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Alan’s status report for 02/24/24

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).

At the start of the week, I worked on rehearsing the presentation and preparing for questions. Once it was past, I focused on the design review, bluetooth connection, and sensor testing. I finished the sections that were assigned to me in the status report, successfully tested the color sensor and the temperature sensor (using an arduino nano), and found good references for bluetooth connection, both on the arduino side and on the React side.

Unfortunately, this week, Matt and I noticed the seeed boards are quite spotty in their connection to the computer (when testing and uploading arduino code), so we’ve decided to use a different board. We are still deciding on the new board, but the current options we are considering are Adafruit ble boards, Arduino nano ble, Arduino Uno R4 Wi-fi (which is bluetooth capable), and the bluetooth module for non-bluetooth capable boards sold by Arduino.

Erin and I also decided to rebase the app to use the Expo framework (which works on top of React Native). This will make development and bluetooth integration smoother. I helped her with setup and creating the new codebase.

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

I am ahead of schedule on sensor testing, on schedule with the design report, and behind schedule with the bluetooth code (due to issues with the seeed boards and our decision to move to Expo). I will have plenty of time next week to work with our new board and codebase to bring progress to schedule.

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

By next week, I hope to have received the new board and be working on it with a basic bluetooth project. I also hope to work with Erin on the app, working on the backend for local database connection and to integrate it with the bluetooth library (though bluetooth may not be completely finished by next week).

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Erin’s Blog Post 2/24

  • 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 week (12+ hours).

This week we had to migrate from Metro react native to Expo react native due to the lack of resources for Metro react native apps with bluetooth. I found a different boiler plate for this and began to restart the progress on the app. I also worked a lot on the Design Report and slides. I CAD-ed the bottle, made block diagrams and flow charts, and cleaned up the UI figma.

  • 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 due to the setbacks with the migration we are behind schedule but it is fine because we know the general workflow for the app and is able to restart the process really fast. Once we finish the design report I can work more on the App and set up the backend

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

I hope to remake the progress we had on the Metro app and clean out the boiler plate so that we can remove all unnecessary things from it. I also plan on making a detailed CAD of the bottle.

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Erin Blog Post 2/17/24

  • 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 week (12+ hours).

This week I helped Alan set up his development environment. I also was able to add a few screens to the app boilerplate.  In addition to that, I am also helping with the presentation slide deck and beginning the backend database for the app.

  • 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 I am a bit behind since I was busy this week. However since my part at the moment is mostly software I can catch up whenever I want. As long as I meet my deliverables next week I will be on track.

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

Next week I hope to add an increasing water feature where when I fill in the pop up the water level increases. I also want to add a reset button as well as create a database to actually store this data into memory so it doesnt reset upon refresh.

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Team Status Report for 02/17/2024

 

 

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 for our project is related to the sensors since the only way to verify that they will work as intended is to directly test them out on a microcontroller. Our main contingency plan is to come up with different sensors that we can use in case our primary plan does not work, such as an implementation of piezosensors instead of an ultrasonic to estimate volume of liquid in the water bottle.

 

• 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?

Most changes regarding the system were mostly hardware-related, as we found more sensors/utilities that we may potentially want for the product, such as a temperature sensor, gyroscope sensors,  and even an OLED display and solar panels. These changes were mostly for battery purposes, and potential costs may include the need to waterproof these specific parts as well.

 

 

 

Part A: … with respect to considerations of public health, safety or welfare. Note: The term ‘health’ refers to a state of well-being of people in both a physiological and psychological sense. ‘Safety’ is the absence of hazards and/or physical harm to persons. The term ‘welfare’ relates to the provision of the basic needs of people. (Alan)

Welfare – encourage more water drinking, help people track, prevent health issues

Health – reading about sensors, following 3-A standards

Our bottle helps promote welfare by promoting more water drinking. The act of carrying a water bottle can increase water intake and hydration [1][2]. Given that most Americans (86%) drink less than eight sixteen ounce glasses of water per day, and 47% of Americans drink woefully little water, at less than  three sixteen ounce glasses a day [3], increasing hydration could help prevent health issues among the population. This would be especially true with our smart bottle, that can track how much water a person drinks and motivate them with the social component of comparing their hydration levels with their friends.

As for health, we are carefully considering the materials we use. For sensors, we’ll abide by the 3-A standard – we are looking for sensors that have surfaces that are“smooth, non-porous, non-reactive, and easily cleaned” [4]. Similarly, we want a bottle that can be simply opened for cleaning, and be safely used in support. Reusable water bottles, when not properly cleaned, can accumulate dirt and mold [5], so we will make sure our bottle is easy to wash.

