Category: Team status reports

Accomplishments this week:
This week, Rohit built and finished the frontend. Rohit and Will also worked on 3D printed the casing for all our parts. This involved learning how to do CAD as well as 3D printing. Rohit also made a function to be able to add metadata to images. Will also worked on the manual button and was able to solder it. We are now working on the manual button integration. In addition, Will worked on the location feature and realized that our new GPS module was not good enough. He is now reverting back to using the Blue’s Notecard for location. Dhruv worked on integrating the entire pipeline together. He was able to connect the backend camera capture mechanism to the frontend code. There is now a working pipeline from camera capture to displaying the summary on the frontend. As a group we are slightly behind schedule but we made significant progress recently and are almost ready to test. Our plans for next week are to finish the pipeline and start testing.

To validate our pipeline. We will initiate a camera capture, and verify throughout the pipeline. We will verify the location data, metadata, as well as functionality on the webpage. We will then check that summaries are actually reflective of a user’s day. We will test by each using the product for a day and seeing how useful it really is. Then, we will adjust prompt and models as needed.

General Accomplishments From Team

The general accomplishment from the team this week includes both the software and hardware end.

Dhruv successfully sent the communication from laptop into PICO through serial connection. He will transition this signal through MQTT which should be smooth since the Pico is successfully connected to the internet on the microcontroller end.

On the microcontroller development, Dhruv and I (Will) were able to successfully capture the image.

I will be spending more time on optimizing the image and we will be focusing on the Blues Notecard this week.

Rohit will be continuing to work on the web development side of things.

Most Significant Risks That Could Jeopardize Success of the Project

The most significant risks that remains include the Blues Notecard connectivity. We will be continuing in focusing on the Blues Notecard development his week.

The integration between hardware and software seems resolved as Dhruv was able to send signal from software to hardware this week.

Changes made to the existing design of the system

Since we did not get approved for reimbursement on AWS, we will be shifting towards completing this project locally as a proof of concept.

Our hardware will still be a wireless connection to the laptop, however, it needs to be under the same wifi network/mobile hotspot we will be using.

We do not see foresee any changes in the schedule of completing this project by shifting this project locally as we can develop our LLMs locally.

Anyhow, good progress is made this week and we still remain confident in a successful completion of the project.

 

 

 

 

The most significant risk that could jeopardize the success of the project is more on the software end. We were recently informed before our proposal that the course staff typically cannot reimburse software purchases with AWS. As for resolving this issue, we will first use the “free tier” from AWS Educate. If this does not end up working out, we will try using Google Cloud Platform.

In regards to the hardware end, we have pretty much finalized and hope to get more into the development process of the RPI Pico W and the integration of the various components.

Finally, there are currently no changes that will be made to the existing design of the system.

Weekly Status Report (2/15/2025)
The biggest risk that can currently jeopardize our project is not being able to send data between the hardware and cloud. We are trying to do a hotspot connection to transfer images from Arduino cam to cloud. However, we do not have experience in this area so we are not sure how difficult it is. To prevent these risks, we are thinking of many options to send data to the cloud. Our first option is buying a raspberry pi Pico with a blues Notecard. This blues notecard has hotspot and a cellular data card. The cellular data card has a limited data capacity so it won’t last forever but we know it would work. The other option is getting a blues notecard with only wifi. This means we would have to connect with hotspot. If this does not work, the raspberry pi pico also has wifi so we can try hotspot from there. We will get one of these options to work.

From last week, we changed the battery we are going to use because we realized that the raspberry Pi pico needs more power than we thought. It did not cost us that much. Other than that, are design is the same and we plan to continue forward. We are continuously analyzing our designs to make sure that we run into minimal roadblocks.

We have also been working on the design presentation as a group and we are ready to present.

