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Team Status Report 3/8

Risks:

We have yet to attempt connecting the Jetson and L515, so that is a potential risk we may face, but we will be trying to do that this week so that we have ample time to problem solve if it does not work initially.

Changes:

The only change we have made is a new power supply due to our new power calculations. We did not realize that our computer vision would require our Jetson to be in Super Mode, which requires an additional 10W from what we had originally planned for. But we have found a new power source that supplies our required 5V, 6A.

A was written by Maya, B was written by Kaya and C was written by Cynthia.

Part A: Our cane addresses a global need for increased accessibility and independence for individuals with visual impairments. Around the world, millions of visually impaired people face mobility challenges that hinder their ability to safely navigate unfamiliar environments. The need for better mobility tools spans urban areas, rural villages, and developing areas, meaning it is not limited to any one country or region. Our design considers adaptability to different terrains and cultures, ensuring the cane can be valuable in settings from crowded malls to personal homes. By enhancing mobility and safety for people with visual impairments on a global scale, the product contributes to broader goals of accessibility, inclusivity, and equal opportunity.

Part B: Our cane addresses different cultures having varying perceptions of disability, independence, and accessibility. In communities with strong traditions of communal living, the single technology-advanced cane encourages seamless integration into these communities by drawing less attention and allowing users to maintain their independence.  Additionally, the haptic feedback system will allow for users to integrate seamlessly by drawing less attention by producing no noise from the device. By considering these cultural factors, our solution will allow for greater acceptance and integration into various societies.

Part C: We designed CurbAlert to take into consideration environmental factors, such as disturbing the environment around the user and interacting with the environment. Specifically, the feedback mechanism (haptic feedback) was chosen to notify only the user without creating extra noise or light or disturbing the surrounding environment or people. Additionally, our object detection algorithm is designed to detect hazards without physically interacting with the user’s environment and without having to be in contact with anything besides the ground and the user’s hand. Additionally, our prototype will be robust and rechargeable, making the product have no additional waste and making it so that a user will only need one of our prototype. By being considerate of the surrounding environment, CurbAlert is eco-friendly.

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Maya’s Status Report 3/8

Accomplishments:

This week, we found out that our Jetson would consume more power than we had initially planned for, so I spent a lot of time researching new power options that met our 5V, 6A power requirements of a portable charger. Kaya and I also worked to set up the Jetson Nano. Lastly, I did a lot of the final documentation and diagrams of our Design Review.

Progress:

We are on schedule now that we have finished the Design Report, our Jetson initialization, and L515 camera set up.

Future deliverables:

Our adafruit order was delivered, so I will be able to start working on the haptic vibration motor and starting to create the logic for different feedback patterns. Since Kaya and Cynthia will be working together on the software behind the computer vision, I plan to focus on more of the Jetson and haptics.

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Kaya’s Status Update 3/8

Accomplishments:

This week, I worked on finishing the initialization of the Jetson Nano. We got it fully displayed on a monitor and I set up numerous ways to connect to the Jetson without a monitor which include ssh configuration and VNC viewer for virtual display. I also updated the Jetson operating system and installed Jetpack. Lastly, I downloaded Jupyter and Pytorch and came up with a way to remotely accessed Jupyter in the Jetson through a local browser.

Progress:

We are on schedule now that we have finished the design report and have both our Jetson and L515 camera set up.

Future deliverables:

I plan on working on setting up the software/circuits for the force sensitive resistor and haptics. Additionally, I plan on working with Cynthia on the code for the computer vision.

 

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Cynthia’s Status Report 3/8

Accomplishments:

This week I set up the L515 camera and obtained the depth stream along with the RGB stream. This took longer than expected because of compatibility issues due to my computer version, the SDK version, and the camera being outdated. A picture of the obtained streams is attached below. Additionally, I spent time improving our design report draft and adding more diagrams.

Progress:

We are on schedule now that we have finished the design report and have both our Jetson and L515 camera set up.

Future deliverables:

The week following spring break, I plan on writing code in the RealSense Software Development Kit to be able to obtain a constant stream of the distance from our camera to a grid of points I specify in the frame, and to start writing the depth filtering code.

