Jade Wang’s Status Report for 2/20/2021
This week, I did some research in ways that we could implement our project idea, as well as met with Jenny and Bradley to discuss the details of our project design. Last week, we had already solidified that our overall system would include a pen, body expressions, projector, and some way to connect our inputs (from the user) to our outputs (laptop screen updating to projector). Thus, I looked into different ways we could make this happen.
As for our first input, the pen, I looked into different programmable circuit boards that would be on the smaller end and had bluetooth compatibility. After narrowing it down to an Arduino Pro Micro for its manageable size that would work as a part of the pen, I found that the Bluetooth HC-05 piece would work as a way to relay input from the user’s movements to the laptop. I found several posts giving evidence that this has been done in the past and are pieces that we could work with: Resource 1 Resource 2 Resource 3
Furthermore, I researched the different kinds of projectors that we could use for our purposes of projecting into an average sized room and with average resolution. I found that they vary a lot in terms of engine type (DLP, LCD, LED, laser, etc.), resolution, size, price, and more. For the nature of our project, it was important to find one that be able to work indoors, had a manageable size, and was within our budget. Although I didn’t narrow it down to a specific projector, I researched many that were a manageable size and had a good enough resolution for our purposes such as the AAXA P& Mini Projector
I also had many video conferences with Jenny and Bradley throughout the week as we discussed the implementation of our project and flushed out more details for our presentation. As we discussed, I helped to put together a draft of our proposal presentation and then finally flush out a final one that would be interesting. We wanted to put as little words a possible on our presentation so our audience wouldn’t just be reading our slides, so I helped in writing most of our presentation details in the speaker notes, and putting icons that would accurately represent what we wanted to talk about in our actual slides.
As of now, I think we are on schedule. We were able to flush out our design and I feel ready to dive into building! This week, I will finalize exactly which parts we are going to purchase. I will create a budget outline to ensure that we can afford all of them with a little buffer as well in case parts break or don’t end up working in our design. After purchasing them, I will start familiarizing myself again with the Arduino IDE and library.