Part A was written by William Wang
GlassMate makes it easier for people to remember and reflect on their daily lives without the stress of manual journaling. By automatically capturing key moments and summarizing them, it helps with mental well-being, especially for those with memory challenges or busy lifestyles. Having a clear record of daily activities can bring a sense of organization and mindfulness, reducing anxiety and improving self-awareness. For individuals who rely on routine, such as professionals or elderly users, GlassMate offers a way to track their days effortlessly, helping them feel more in control of their time and experiences.

From a safety perspective, GlassMate provides passive location tracking that can help users retrace their steps if needed. Whether it’s remembering where you left an item or recalling a past event, having an automated log enhances personal security. By reducing the need for manual note-taking or constant phone use, it also minimizes distractions while commuting or moving through public spaces. In terms of welfare, GlassMate creates an accessible and low-effort way to preserve meaningful memories, ensuring that important moments aren’t lost in the busyness of everyday life. It’s a small but impactful tool that improves peace of mind and personal well-being through technology.

Part B was written by Dhruv Dixit
GlassMate makes it much easier for humans to document their lives and make it more accessible for people to see what they do throughout the day if they live busy lives. It is also a great use case for people that have memory impairments so that they can stop living life forgetting every moment. It is also a great use for families or people traveling to document their journeys effortlessly and not having to pull out the camera every 2 seconds.

This product covers privacy concerns by allowing user’s to choose when and where they take pictures (with setting). Economically, this product can also have an impact on other products being made in the industry that involve journalling. A shift towards products that allow for effortless documentation can enter the market.

Part C was written by Rohit Chand
For production, we would have to use bulk purchasing of components and automated assembly lines to reduce per-unit costs while maintaining proper quality standards. The manufacturing approach would focus on lightweight, durable materials that can be sourced reliably and assembled efficiently. Distribution can be done by partnering with existing technology companies and eyewear manufacturers so that we can use existing channels to minimize infra costs and maximize our market reach. We believe that this kind of model reduces our distribution overhead while getting us into the market. From a consumption perspective, we would implement a tiered pricing strategy with a base hardware cost of around $200-300, complemented with a subscription model for cloud storage and AI features. Additionally, scalability is built into the product itself as for the modular design that allows for easy component upgrades.

We believe that the most significant risk that could jeopardize the success of the project would be integration of the software and hardware end. We foresee potential compatibility issue with RPI Pico W’s communication with the cloud using blues notecard. The risk here is being managed by starting the hardware implementation side as soon as possible to test whether cloud connectivity is possible. Blues notecard is very well-documented with how to connect with RPI Pico W so William will deep dive into the documentation in Week 5. If the blues notecard does not work, we may alternatively change the hardware of the RPI Pico W into one that has built-in wifi capability. Blues notecard seemed more reasonable as our first choice due to its strong documentation with wifi connectivity and location data. Thus, using Blues notecard reduces the complexity on the hardware end.

Another important risk mentioned in William’s status report is the power consumption of the components on the glasses. We are hopeful that the selected 2000 mAH battery will be sufficient to continuously power all components on the glasses based off of William’s research of the consumption of the Blues Notecard and Arducam. However, complications may arise, and we may need to purchase a higher mAH battery to power the glasses.

A third significant risk may be the 2 MP arducam may not be good enough quality. William chose this camera due to its lower power consumption and strong resolution at 1600 x 1200. A contingency plan of this risk may be to upgrade our arducam to 5 MP with an image resolution of 2592 × 1944. However, due to the tradeoff of lower processing speed and higher power consumption, we are leaning towards 2 MP being “good enough” for our LLM analysis on the software end.

There has been no changes to the existing design of the system. We have been in the research stage and now we are focusing on the implementation stage next week. Currently, we don’t have any photos to display our progress, but next week William will start the RPI Pico W startup process while Dhruv and Rohit will work on the software end and have a UI ready via Figma or hand-drawing. Dhruv will additionally assist William in the connectivity/software aspect of the Pico’s connection to the cloud. We hope to implement and test this aspect ASAP because this is a key feature our design relies upon.