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Team Status Report for 4/4

The most significant risk to the project is similar to last week’s, where we are focusing on reducing the text being warped. By changing the distance between the biconvex lens and the display and the biconvex lens and the beam splitter, we have high hope to reduce the warping.

The tests we plan to run for validation involve placing lines of text on the display and seeing if a user can comfortably read it. This would mimic a translation. Similarly, we plan to add the strap to see if the goggles can be worn for long periods of time. This may involve adding a cushion to the front which we are in the process of adding on.

The changes to the design of the system are discussed above.

There aren’t any changes to our schedule.

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Patrick’s Status Report for 4/4

This week I focused on a couple of things. First of all I worked on modifying the CAD to place the biconvex lens closer to the beamsplitter. The other change we made to the CAD was splitting the front side of the goggles at a 45 degree angle to remove the tunnel effect and give the user a more open view of the environment. We are still waiting on this print to verify the effects of these changes.

Along with this, I also worked a lot on the RPi software. I wired up our two GPIO buttons and I was able to test both of their functionalities. the first button is just a basic app cycle button. In testing this button I was able to verify seamless switching between translation and gps apps with indications on the display. Also, switching apps maintains app data from the last JSON text, which is a nice additional feature. The next button is the app-specific button which is really only used for taking pictures in the translation app–this also works as expected.

Finally, I worked on modifying the display rendering for both apps. I was able to send test JSON text to the RPi from my Mac and verify the display locations and figures. Also, sending data with a different app name automatically switches the app so that in future tests the user will be able to also switch apps from their phone.

Overall, I think we’re doing really well. We still have more iterations of CAD to go through and more work for the iOS, but we are definitely ahead on Pi software verification.

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David’s Status Report for 3/28

This week, I worked with Aidan on assembling the Dawggles. After displaying example words and pictures we noticed warping so I investigated possible reasons for such an occurrence. It seems as though changing the angle of the beam splitter and the distance between the display and the lens and the lens and the beam splitter can resolve these issues. While it is not something that needs to be immediately fixed as it only occurs on the edges it is something to keep in mind moving forward.

We are on schedule.

Next week, I plan to continue working with Pat on the software and have an outline going for our server that exemplifies simple functionality, such as using the button to take a picture.

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Team Status Report for 3/28

The most significant risk to the project is the optical system being unable to reach the specifications that we outlined in our requirements document. As mentioned in our individual progress updates, we finished a 3rd iteration of the goggles and tested writing a single word to the display. However, we could only see 1 word, and the word was warped on its edges. In addition, you need to move the position of your eyes in the goggles to see the word instead of simply wearing the goggles and seeing the word. Luckily, there are several changes we’re making that should address these issues. However, it’s concerning because if we can’t see enough text through the display, then it won’t be possible to fit translations on the screen. To mitigate this issue, we’re considering other fixes beyond design changes such as a better biconvex lens. In the worst case, we’d abandon the transparency effect and move the entire display in line with the user’s line of sight to guarantee that text fits in the display.

No changes were made to the design of the system besides the previously mentioned refinements of the CAD to improve the optical system.

There aren’t any changes to our schedule.

 

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Aidan’s Status Report for 3/28

This week, I finished making changes for the 3rd iteration of our goggles. Pat and I printed and assembled it, and we tested writing a single word to the goggles’s display. After that 3rd iteration, I made more changes to the goggles’s design (especially the goggles’s optical system), and we are expecting improvements to the display quality with the upcoming 4th iteration.

Our progress is on schedule.

Next week, we’ll have the 4th or possibly 5th iterations completed, and we’re hoping that the optical system reaches the quality that we specified in our requirements (i.e. the ability to write several words at a time). I’m also working on a 1st version of the iPhone app that pairs with the Dawggles. The iPhone app will have a working first version by the end of the week and hopefully for this week’s demos too.

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Patrick’s Status Report for 3/28

This week I worked on assembling and testing the Dawggles. We were able to run a script to display basic text and change the contrast to so that it is comfortably overlayed. One thing we noticed was the text was getting pretty warped at the edges, so we are going to work to change the mechanical design by moving the OLED closer to the lens and the lens closer to the beamsplitter.

Along with this, I also did basic testing on the server. I was able to  start a TCP connection and send and request text from the server.

Next week, I hope to test some of the other software on the Pi, including the button callback functions and camera client class. Overall, we are still doing well with our schedule, but we do need to make some changes to the CAD to perfect the display alignment.

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David’s Status Report for 3/21

This week, I finalized the last couple parts we needed to add on to the goggles. We realized we needed a piece of foam on the front part of the frame for comfort as well as straps to keep the goggles in place on the user’s head. Moreover, I began exploring the details of the software we will need by investigating the simple functionality of the raspberry pi, camera, and monitor.

We are on schedule.

Next week, I will assist in the next print of the goggles and assembling the components to have a working prototype, and continue testing software for simple functionality such as comfortably displaying text for the user.

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Team Status Report for 3/21

The most significant risks to the project are software based. Specifically, we’re worried about whether or not we’ll be able to achieve our desired 2 second latency from user input to result. This week, we’ll try to achieve the latency requirement through lots of work on software. Luckily, if it’s not achievable, we believe that a similar low latency will be possible such as 3 or 4 seconds.

We didn’t make any changes to the system. Instead, we further specified it by including straps and foam for the user’s comfort.

There aren’t any updates to the schedule.

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Aidan’s Status Report for 3/21

This week, I started another 3D print after finding some changes to make with the initial 3D print. I also did a test of the optical system of the Dawggles and correctly saw the expected results of the display’s output in transparent space in the user’s field of view. Finally, I placed orders for what we expect to be the final parts of the project, consisting of a spare beam splitter, another Raspberry Pi, and straps and foam for user comfort.

Our progress is on schedule.

Next week, we plan to assemble everything in the Dawggles with its 3D print. We’ll probably need to make some changes when the goggle strap arrives so that it fits with the print. We’ll also complete the software pipeline of camera on the goggles to iPhone and then back to goggles.

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Patrick’s Status Report for 3/21

This week I refined and added to the software framework on the goggles. I created a base implementation of the server and display classes and added all four classes (server, display, camera, and button) to the shared class. I also reorganized the translation and gps functions as two separate application files, in a shared apps folder.

This new framework allows us to start up the goggles and easily switch between applications–by triple tapping the button on the goggles. The app manager handles switching data when this action is selected by swapping the proper data-handling, button-callback, and display functions for the application being switched to. The user will also be able to switch applications on their phone, which the server will notice by receiving a different application name than the current application in the request.

Overall, our progress is slightly behind. We had a small hiccup with some of the hardware, but I feel good that we will be able to start testing software next week.