Team Status Report for Feb 11

Our project considers the environmental, societal, and cultural values of our target consumer in the context of current economical and global trends.

Economic & Global Considerations

Breaking into the consumer electronics  market from a high fashion/ luxury standpoint not only capitalises on the increasing value ( Expected value of $USD 186.14 billion by 2030) of the wearable segment, but it also takes advantage of the movement in the fashion industry towards digitisation and virtual design [2].

The optimal target market demographic for this project is consumers of all demographics between the ages of 15 – 35, as they represent $350 million of spending power in the US as of 2020 [3]. Additionally, according to a 2023 forecast conducted by the business of fashion [4],  the younger generation prioritises spending money on fashion over traditional entertainment categories (e.g. dining, music media etc.)

Environmental, Societal and Cultural Considerations

We believe our product aptly considers the needs and values of our proposed user base.

The key differentiation factor of our product is that it enables users to purchase a single accessory that they can easily customise through an associated application. Unlike previous, generations younger consumers place a high value on fashion that reflects their values and self expression [3], with 82% of GenZ believing fashion is an important tool to establish identity [5]. We believe our product directly address this trend towards personalisation, by enabling users generate unique to articulate their individuality.

Moreover, we believe our product offers an environmentally sustainable option, by promoting reduced consumption. Adaptable fashion inherently has a larger number of use cases than traditional apparel. Cyber jewellery can be instantly adjusted for different events, trends or environments, reducing the need to buy multiple products for different situations. This is economically beneficial and reduces strain on the environment by limiting material, product and distribution wastes. Furthermore, emphasising the sustainability of our product appeals to the ethical values of our market. Specifically, younger consumers tend to spend more on sustainable products.

Sources:

  1. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/wearable-technology-market#:~:text=How%20big%20is%20the%20wearable,the%20wearable%20technology%20market%20growth%3F
  2. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/state-of-fashion
  3. \https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Retail/Our%20Insights/Renewed%20optimism%20for%20the%20fashion%20industry/The-state-of-fashion-2018-FINAL.ash
  4. https://www.businessoffashion.com/reports/news-analysis/the-state-of-fashion-2023-industry-report-bof-mckinsey/
  5. https://www.businessoffashion.com/reports/retail/gen-z-fashion-in-the-age-of-realism-bof-insights-social-media-report/

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?

The key issues we have identified that present the capacity to jeopardise our project center around two factors: user comfort and communication between our device and the application interface:

Size, Weight & Ergonomic Constraints

As our group is not addressing a particular existing need, but rather attempting to create product that offers a unique luxury experience for consumers, it is important for us to focus on delivering a comfortable and safe product to appeal to our end-user. Thus our largest design hurdle will be working around the small weight and size constraints.

To address this issue from a design standpoint we are looking at potentially adopting an ear cuff design to increase the available surface area we have to work with and to reduce strain on the ear lobe. Additionally, though we had originally considered casting our design in metal, we have researched alternative, more lightweight materials such as biopolymers and resins. Beyond research, throughout the design process we plan to periodically prototype, test (user trials, stress tests etc.) and refine our design to optimise user comfort. 

From a hardware perspective, we also believe that there will be a risk that the overall size of the PCB and battery will exceed our proposed constraints. We plan to  manage the PCB size risk by thinking about the PCB design as early as possible. We need to identify the additional circuit components besides the microcontroller and think about how we can use as least components as possible. Additionally, if the battery we need to use to fulfill the battery life requirement exceeds the required size, we plan to prioritize the size requirement and consider shortening the required battery life.

BLE Communication

Additionally, we anticipate that achieving reliable and fast communication between our application and peripherals will be a major obstacle across the course of our project.  We have planned to use BLE due to its high data transfer rate and high compatibility with smartphones, however there is a potential to have issues getting the BLE to work with a python script.

The BLE risk is managed through developing firmware on the nucleo boards. Nucleo boards are easier to work with than customized PCB. Making the peripheral driver work first on nucleo is an effective way to manage the BLE risk. Additionally, we found a GitHub repo that demonstrates the BLE functionality on STM32WB: https://github.com/vladimir-vakhter/stm32wb55_ble_p2p/blob/main/STM32_WPAN/App/app_ble.c. Consulting the code in this repo when get stuck is also a strategy on managing the BLE risk. Since STM32 firmware is generally finicky, a contingency plan is using another microcontroller that has BLE functionality such as ESP320.

