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Zhichun Zhao’s report for Apr.29

This week I continued to focus on the foot sensor. I doubt that the foot sensor has a stability problem that makes it unable to report whenever pressure is applied, so I consulted the professor after the lecture. Luckily, Professor Gary gave a very helpful suggestion: I change the calculation method and soldered all components together and the data seemed to report the pressure correctly. Attached below is a screenshot of the output of the pressure sensor.

For the next week right before the demo, I will meet with my teammate to connect the foot sensor with the website. We will also test the system one last time before the demo to make sure it works properly.

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Team Status Report for April.22

This week, our team prepared for the final presentation together. We build the slides, and did experiments together to determine the data that we put on the slides.

Jasmine integrated Bluetooth into the tracking page and quaternion page and worked with Sydney to properly parse the data received into usable data for the quaternion generation. Jasmine aimed to have the algorithm fully done to determine back curvature because she has also been analyzing the data patterns when a back is bent.

Sydney finished implementing and testing the Bluetooth and tested to make sure that our device works with the battery. Sydney also got the visualization partially working on the website, as Jasmine was able to help her with transferring the data between pages. For the upcoming week, Sydney is going to continue refining the visualization and testing to make sure that it matches our expectations.

Zhichun revised the physical part of the back system, tested the circuit and collected the result, and organized them into a spreadsheet. She also worked on the final presentation with the data recorded from the device. Next week, she will focus on further testing and building the feet circuit.

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Zhichun Zhao’s April 22

This week, I revised the physical part of the back system. I adjusted the battery pocket size to better fit the battery cord length and height. I also sewed the physical part of the feet sensor system together. At first, I designed a strap that fit both the leg and the bottom of the feet in order to accommodate the force sensor, the battery, and the Arduino nano chip. As I discussed this idea with my teammate, we found out that this idea might not be the easiest to use for users, so we changed the design to a strap that only has to wrap around the leg and have the users put the force sensor under their sole.

For the circuit part, I tested the circuit and collected the result, and organized them into a spread sheet. The table with results will be used in the final presentation.

My group mate and I also worked on the final presentation slides. Next week, I will focus on further testing and building the feet circuit.

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Team Status Report for April.8

This week, our team’s work is on track. Jasmine worked on finalizing the tracking page and worked on the cloud deployment. Sydney worked on adding quaternion animation to the website to accomplish seeing the quaternions over different points in time visualize. Zhichun worked on building the circuit on the feet to enable pressure detection on both feet.

For the next week, Jasmine is going to finalize our algorithms for back detection by trying different inputs on the website to ensure nothing breaks. Sydney is going to work on the Bluetooth with the onboard quaternion processing with the new Arduino board and begin transmitting one characteristic of data to the web service. Zhichun is going to implement the code for the pressure sensor with Arduino. Our team will utilize the time over the spring carnival break to work on our project and make sure it stays on track.

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Zhichun’s Status Report for Apr.8

This week I focused on building the circuit on the feet, and I think my progress is on track. This circuit is supposed to be able to detect pressure. Our team chose to accomplish this by building a pressure sensor, and I built a voltage divider with the sensor and a resistor. With the different amounts of pressure, the resistance of the pressure sensor will be changed, and by measuring the voltage in between the pressure sensor and the resistor, I will be able to get the amount of force applied to the pressure sensor.

My contribution to this project is the physical part of the vest and the circuit of the lower pressure system, I will analysts and evaluate them by seeing if they are functional.

For the next week, I plan to implement the code for the pressure sensor with Arduino, and I found an article online explaining a similar subject to this.

https://srituhobby.com/how-the-voltage-sensor-module-works-with-arduino/

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Zhichun Zhao’s Weekly Status Reports for Apr.1

This week I focused on the physical level of the project. I designed and built a wearable system with expandable straps and buckles that fit the accelerometers, the Arduino, and the power banks. I used the sewing machine along with the straps that I ordered at the beginning of the semester, but since the machine stopped working after the first 20 minutes of use, I had to sew the sensors on to the bands manually. This made the process more time-consuming and took longer than I expected. Fortunately, I completed the wearable part by the end of the week.

For the next week, I will start focusing on the tracking page as well as the demo with my teammates.

 

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Zhichun Zhao’s Status Report for March.25

This week, I focused on two parts. The first part is the tracking page. Since I have not been coding for websites for a year now, I did some research on tutorials that can guide me to build a timer, and I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49f1cjZWRJA to be a good fit for what the tracking page needs. I also follow the django guide to set up the virtual environment and downloaded the newest version of django on my laptop, as now I am prepared to implement the actual timer. I hope to get a working timer next week for the tracking page.

The second part is the physical hardware. I am planning to sew the sensors onto the wearable fabrics during the lecture time on Monday. In order to do this, I went to Techspark on Sunday and learned how to use the sewing machine in the workshop. I also learned how to sew with needle and thread for more delicate or smaller parts of the sensor. I believe my skill is prepared to satisfy my teammates’ requirements and I will be able to complete the sewing process on Monday.

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Rachel Zhao’s Status Reports for Mar. 18

This week I focused on the Ethics Assignment. After reading the paragraphs that are posted, I gained a new understanding of what ethics in designing a capstone project is and what I can do to make sure my project stays ethical.  We also planned a meeting to further discuss the ethics in our project as a group.

On my own part of work, I am mostly confused when working on my own. Since I have not been working on a web development project since a year ago, much of the knowledge is forgotten and I am struggling to fulfill the demand of the group. I am not sure what I can do about the situation I am facing.

I plan to reach out on stack and see if there are any TA who is experienced in website development, and I will also dig deeper into the ethic of our project by listening to the lectures given next week.

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Team Status Report for Mar. 4

This week our team focused on building the design review report and had a few instructing discussions on where we are focusing based on our current resources and capability. Jasmine is on track to work on the website development part of our project, while Sydney is waiting on our parts to arrive.  Rachel had a medical accident that made her hospitalized and unable to catch up on work during spring break. Our team is planning to discuss redesigning the schedule based on the current setback and hardware and human resource limitations. We also look forward to receiving advice from the faculty and course staff. Our plan next week is to reach out to ECE receiving office to check on the arrival of our parts and to order some parts at a faster speed if it is financially allowed.

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Zhichun Zhao’s Status Report for Mar. 4

This week I mainly focused on building the design review document. We held multiple team meetings together to discuss further details of the design, and we are becoming more explicit about our design goal.

Due to a personal medical accident, I was hospitalized and could not work during spring break, during which I planned to work on website development. I plan to reach out to the course staff and my group mates to see if we can adjust the schedule so I can catch up on my work. I am also concerned about the parts that we are still waiting on. I reached out to course staff and the receiving office of the ECE department and have not gotten any response yet.