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Kaya’s Status Report 02/22

Accomplishments:

This week, we finished a draft of our formal written design review. I specifically worked on the testing/validation section, the hardware diagram and description, and the budgeting items pages. I focused on what hardware peripherals we would use for each component and came up with circuit schematics for the haptic feedback and the pressure sensor. Additionally, me and Maya worked on the initalization of the Jetson nano by flashing the device.

Progress:

We are right on schedule because we started the jetson initialization and started the design review. We had to postpone the start of our Jetson initialization due to the late delivery of the microSD card but we made up for that time by finishing the draft for the design review.

 

Future deliverables:

This week, we we work on finishing our design review and we hope to have finish the process of initalizing the Jetson nano orin.

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Cynthia’s Status Report 2/22

Accomplishments:

This week we finished a draft of our written design review. The content I wrote specifically were the design requirements, the software diagram and description, and the software system implementation. I redesigned our software system as I did more research and identified possible risks with our previous plan, and wrote some code to start obtaining depth maps.

Progress:

We are ahead of schedule with the written design report because we will be finished with our draft by tomorrow, the 23rd. We are on schedule with the start of our project and initialization, but risk falling behind this week or next if our tasks take longer than expected or we encounter some errors with our technology. We had a later start than expected with our technology because it took longer to receive a few necessary parts we ordered, such as the microSD card.

Future deliverables:

This week we will be editing our draft of the design proposal, and hopefully by next week we will have our devices initialized and will be successfully able to obtain data from our L515 camera, start on the code to obtain and interpret depth mappings, and start working further past the Jetson initialization.

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Team Status Report 2/22

Risks:

Our most prominent risks right now are setting up the RealSense SDK, and troubleshooting any connection or compatibility issues that we may have with the Jetson.

Changes:

We initially had Maya and Kaya working together for most of the hardware components, but we are going to have Kaya and Cynthia work on more of the Computer Vision together as we changed our implementation to use a more challenging algorithm, and Maya will continue working on the hardware components. We are in a better spot with the Jetson than the RealSense and we are realizing that object detection is likely going to take longer than we planned, so we are giving that aspect more attention because many other aspects are reliant on the object detection being completed.

 

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Maya’s Status Report 2/22

Accomplishments:

This week, we completed our design report, so we only have a few small details and tables to add and change before it is due on 2/28. My specific role in this was use-case requirements, part of design-case requirements, and a large part of the implementation plan. I also worked with Kaya to flash our Jetson for the first time.

Progress:

We are ahead of schedule in terms of our design report, and we are technically still on schedule for our technical advances, but it feels like we need to make a lot of progress with the jetson this week to stay on schedule.

Future deliverables:

In this upcoming week, we will be finishing our design presentation and finalizing all of our tables and diagrams that go with that. We will also be working a lot on the Jetson and hopefully beginning to look at the FSR and haptic motors if they come in this week. This week needs to be much more tech-focused than documentation focused so that we are in a good place after spring break.

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Cynthia’s Status Report for 2/15

Accomplishments:

This week, I worked mainly on our Design Review presentation.  I worked on the Use Case Requirements, Technical Challenges, and Implementation Plan.  Specifically, I researched more into the differences between using CV for obstacles vs creating a simple algorithm utilizing the depth and distance detection of the L515 LiDAR Camera for object classification and added this differentiation to our presentation.  Additionally, I created the Top Level Design flow chart and the diagram for the cane.  I am additionally preparing to present our slides on Monday.  I also researched the main libraries I will be using to implement the object detection and to gather the distance information needed, specifically the libraries OpenCV, TensorFlow object detection API, RealsenseCamera, and pyRealSense2.

Progress:

Our project is on schedule.  We are meeting on Sunday to start initialization.

Future Deliverables:

I will present this week, then we will be working on the written report for the Design Review.  Additionally, we should have our Jetson Nano initialized by the end of the week and possibly pseudocode for the CV.

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Kaya’s Status Report for 02/15

This week, I worked on our design presentation and worked on the implementation plan, specifically finding specific devices for each of our components. I did research on various potential haptic device and various types of force sensitive resistor. Additionally, I was able to map out specific libraries we are going to use for our software integration and for our Jetson Nano programming.

Progress:

Our project is on schedule. We are planning on starting the technical tasks on Sunday by diving into the Jetson initialization.

Future deliverables:

In the upcoming week, we will be working on the Jetson Nano initialization and working on finalizing the design presentation. Our goal by the end of the next week is to have a better understanding of the Jetson environment.