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Sebastian Weekly Status Report Week 4

This week I helped finalize the design of the stand by settling on the platform jack configuration with linear actuators that come out of the top platform. I suggested using a platform jack because it is compact and the actuation required to elevate the top platform is very simple (just requires rotating a screw in the jack). Additionally, to change the angle of the computer I suggested using linear actuators because these are the simplest way to cause the computer to rotate forwards, thereby changing the angle the screen makes with respect to the user.

I also settled on the method of performing computer stand adjustment. We will have a calibration stage where the webcam takes not of the distances between facial landmarks when the user is facing the camera, then when the user looks straight ahead, the computer stand will adjust so that it ends up in a configuration where the distances between landmarks on the user’s face are the same as they were before.

I submitted a 3D print request to techspark and it is being processed now. Also, I made an Amazon order for the linear actuators.

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Sebastian Weekly Status Report Week 5

This week I 3D printed 2 versions of the platform jack design we settled on last week. The first print didn’t work because supports were included inside the platform jack causing the components to be fused together. The second print worked as intended.

Further research was also done by me into using openCV to perform landmark detection on a video stream. A basic tutorial was followed but I had trouble getting all the dependencies configured correctly on my machine.

Further brainstorming was done on how exactly the computer stand will have the necessary information to adjust height and pitch. The method I settled on was having a calibration stage where distances between landmarks on the face are measured. Then when the user lifts his/her head up, the computer stand will adjust until the distances between landmarks are the same as in the calibration stage.