Bradley Zhou’s status report for 2/27/21

This week, I did more in depth research on specific implementation details and design specifications. I revisited some of the previous decisions we had made, such as what Arduino modules for our pen and what libraries we would use for the gesture recognition. Previously, we had decided on the MPU6050 module, but I discovered a module called BNO085 that boasts finer detail and sensors with lower latency. We plan on exploring both options in our development phase. We also had previously decided to use openpose for our gesture recognition, but the computational intensity of it made it a suboptimal option. I started looking into using OpenCV to tradeoff a small amount gesture accuracy for a much faster response time. Using OpenCV also simplifies the feature of letting users define their own gestures. In our development phase, we will most likely explore OpenCV first. I made a plan for our development process for the pen, specifically around prototyping on breadboards while we develop the software before we finalize the ergonomic design of the pen. I made a spreadsheet of the materials we need to buy. I worked a little bit on the design presentation that will be presented in two weeks. Our next step, after receiving the parts that we ordered, will be to start familiarizing ourselves with the sensors by reading the documentation and decide on how all the modules will be connected to the main arduino board. After that, I can start planning on the software that will actually track the pen movements using the sensor data. This will most likely require lots of iteration and bring in elements of control systems that we will need to do additional research on. Overall, I think we are on pace to completing this project.