- 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?
A significant risk could be having the two webcams not working properly. These two webcams are the essence behind our new feature of providing multiple viewpoints, and given that it doesn’t necessarily follow the original design, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Right now, there are problems with setting up the stepper motor for rotational movement of the camera since the camera rig will be placed vertically instead of horizontally. They are being managed by using some screws and some materials to keep the stepper motor secured to the mounting plate that will move up and down. Contingency plans are purchasing stepper motor mounts that can hold the stepper motors perpendicularly in place.
Most significant risk currently is the system integration failing. So far everyone has been working on their tasks pretty separately (software for gesture recognition/eye tracking, software for AR overlay, hardware for camera rig + UI). It looks like everyone has made significant progress on their tasks, and are close to the testing stage for the individual parts. However, not much testing/design has gone into how these subprojects will interface. We will discuss this in the further weeks. Moreover, we have made some time in the schedule for the integration, which gives us ample time for making sure everything works.
Another risk is performance, the compute requirement for the software is a lot and the Jetson may not be able to handle it. But this has already been mentioned in our last team status report, and we are currently working on it.
- 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?
Yes, the placement of the stepper motor had to be positioned upward instead of sideways so that the camera can properly rotate horizontally when moving up and down. This change was necessary so that we can implement our new feature (multiple viewpoints) to users who want to view their face at different angles. The change has a risk of failing since there’s no efficient way to secure the stepper motor in place, and given the camera setup and structure, the camera might have difficulties rotating. These changes involve having to put more effort in making the new modifications work and can possibly incur more costs (though Anna is trying to work her way around it). If needed, we will purchase stepper motor mounts if they can’t be secured with screws and other materials.
- Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred.
No major changes have occurred yet.