April 2017 – Page 2 – Wearable Technology 2017

April 18, 2017April 18, 2017

Sirena 4/18/17

Emma was able to get a much better idea of sizing this week. After 3D printing the base and one side, she realized the sizes should be a little bit smaller. The pieces actually came out really nicely and they were sanded down pretty well. Nonetheless, they are far too big and need to be re-worked yet again. Even though the big pieces are going to be used for the final, it is still nice to get an idea of the shape even if its a little too big. Emma also switched over to using NX instead sketch up because the dimensions are a lot easier to work with on NX. She plans to continue to work on sizing this week and work through the challenges faced last week.

Keegan worked on the NX files with Emma last week. The sketch up file had to be redone in NX to allow editing as well as exporting. Keegan continued to work on the app through Ionic Creator. The use of Ionic is proving to be more difficult than anticipated and has slowed down, but will be getting more focus this week and moving forward.

We’ve seen some challenges with coding and the 3-D printing of the Simblee housing. With 3-D printing we are able to rapid prototype our design and see where problems are, fix them, then print a new model quickly. By constantly adjusting our design we hope to get our best possible model as quick as possible.

April 18, 2017May 2, 2017

Unconventional Honesty Post 6

A huge success of the past week was Andres and Fang got the heart rate monitor to connect to the neopixel sensors! All three neopixel strips are working and are now connected. The next step in this process will be playing with patterns. One option, recommended by Kevin, is to have the pixels move at the rate of the heartbeat, so when the person’s heart rate goes up, the pattern goes more erratic as well.

There has been a slight problem in the sewing department, the original “tunnel” structure keeps falling apart. Jade will speak to Marianne about that in class this week to either find a solution or a new “tunnel” method.

For this coming week, we will work to finish the tunnels and start connecting the neopixels and heart rate through the jacket. If we get far enough alone this week, we may start sewing the jacket back together!

April 17, 2017

EoS Week 6

Progress: I was out of town for a bit of last week and the weekend so I was only able to work on TinkerCAD and I’ve almost finalized my design for the housing, I just need to add some finishing touches. I took Marianne’s idea of angling the range finder housing and it looks pretty good, it’s just a little deceiving since it looks so big but it’s actually in millimeters. Also my power boost came in the mail today so I’ll be able to work on finalizing my soldering with finishing up the power component.

Issues: The only big issue was my lack of free time to work on this the past week, but on the bright side there is not much left other than finishing the housing and printing it and soldering the last bits. We’ll see if the electronics cause any issues this week and if I need to do any last minute pivoting.

This Week: I’m looking to solder my power component in on Tuesday, which shouldn’t take too long. Then hopefully I can also finish up my housing design and get the process to print it in motion in case I need to do any changes from the first design. I said last week that I want to have it complete by Thursday and I’m still optimistic that I can meet that deadline but it all depends on what roadblocks I get with the final electronic product and if my TinkerCAD design is correct.

April 13, 2017May 2, 2017

Post #5 Aurora

2. Tested laser cutting my pattern with Luisa. Found that neoprene cuts very well with the laser cutter. I also straightened out some shipping issues I was having with my final fabric. I created a 2 in width pattern in illustrator for the back of my jacket too.

3. Getting the right neoprene fabric is harder and taking longer than usual. I was offered expedited shipping from wholesale fabric direct if they have the correct stuff. I’m feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work I still have to do and worried for the final due date.

4. This week I’m going to edit the widths of my traced pattern and cut them out. I’m also going to sew my prototype jacket back together as efficiently as possible.

April 11, 2017

Week 5 Haptic Glove Update

An image or video

Tested the new way of twining the actuator wires

A Listing of accomplishments made by all group members for the previous week

Used conductive wires with actuator wires to provide stronger contracting effect
Created a new way of constructing the wires to provide contracting feedback
Used Arduino to control rumble motors on different frequencies (Plan B)

A description of problems encountered and outstanding issues

Have some problems in the connection between Unity and Arduino (IOexception)
The wire’s feedback was sometimes unpredictable

A plan for the next week of work

Figure out the connection between Unity and Arduino
Learn to implement the leap motion into Unity
Try adding conductive covers on the actuator wires to ensure constant feedback
Try to create scenes in Unity

April 11, 2017

Shoe Construction

Last week
- I started putting together the shoe pieces I already had so that I can build the base for the prototype.

- I also redesigned the heel components so that they do not have to complete 2 full rotations to extend their full length; I increased the height so that they will be able to condense/ extend from 0.75”-4”; and I added loops on top so that we can test if springs will be able to attach and facilitate rotation.

This week
- I plan on finishing the shoe base and testing the new heel components.

April 11, 2017

Sirena post #5

Regarding the design for this past week, Emma was able to have a software training session with a student that knows SketchUp very well and she was able to create an updated design that will have 3 separate pieces as of right now. The design has a curvature to it that it didn’t have before which can help with the feel of it.

When creating the design, some challenges that arose included sizing and proportion and there are definitely some things that need to be changed but in order for those changes to be made, it needs to be printed and figured from there.

This week Emma will make sure to get it printed and from there have a better idea what the next steps are regarding the design. It is taking her much longer than expected but definitely making improvements.

This past week Keegan dealt a lot with coding of the app and improving functionality. We decided to switch to an online app development website called Ionic to create interface and perform tasks like sending SMS texts and emails. The site has proven to be very content heavy and Keegan has so far watched a lot of tutorials on Ionic and how it works but hasn’t been able to implement any significant advances.

A catastrophic setup backup almost happened with the Simblee when it stopped showing up in the port on Keegan’s Macbook. After some slightly panicked searching of the web he found out the SMC could be reset and the problem should be resolved. Luckily it was and we avoided having to order another Simblee and rush the project more.

This week has to see developments in the app and how we can send texts and/or emails when the button on the bracelet is held. Keegan will be focusing on improving functionality through Ionic.

April 11, 2017

EoS Week 5

Progress: Everything has been soldered together aside from the voltage divider I’m going to need to make this week to power the range finder and the OLED screen. It shouldn’t be too difficult once I get the other resistor I need.

I’ve also started working on housing designs in Tinker Cad and hope to be able to print them next week. I made one option where the range finder could be on the back half of the holder, and the other option I’ll look at is if it is further up, closer to where the mirror is located (the second image).

Problems: Looking for a 5v power source I can use has been an absolute nightmare. At this point I’m leaning towards getting a battery housing and just use 4 AA batteries and hacking together a power source and have the housing open up to replace the batteries. It seems as though rechargeable 5v batteries are nonexistent, or I have to wait a month for shipping.

This Week: Hoping to finish up the Tinker Cad designs and the voltage divider so that I can print the housing and start assembling it all together. Ideally I’d like to have it functional by next week Thursday but we’ll see if I have anymore setbacks.

April 10, 2017

Uncoventional Honesty Post 5

This week, we made a lot of progress! We struggled with lighting out neopixel strips, but Andres and Fang got them to finally light up by the end of Thursday’s work day.

We also explored the jacket deconstruction and reconstruction. The jacket had the pockets sewn in and Jade started experimenting with how to best make a tunnel of organza for the neopixel strip to slide through. The best method found so far is running a doubled-up layer of organza through the serger on both sides then stitching it onto the jacket.

This week, we will work to attach the neopixel connection to the heart rate monitor, work on the “tunnels” for the neopixel strips, and, hopefully, attach the strips to the jacket.