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Ryan’s Status Report for 3/16/24

THIS WEEK

  • This week on the project, Doreen and I finalized a big part of the hardware components and conducted some continued testing on some electronic components.
  • First of all, I cleaned up the wood for the item stand with wood putty and sanding. Then we spray painted and sealed the wood. Next, we assembled the bottom of the item stand.
  • Next, I tested the electrical components, spending several hours troubleshooting the stepper motor (it kept vibrating instead of rotating), and eventually accidentally lighting a motor driver a friend gave me on fire. I ordered a different stepper motor driver that was recommended online.
  • I also tested connecting all 6 load cells concurrently, and the test was a success. I then taped up the electrical connections and connected wires to the slip ring, which is inserted into the 6 sided top rack.
  • Currently, I am still on schedule, as this week and next I am supposed to attach electronics to the item stand.
  • The progress made can be seen in the team status report!

NEXT WEEK

  • Next week, I hope to fix the issues with the stepper motor with the new motor driver that will be delivered. Then, I want to test out the wireless transceiver and begin writing item stand controller code so that the hardware component of this project can wrap up.
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Team Status Report for 3/16/24

  • The most significant risk we face in regards to the hardware component of our project involves the rotation mechanism for the hardware. We have faced some challenges regarding faulty components in the past week that has delayed the testing for the motor. We found out from testing our motor that the motor driver may not provide enough voltage to drive the motor, causing the motor to only vibrate, rather than fully rotate. As a result, we have ordered a new motor driver and asked a peer to use theirs so that in the following week we can get back on track with testing the component and fully assembling the rack. In addition to this, we need to complete testing our wireless transceiver.
  • The system requirements have stayed the same. Similarly, our schedule has is the same as previous weeks.
  • For the software, there is now a way to register faces! While the system is running, it is keeping track of the most recent frames it has read. When a new face is detected, it will save those frames in the system and then retrain the recognition model with those new frames included. Works ok for now, and it will hopefully work better after tuning the parameters of the recognition model to get better results.
  • This week, we painted and finished the bottom portion of the stand. As for the six-pronged component at the top, we attached a slip ring and load cells and further tested the wiring for the load cells to ensure that they could capture weight changes. Here are images depicting our current progress with the hardware component.

 

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Surafel’s Status Report for 3/9/24

  • This week I worked on both adding some sort of countdown (per instructor recommendation) to give users time to get ready for their face to get scanned, and adding a way for new users to scan their face in. I was able to add the countdown into the system, so now users have 5 seconds before the system attempts to recognize their face. I am still working on the actual face check-in functionality, and it will be my goal to finish it this week.
  • My progress is currently a bit behind schedule because I wasn’t able to work on this as much as I wanted to over spring break (had to attend to some unexpected business), but my main focus this week will to get back on track.
  • Next week, I plan on getting the check-in function up and running and (time permitting) figure out how to send information through the wireless transceiver
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Team Status Report for 3/9/24

  • The most significant risk right now is bringing all the parts together. Especially with constructing the hardware, we have hit many situations similar to deadlock in real life. For example, we want to test out a component by attaching it to our rack, but then attaching to the rack is permanent so we want to test the component. This has slowed down a bit of our final parts list compilation. We plan to work dedicate most of our time in testing our components as well as possible next week. As for contingency plans, plan to be very flexible on researching and ordering new and different components in the event that our existing items do not work out.
  • There are no changes to the existing design at this time
  • Progress on the software has been a bit slow due to some unexpected business, but a countdown has been added to facial recognition to give the user some time to prepare themselves to get scanned, and a way to register new faces is currently in the works.

Current progress on the rack!

 

  • A was written by Ryan Lin, B was written by Doreen Valmyr and C was written by Surafel Tsadik.

Part A: Our product solution is universal across global factors. There really isn’t specific skill or knowledge on how to use our system because we designed the system to be easy to use with limited user interaction. People all over the world go to events and need their items to be stored quickly and securely. One possible way that our product solution may not work with global factors is if our implementation is not all-encompassing. For example, faces in different countries around the world will look different and will be a challenge for our facial recognition system.

Part B: Our innovative product streamlines the often cumbersome process of checking in and retrieving personal belongings, particularly at events attended by large crowds. By leveraging facial recognition technology integrated with a physical coat rack system, individuals can swiftly deposit and retrieve their items, freeing up valuable time for social interaction. Crucially, our solution is designed to be inclusive and culturally sensitive, accommodating users from diverse backgrounds and belief systems. With no barriers to access, individuals of any cultural or religious affiliations can seamlessly utilize our product at events. Additionally, the non-invasive nature of our technology ensures widespread acceptance, as it simply relies on facial recognition for item storage, devoid of any controversial features.

Part C: Currently, many coat checks use a physical ticket system to store and retrieve items. Paper is usually used to print these tickets, and if the event has a large audience a lot of paper will be used and later thrown away. With our system, it will eliminate the need for physical tickets, meaning no more paper needs to be used to print said tickets. Less paper wasted means a positive impact on tree preservation, decreasing the number of trees we need to cut down to produce the paper that goes into the physical tickets.

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Doreen’s Status Report for 3/9/24

  • This week, I continued working on the coat rack portion of our project. This involved finishing cutting and sanding our plywood pieces in the woodshop in TechSpark, as well as adding nails to some pieces to ensure the multiples layers of wood would remain together. I also worked with my teammate in staining some of the pieces and designing a gear that would rotate the rack. Lastly, I contributed to our design report by writing several portions and adding corrections were needed.
  • My progress is currently on schedule. However, since the rack is not fully assembled and we do not have the parts to power our motor, we are not able to test if the rotation will work. As a result, we need to quickly order parts and complete assembly next week so that we can test rotation.
  • Next week, I hope to complete an order for more materials so that we can have all necessary materials to power/use our electronics. I hope to continue workin on the coat rack, finishing painting it and also test the rotation. Lastly, I hope calibrate the load cell so we can begin adding various weights on the rack.
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Ryan’s Status Report for 3/9/24

  • The last two weeks (including Spring Break), I continued working on the wooden item stand. All everything has been cut and glued together, ready for final assembly at the end when we determine exactly how our electronic components will integrate with the rack.
  • I also worked on further testing components with our newly arrived Arduino mega, while hitting some barriers such as bugs in the Arduino code. I plan to work on it more next week.
  • Lastly, I contributed a significant amount of time working on and finalizing the design report.
  • Currently, I am slightly ahead of schedule. This may change though because I am planning on building another parts list for further necessary components and shipping times may cause delays. While those items come in I can focus on other efforts.
  • Next week I want to build the final parts list as soon as possible, further test out components and join them together into a system, and clean up the wooden item stand for final assembly.