to make sure that our product will still be successful. For the gantry system, we can sacrifice speed for more accurate actuation. For the depth camera, we can always find another camera to work with, ensuring that our options are not limited.

There were no changes made to the existing design of the system since the design presentation. We are pretty confident in our design, including the requirements, block diagram, and system specifications. We may run into issues that may require us to pivot from our current design, but so far we are confident in the design.

This is our schedule from the design presentation, and we are still on time with our work with no changes necessary.

A picture of visible progress this week:

The most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project might be the complexity of the design. Mechanically and Electronically it’s a little complex and out of our comfort zone, the most difficult part that could risk the feasibility is most likely the integration and getting software + firmware + hardware all working cohesively. To manage these risks, we are doing our best to separate each category of the design into different areas of responsibility so that each person will be accountable and an “expert” at their tasks. This will help us when debugging when it comes to the integration stage. Our contingency plan would be scaling down, we are prepared for the firmware and software part to be complicated so we are prepared to drop the “updating” nature of LivePin, and start with pre fed images to replicate on the board, without the human aspect and the “live” feature.

Yes, through concept sketching we found that some sort of clamping mechanism was necessary for the pinboard to stay upright, and we also found the need of limit switches in our design to mitigate the risk of the gantry from damaging itself, and also for the carriage to be able to “home” itself. This change was very necessary, in order for us to have a way to initially find where the carriage is in terms of its cartesian coordinates. This incurs the cost of a couple limit switches which are relatively cheap (less than 15 bucks total).

As an initiative to make museums and art exhibits more interactive, we propose to build a real-time 3D reconstruction system through a pin art board, called LivePin. This device will allow a user to place any 3D object in front of a camera in order to reproduce the image as a tactile 3D impression on a pin art board. Before you would have to physically press onto a pin art board to make it move and create an accurate impression, but now with our system, all you need to do is hold something in front of a camera and the pins will move automatically. We aim to design a budget friendly and efficient automated pin art board that captures the nostalgia of this wonderful childhood toy and turns it into a more technologically advanced interactive display. Additionally, while there are existing display boards that utilize a similar concept (like flipdot displays), there is no known device that moves pins automatically to create interactive designs. As a result, we hope to bring this unique idea into fruition for the future of museum and art exhibits as well as for children around the world.