References:

1-https://flaske.com/blogs/news/stay-hydrated-refill-a-reusable-bottle

2-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103565/

3-https://civicscience.com/forty-seven-percent-of-americans-dont-drink-enough-water-plus-more-h2o-insights/

4-https://www.omega.com/en-us/resources/3a-sensors-sanitary-applications

5-https://www.allrecipes.com/the-repulsive-situation-in-your-reusable-water-bottle-lid-7553197

Part B: … with consideration of social factors. Social factors relate to extended social groups having distinctive cultural, social, political, and/or economic organizations. They have important to how people relate to each other and organize around social interests. (Erin)

With the recent Stanley and Hydroflask trend, people have been more and more concerned about their hydration levels. Many people have brought into this trend and Stanley has made over $750 million from water bottle sales. On Tik tok and instagram, people have begun advertising their “It Girl” lifestyle which is an extremely healthy lifestyle that includes a early wake up, healthy eating, working out, and staying hydrated. The need to become like these influencers have caused a craze to buy these bottles.

Our bottles will also fit into this social need. With a cute aesthetic to the app and a well designed bottle this could be easily advertised as part of the it girl lifestyle. We hope that we can support this demographic’s hydration goals by allowing them to better track their intake. Instead of figuring how many Stanley refills are 8 glasses of water and if they counted that matcha latte, we will be able to track that all for them. The social media aspect of this app will also be beneficial for the gamification and social connection for users. We hope that we can make this bottle accessible cost wise and safe for use especially since the user base can be young teens or young adults.

Part C: … with consideration of economic factors. Economic factors are those relating to the system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. (Matthew)

Our product helps promote reusability. Rather than having to use one-time cups and discard them, it would be far more efficient to have a bottle to reuse which could also potentially keep track of the liquid being consumed.
Such usage can help reduce the amount of plastic/paper being wasted for one -time use, leading to more efficient usage of limited resources rather than wasting production costs. Furthermore, the reusable water bottle market has been headed towards a steady upwards trend, making a total of 8.3 billion dollars in 2020 with an estimated growth of 4.8 percent per year. This implies that there is a constant demand for reusable water bottles, and it is only fitting for a high-tech water bottle, with several consumer-friendly notifications to perform well in that market.

The product may not just directly impact the water bottle market, but other markets as well, such as the gym industry. The gym industry is all about achieving personal accomplishments, and the introduction of the smart water bottle can help them accurately keep track of the amount of water/liquid
that they actually intake to keep up with hydration goals. Therefore, consumption of this product would primarily be correlated to the people who are willing enough to keep track of their hydration. This is not an issue of concern, as the gym industry is also a growing market, with around 180 million
gym memberships, and is estimated to grow by 7 percent each year. Since the product will be part of a growing market, and also targets members who are part of a growing industry, this product can easily be distributed with the help of well-placed advertising

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Matthew’s Status Report 2/17/2024

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 sufficienteffort into the project over the week (12+ hours).

I finalized research on the sensors we would be using, as well as organizing schematic drawings on how to set up the microcontrollers and potentially wiring everything through. A primary concern was how we were going to set up the different sensors, and the course of action we took was to divide the electronics into two different sections and use two microcontrollers for each section. Along with that, I started to help order parts, such as a second SEEED that we would use for our product

  • 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 on schedule

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

By next week we hope to begin assembling the electronic components to create a prototype before trying to fit everything into a water bottle. I will be using the SEEED xiao to implement ultrasonic and gyroscope implementation at the same time. I will also be working with the team to turn in the Design Review draft looking at the feedback we received.

 

 

 

 

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Team Status Reports for 02/10/24

  1. 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?

Right now, the most significant risks to our project are related to sensors. We don’t have many sensors yet, and we must test them to ensure that they will work as expected. Our contingency plans are to use different sensors for each characteristic of the liquid we want to measure, in case we determine that a sensor is not a viable choice.

2. 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?

No changes have been made yet. Over this week, we will work on updating the use-case requirements as requested in our presentation feedback. This will probably not cause major changes but will give us a clearer direction in terms of latency, battery life, and food safety.

3. Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred.

-Nothing

 

4. This is also the place to put some photos of your progress or to brag about a component you got working.

-Nothing

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Alan’s status report for 02/17/24

  • 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).