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward? ” Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred:

At this point in time, we have not made any significant updates or changes to the design or schedule presented in our proposal. As our project is highly dependent on physical design constraints, we are currently waiting to receive our parts and conduct initial testing before we present a fully fleshed out design.  We aim to finalise our development plans and preliminary designs across hardware, software and industrial design this week to ensure we are fully prepared and streamlined for when our parts arrive

Shize’s status report for Feb 11

This week, I contributed to the slides for our proposal presentation. I contributed mostly to the technical challenges and solution approach: hardware sections. By finishing these slides, I identified 5 technical challenges and proposed a hardware solution to our project that can potentially address the technical challenges. I did research on different microcontrollers we can use for our project and pinpointed the STM32W series as the processor we will use. I also suggested ordering two nucleo boards for firmware development, one for each of the team members who are responsible for hardware development.

The progress is on schedule.

In the next week, I hope to get the nucleo board and setup the toolchain. I will also start on getting the BLE working with a python script. My goal for the next week are getting the toolchain up and running and getting myself familiarize with the BLE peripheral on STM32WB55.

Madi’s Status Report for Feb 11

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours). 

The primary objective for me this week was to conduct research and work on the initial stages of planning our project. 

During the front end of the week, I focused on assisting with scheduling and task division, user/market research and developing the physical design and iOS application use case requirements for the proposal presentation. I communicated with my team members to develop a list of tasks and rough scheduling timeline to create a Gantt Chart. I attempted to segment our project as much as possible into smaller, achievable goals.

To accurately understand the design requirements for the outer casing/physical component of our project, I started by surveying the market of existing products. This involved gathering data from e-commerce sites associated with the consumer habits of our proposed market regarding earring size, material, type and backings. Information was compiled into a spreadsheet to enable us to develop realistic design constraints. Additionally, I conducted further research into safety guidelines for skin safe wearable materials, thermal ranges for parts in contact with skin, jewellery weight limits and design factors that can lead to dangerous conditions for consumers (i.e. ear infections, scarring , tearing etc). 

I also worked on developing the solutions approach for the iOS application. I looked at several different development avenues, including developing a cross platform application using React, or working with a combination of Apple’s UIKit. Due to our limited time and scope for this project, ultimately SwiftUI was chosen due to its higher compatibility for iOS 16 and better support for user interface development. I also looked into the APIS & libraries we could potentially use to interface with our wearable (CoreBlueTooth & CoreData). After determining an appropriate solutions approach, to gain a.  I looked over documentation and tutorials on the apple developer website as well as some existing projects for BLE communication on GitHub.

After the presentation, whilst our group waits for hardware parts I took the opportunity to start planning the user interface for our application. This has involved analysing existing mobile applications for smart home devices and lights, wearables and other bluetooth devices. This enabled me to gain a better understanding of the layouts, user flows and components that will provide an optimal user experience. Additionally I started working on a design system in figma (colour scheme, typography, component design and graphic elements). I also created a preliminary user flow diagram and started working on low fidelity wireframes. 

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule? 

According to the Gantt chart I am currently on schedule. 

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

By the end of next week I hope to have all planning for the software completely done and to have possibly started working on some of the front end. I also hope to work with my other group members to have finalised a few options for the physical design of our earring.

Saniya’s Status Report for Feb 11

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours). 

During this week, I focused my time on two objectives: preparing the proposal presentation and handling the parts for our project. After submitting the presentation material last Sunday, I prepared during the week leading up to the presentation on Wednesday. To prepare, I familiarized myself with all the concerns relating to the execution of our project and researched our implementation strategies to better be able to answer any questions that were asked of me.

After the presentation, I was able to submit our parts for order and I began going through the datasheets for each of the major components (primarily the microcontroller and the two screens: the LED matrix and the LCD).  I also began familiarizing myself with the frameworks for connectivity protocols in iOS and researching other projects using the Swift Core Bluetooth (BLE) framework. Additionally, while waiting for the parts to arrive, I began researching manufacturing options for the physical casing of the earring and the electrical components. I’ve looked into SLA printing for some of the internal structure compoments, since the material options for SLA printing are far less heavy and heat conductive, and metal 3D printing (ideally 316L stainless surgical-grade steel) manufacturing companies. Finally, I read up on the specific capabilities of DotStar LEDs. We were intially thinking to build our MVP with a NeoPixel LED matrix component, but after some searching, we found the form factor of the DotStar LED matrix we selected better suited our interests. Dotstars have much faster data rates than NeoPixels, which expands our pattern options to involve movement.

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?  

According to the plan set out in our Gantt chart, I am currently on schedule.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

In the next week, I hope to begin developing preliminary hardware designs (block diagrams, drawings preceding CAD for the earring casing) while waiting on the parts to arrive.  Once the parts arrive, I intend to start building test circuits immediately and learning to invoke basic functionalities in isolated testing.