Author: seking

Sophia’s Status Report for 02/22/2025

This week, I added in a check for different OS to the scanner controller program. So far, it correctly recognizes and adjusts the scanning context based on the OS, since NAPS2 uses a different scanning context object for each OS. I also added a “scans” folder to save each scanned .png file to. Each scan process/cycle will create a new scan folder (in the format of scan0, scan1, scan2, etc.) in the scans directory in order to keep scan cycles cleanly separated. Each scan .png file will be saved in its respective scan cycle folder (in the format of scanPage0.png, scanPage1.png, etc.). So, for example if we take 3 scans of an object, then you could find scanner-controller/scans/scan0/scanPage0.png, scanner-controller/scans/scan0/scanPage1.png, and scanner-controller/scans/scan0/scanPage2.png to send to the image processing component. I would just need to make sure the program knows what scan number it is on, essentially passing a scan ID between functions.

Additionally, I  implemented an exception for if there are no scanners detected. I also did more research into the NAPS2 documentation and how to properly connect the scanner. I usually use WSL to run code that’s stored on my Windows OS filesystem and I can run the code fine through Windows, but I think I’ve found a way to get the scanner recognized in WSL too. So, I believe I would be able to test both the Windows OS and Linux OS environments from my laptop alone. Yon would just have to test the Mac OS version.

The scanner I ordered arrive. Next week will begin testing communication integration with it. I am currently on schedule.

Team Status Report for 02/15/2025

Started working on our individual components, specifically creating the device model in CAD, setting up the software project, and looking into more research for the signals processing. We decided to use a suction cup as our friction tip and set up the hardware and electronics necessary to use it in our first prototype. Instead of testing two different prototypes with different manipulators, we can simply test with the suction on and off.

We have ordered all parts that we believe will be necessary at the moment. We should get all of them by next week and be able to start prototyping and testing with them. The 3D printed part we’ll need is also designed and can be printed anytime.

Our next steps are to progress on our individual tasks to keep on track before attempting and testing integration of the components.

Sophia’s Status Report for 02/15/2025

I created a branch in GitHub for the scanner controller software. I also created the dotnet project and added the universal scanner NAPS2 library which took a lot longer than you’d think, the dependencies felt never-ending. I never worked with dotnet either that I remember, so figuring out projects and solutions was a difficult time. Additionally, I added simple scan sample code to ensure all needed libraries of NAPS2 were correctly identified.

I also worked on design presentation. I edited and added in most of the slides needed for this sprint and filled out my own relevant software sections, ensuring that the needed topics were covered in the presentation slides.

My next steps are to create mock data and unit tests for the scanner controller code to ensure the simple single scans are working before moving on to scanning multiple times with a delay between.

Team Status Report for 02/08/2025

Our team created our proposal slide deck and presented it. This helped us flesh out more details of our project and how all of our parts will interact as a system. We considered how user-friendly we wanted the process to be, the maximum amount of time it should take to scan and generate a 3D model, and the scope of what objects would be scannable. We realized some limitations that real world conditions would present to us. We will have to test how much noise will occur from outside lighting and other real conditions with the flatbed. We will also consider different options for our mechanical arm based on how either rotating with a felt tip on a glass surface or electro-adhesion would work with different materials and geometries. Additionally, we need to see if it’d be necessary to place anything under the scanned object, such as film, to prevent scratching or if it would help/hinder rotation of the object.

Next week we plan on looking through the inventory list for components of our manipulator, and placing orders for a flatbed scanner and potentially any manipulator parts that we can’t find in the inventory.

Sophia’s Status Report for 02/08/2025

Most of my work time this week was spent on preparing the proposal presentation. Including fleshing out requirements and quantitative measures for it, diagrams, and creating the slides themselves. I worked with my teammates over calls to flesh it out. My team all agreed that I would be presenting the proposal presentation. I spent time practicing to make sure I explained the project in a clear manner, not just directly reading from the slides, and asking my teammates about their parts of the project so that I had a thorough understanding of all of the elements.

Decided on scanner and library – I did research on what software libraries could potentially work for our project, particularly what libraries were available to command scanners. I found one called Naps2 that should work for any popular brand of scanner. I also decided on a scanner to buy, it’s a 4800 dpi Cannon scanner. 4800 dpi is plenty of detail for the scans, Cannon is a very common brand, and the scanner is small and shouldn’t be too difficult to move or store. It’s also less than $100, which leaves plenty of budget for materials for the hardware of our device.

My progress is currently on schedule. Next week, I will start into using the Naps2 library and creating the software that would interact directly with the scanner sending commands, would receive those scans, and then send them to Yon’s image processing software. Depending how far I get, I could even start unit testing it. Hopefully it will be in a decent state by the time the scanner is ordered and arrives for practical testing.