At the start of the week, I spent a lot of time setting up my environment for React Native development (I ran into a lot of problems during set up, but was able to figure them out). After this, I did some work on addressing the feedback we had received from our last presentation. I found the 3-A sanitary standards for sensors (https://www.omega.com/en-us/resources/3a-sensors-sanitary-applications ), which I used to updated our use-case requirements. I also updated other use case requirements on which we had received feedback. Then, I worked on the slides for the design review and on rehearsing the presentation. I also did an initial draft (in bullet points) of our design review writeup.

In the meantime, as a team, we analyzed some more materials for the project, and I placed most of the orders and tracked them in the BOM. Finally, I did some more reading on React Native and Arduino bluetooth interaction and analyzed options for libraries to use in this space.

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

My progress is on schedule.

 

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

By next week, we should receive our second bluetooth-capable Seeed board. Once I have that (which should be on Monday), I will use it to test bluetooth code from the arduino end. I will also work on adding boilerplate code for the React Native Bluetooth interaction. Finally, I will (in collaboration with other team members) turn the Design Review draft into a much more developed version (as it is due on the 31st), incorporating the feedback we receive in our Design Review presentation.

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Matthew Choi Status Report 2/10/2024

  • What did you personally accomplish this week on the project?

I took a look at the parts that we needed and made a simple arduino model in order to test whether it was possible for different ultrasonic sensor models to detect water level to an accurate level. The process involved soldering wires and assembling parts within a breadboard. A different model of the microcontroller was used with the same amount of pins in order to estimate how many different items we could fit onto the microcontroller. I also ordered the bluetooth microcontroller that we will use for our product, as well as a new, waterproof ultrasonic sensor. I also CADed a brief model of a cylindrical water bottle we may potentially use, since it would be easier for us to estimate the volume of water thanks to the simpler shape.

 

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

 

We are on schedule

 

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

 

I  hope to assemble the photodiode with the rest of the microcontroller assembly to start assembling a model without using a breadboard. We want to get a general idea on how many sensors we can fit inside of the SEEED microcontroller. I will also work on soldering specific wires to directly connect the microcontroller to the waterproof ultrasonic sensor

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Erin Status Report Week of 2/5/2024

  1. 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).I made the slides for the presentation this week and presented it. I also set up the boilerplate for the React Native app and got the simulator devices working. This involved finding a sufficient boilerplate template, setting up Metro, installing simulator devices on my Macbook, and creating the Git Repo and workflow. Then I began working on the total daily intake page setting up the front-end for it. I also helped with finding the sensors we needed when we met up on Thursday morning at UC3.
  2. Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule? On Schedule
  3. What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

Water intake working with barebones UI and a manual form. Set up all pages in the app. Help decide on a piezo or ultrasonic.

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Alan’s Status Report for 02/10/2024

  • What did you personally accomplish this week on the project?

At the start of the week, I worked on the presentation. I helped come up with the technical requirements and their quantifications. This included doing research on machine learning models and their accuracy and on tolerances for food items according to the FDA. I then helped Erin prepare for our presentation, rehearsing with her a few times and thinking about how to best present each idea. After this, I spent some time reviewing the slides and our project so I could be prepared to answer questions after the presentation.

Once the presentation was over, my work this week was mostly exploratory. I’ve been looking into how to interact with bluetooth data, both from the arduino end and from the react end. I’ve been setting up my environment to start developing in react native, and I’ve been refreshing my knowledge of React Native, since it’s been a long time since I last used it. I also helped select the sensors we’ll order (over our group meeting), for which I’ll place orders this weekend so they can be reviewed by the next cycle, early next week. Matthew gave me an Arduino I will use to help test sensors, once we get more (we currently have one, which Matt has). I have created a file to organize the reference links I am using to study for this project. Lastly, I have started a spreadsheet to be used as a bill of materials so that we track what we use over the course of the project, making it easier to create a final bill of materials at the end of the semester.

 

  • 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 on schedule.

 

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

By next week, I hope to be fully set up with my environment and up to speed in react native. I will also have ordered the sensors, and, since some will be over Amazon (shipped in two days with Prime), I will probably have sensors I can start testing.

Lastly, given the feedback we have received on our presentation, I will work on better specifying our requirements, particularly in terms of food safety. I will create an updated list of requirements considering “latency, food safety, and battery life considerations” (from the feedback) and will review it with the team and present it to our TA.