This week, we began the process of assembling our product/system, with Jeffrey and Matthew doing work on assembling the prototype wearable, and Haowen beginning development work with the ANT-B10 antenna array. Additionally, we all worked on the design review to finalize details of our planned implementation.
At this point, the most significant risks are pertaining to the accuracy of the measurements we will receive, as well as the timeline for our product. Both risks were accounted for in our planned implementation in our design report. Our accuracy can not be truly gauged until we can begin real-world testing, so we have invested in the development of the prototype wearable based on the same system to begin development early. The prototype development will also help our general timeline, as we can begin code development/system ingreation in parallel with the bringup of the PCB.
Since last week, the only major change ot our system design was the substitution of a Raspberry Pi 4 instead of an FPGA. This decision, which was elaborated in our design report, was conducted based on testing from this week. It does not represent a significant deviation from our timeline, as the code for the FPGA was not planned until later, so we can simply replace the FPGA programming to-do with programming the Pi. Pictured in the prototype wearable that Matthew and Jeffrey began assembly of.
Special Considerations:
Part A was written by Jeffrey Liu
Geographically, our product solution could have a global reach, as swimming is not a localized activity and is done at a high level throughout all continents. However, although nothing about our solution is local to the Pittsburgh area, some of our use case research was based on US specific information, such as NCAA guidance for practice duration and team size. That is not to say that it would negatively affect global users of our product, as our product could be applied well anywhere in the world, but the use case was catered towards U.S-specific guidelines.
A larger impact may be found in the gap between those who are not technologically savvy and those who are. In our implementation, we are seeking to enable greater access to swimming metrics, aiding those who are less technologically savvy. In doing so, we are putting those with a medium technical proficiency on the same level of those with higher proficiency. However, in doing so, swimming teams with lower levels of technical proficiency may fall further behind, as they will not have access to information that more teams will now have access to. Similarly, this may negatively impact swimmers in teams or areas without the means to afford this solution. Although lower in cost than higher-end systems, the projected cost of our system (anchor + each wearable) may be beyond reach financially for certain teams
Part B was written by Matthew Kwee
The platform also should help athletes develop a better technical understanding of swimming. Having access to metrics like stroke rate, distance per stroke, and turn times will help driven swimmers understand how technique affects speed, allowing them to train smarter. However, continuous tracking can also cause stress if athletes feel they are constantly being watched and assessed. To prevent unnecessary performance anxiety and unhealthy peer comparison, the system includes privacy controls that lets teams turn off public leaderboards while allowing swimmers to see their personal improvement.
Part C was written by Haowen Huang
To save energy, the system uses power-efficient firmware. This can extend battery life, reduce the need for replacements, and create less battery waste. Processing data locally also reduces the need to send information to remote servers.
The system also uses random delays between transmissions to reduce the chance of multiple tags sending signals at the same time. Its modular design makes it easier to repair or replace individual parts, such as wearable tags, base stations, and computing devices, without replacing the entire system. This helps the equipment last longer and reduces electronic waste.