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Team Status Report for 4/29/2023

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 most significant risk is how fragile the pressure sensors are. We ordered extras, but currently have broken 3, which means that if we break any more, we might be down a glove. Because we have broken so many, we have gone ahead and ordered more sensors, although they might not get here in time. In addition, we are handling the pressure sensors with a lot of care so that they won’t break in the future. The backup plan is to have one fully working glove with the pressure sensors, and the other glove with as many pressure sensors as possible. While it might not be receiving pressure inputs, the CV code can still detect which key is being pressed.

 

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?  

We have not made any changes to the existing system design.

List all unit tests and overall system tests carried out for experimentation of the system. List any findings and design changes made from your analysis of test results and other data obtained from the experimentation.

Note accuracy -> We tuned each note that is being outputted to an online tuner and ensured that they were all correct.

Key segmentation -> We used multiple test images and assigned values to each key and saw that they were all different and correct.

Color thresholding -> We tested the paper piano printout in various different lighting and ensured that they all work.

Key Identification -> We tested each finger on each key and ensured that the correct note and finger were being detected.

Warp Consistency -> We tested the paper piano at different angles to ensure that it would work even if the piano wasn’t straight.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 4/29/2023

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).

This past week, I worked on assembling the gloves to the wrist strap that we ordered. This involved fully soldering the wires and resistors to the flexible breadboard, as well as connecting the battery pack to the gloves. Currently, everything is taped down because we want to verify that all of the components work seamlessly together before securing them down.

In these photos, it may appear that the gloves don’t fully fit my hand, but that is because these gloves are designed around Nish/Lee’s hands, which are slightly larger than mine.

In addition, I was able to fully send pressure values over Bluetooth, which can be received by the interface: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19v-FNZ2IqrRwa5q09mDdh1ZcA8WSYXcP/view?usp=sharing

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

My progress is slightly behind schedule because I hoped to produce both gloves by the end of the weekend. I will be working a lot on Monday to catch up to where I wanted to be.

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

This next week, I will be finishing up the gloves and working closely with Nish to execute all of our tests and verifications.

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Team Status Report for 4/22

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 most significant risk currently is still the integration of our entire project. Our entire CV portion is written in Python, while our interface is done in C++. We know that there are packages that are available that can use the code we wrote from Python and integrate it into our interface. However, we aren’t sure of the speed of using these packages as they are going to be slower than if we ran the CV using C++. We will be testing out this in the next week to see if the difference in speed is crucial for our project. The backup plan is to translate the existing code from Python into C++.

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?

There are currently no significant changes made to the existing design of the system.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 4/22/2023

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).

In the past week, I was able to flesh out all of the issues with the Arduino BLE Nano. One key thing that I didn’t account for was that the Arduino Uno that I was testing with previously ran on 5V, while the Arduino Nano runs on only 3.3V, which was affecting the numbers that we were receiving. However, I changed the resistor values so that we are able to read the inputs to the Arduino Nano now.

In addition, I have half-produced the gloves for our project. I connected and soldered all of the wires to the Arduino BLE Nano and connected them to the breadboard temporarily. We wanted to use a flexible breadboard for the final design, but we were waiting on that.

In addition, I have also been working on writing up the code for the interface that accesses the phone’s Bluetooth and connects to the Arduino BLE Nano. I have been following this video, which has been giving me a lot of helpful tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UolJHmZ0RFk

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

I think that my progress is behind schedule. I have been away for most of the past week, so a lot of the work that I wanted to do on producing the gloves was paused. I will be putting a lot more work into this in the next week in order to get my part back on schedule.

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

In the next week, I will spend all of my time finishing up the gloves and also finishing the interface Bluetooth connection.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 4/9/2023

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).

This past week, I was able to get Bluetooth connection from the Arduino Nano BLE onto my phone.

In addition, I was trying to transfer the circuit design of the pressure sensors onto the Arduino Nano BLE instead of the Arduino Uno. However, when I tried to do this, the outputs that the pressure sensors were giving me were random, unusable outputs. I have been trying to debug this problem, but I have not successfully found a solution. My theories as to why this is happening are that the specific Arduino Nano BLE that I have is not working perfectly or that the connections to the Arduino Nano BLE aren’t secure, since I haven’t soldered the pins onto the Nano.

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

I think that my progress is behind schedule. I have been having lots of difficulties with the Arduino Nano BLE and its connections, which makes it hard to test and move on with my part of the project. I will be spending a lot of time in the next week debugging the Arduino and getting it to work.

