As a team, we had a productive week in which we completed our presentation and all were on schedule in completing the planned tasks. Here is an image of a nutritional label algorithm Steven tested out:
It reads macronutrient values from a .png image that we found online. We are aware of some issues with this algorithm not calculating the calories, and the model is relatively outdated. We are expecting challenges in fine-tuning the code and/or making our own nutritional label reading algorithm.
Furthermore, Surya was able to work with a potential camera that we will integrate into our design. He also worked alongside Steven to finalize the list of parts from inventory and from the purchase list, including Arduinos that are optimized to work with scale models for the next stage of the design (RS-232). While the group doesn’t plan to work on the stage in the next 2-3 weeks, prioritizing energy and resources to a robust recognition system in the meantime, given all the parts are interconnected/have to work with one another, it is an important design feature to design functionally-independent yet cohesive components that work well with one another in a complex project.
In addition to that, Grace was able to build the Django framework for the front-end by initializing all the files. She plans to have a front-end implementation next week to represent the user interface that we plan to connect the database to. The website portion of our project is up to speed with our anticipated schedule.
Through our work this week, we explored our options more in-depth and did research on previous projects. We are expecting to see risks in integrating the Arduino to do all the OCR and computational work. Our backup plan involves defaulting to using our computer to do the primary workload. Likewise, the equipment we have and plan to have are compatible with both a computer and/or an Arduino.
We hope to make significant progress in the creation of the physical product (a wooden box with LED lights to illuminate an object). Likewise, we seek to make progress in our individual assignments which involve website design, algorithm development and integration, and interfacing the hardware with the software.
Lastly, thank you to all the students, TAs, and professors for providing commentary on our presentation and overall project. We received great feedback to better guide us in our design. We are now more aware about potential problems and have thought about alternatives in the event of issues. We recognize the value of this course towards our personal and professional development towards becoming engineers who can both solve problems and communicate their solutions effectively.