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

In the next week, I hope to figure out everything that is wrong with the Arduino Nano BLE and fix the issues so that I can work on integration in the next week. In addition, if I have time, I will be writing up the code for the interface to allow for the app to talk to the Arduino instead of another phone app that I downloaded.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 4/1/2023

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

This week, I finalized the orders for the pressure sensors. I also started to work on the Xcode interface. With Nish’s help, I was able to deploy a sample test code onto my phone from my laptop on Xcode. I found a video online that walks me through how to communicate with the Arduino Nano BLE and started to create a file that would be able to receive Bluetooth information from the Arduino Nano BLE. 

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

I think that our overall project is on schedule, but I am currently a little behind on my work. I had a very busy week but will be putting in more work next week to get back on track.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week

Next week, I will focus on being able to receive and communicate information with the Arduino Nano BLE. In addition, if we receive our pressure sensors next week, I will be assembling together the circuit for the gloves.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 3/25/2023

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

This week, I finished testing the pressure sensors. They are able to differentiate between the low, medium, and high pressure that we want for our project. They are relatively accurate and work well for our project.  We will be ordering them from Amazon in the next week after Nish and Lee test out the pressure sensors and see how they work for themselves.

Video of pressure sensors: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XjYCct6e8iyqOXaQRiQNeGvuUmjMI3tv/view?usp=sharing

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

I think that we are on track. We are making significant progress and will have a working project by interim demo.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week

Next week, I will focus on getting Kivy and OpenCV up and ready to go. On Monday, Nish and I will try to be able to open the camera and receive BLE information in our interface. If we don’t finish on Monday, we will use Wednesday as our buffer.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 3/18/23

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

This week, I set up a simple circuit to test the sensitivity of the pressure sensors we purchased. At the time of this status report, I am currently writing the code to test the sensors, so that when more than 50g of pressure is sensed, the light will turn on. This is the initial test to see if the sensors work correctly.

In addition to this, I have downloaded and set up Kivy and Xcode so that we are able to start writing the interface for the app next week. I also familiarized myself with the platforms so that I am comfortable to start writing code for it next week.

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

I believe that we are slightly behind schedule because the pressure sensor testing should have been done before/during spring break. However, because this step isn’t crucial to the progression of our project, I am able to continue it on the side while also working on the interface with Nish.What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

Next week, I will continue to stress test the pressure sensors and create a series of LED lights, each corresponding with a range of pressures (50g to 2g) to see how sensitive the sensors are.

I also hope to write some basic code in Kivy and Xcode so we can have an app interface complete before interim demos.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 3/11/2023

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

In the past week, I worked with the rest of my group to finalize our design report document. I was originally tasked to design the PCB that would connect the pressure sensors with the Bluetooth and microcontroller, but we changed our design to use the Arduino Nano BLE instead. So, in the past week, I helped research the documentation behind the Arduino Nano and how to best connect it within our system. I helped draw up an example diagram of how to best implement the gloves so that when our Arduino Nano BLE arrives, I can quickly assemble them together so that we can test them as quickly as possible.

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

Currently, I believe that our progress is on schedule. We have shifted our GANTT chart to account for our spring break. We will begin the bulk of our project when we return from spring break.

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

In the next week, I hope to research and download XCode and write a dummy file to test my abilities and the different functionalities that XCode has. In addition, if our Arduino Nano BLE arrives, I will be assembling the components on the gloves.

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Caroline’s Status Report for 2/25/2023

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

In the past week, I worked with the rest of my group to finalize our design presentation. In addition to this, I ordered a pair of pressure sensors to test on: 

We chose these sensors because they are lightweight and aren’t bulky. We hope that they will not interfere with the user’s finger movements and will not seem noticeable. We hope to test for its reactiveness and functionality to see if they will be the best sensors to use. Although these pressure sensors might not be the exact model of sensors we are going to use for our final product, we are using these to test our components and CV.  This allows for modularity in our system, so if one sensor breaks, it is easy to replace, without having to disrupt the whole system. I will design our PCB around this so it is convenient to replace.

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

Currently, I believe that our progress is on schedule. We aimed to have all of our parts ordered by this weekend and we are finalizing and ordering any remaining parts by tomorrow.

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

In the next week, I hope to create the breadboard for our PCB and order the PCB before spring break starts. This would allow us to not waste time waiting for the PCB to arrive.