Hello Again!
Welcome back to the Xtension blog! We’re on our second week of work and making good progress on brainstorming and working on getting everything set up!
This week, we’ve been working on more detailed tasks and starting to make progress on different aspects, such as prototypes, visual identities, and other miscellaneous things.
Team Logo iterations:
Technology Prototype Progress:
Sher, Harry and Anton are working on different types of prototypes and here are some of our progress and challenges:
1. Ultrasonic Sensor:
We discussed the potential limitations of the ultrasonic sensor. It was compared to an RGB sensor, which currently only detects colors. There was an exploration into providing an output for the RGB sensor, such as a sound that corresponds to different colors. For instance, detecting the color red might trigger a particular jingle. However, the exact output for the RGB sensor has not yet been finalized.
3. Hand Gesture Recognition:
We are working on hand gesture recognition using an external library. The current capabilities of the library include detecting gestures like “close,” “open,” and “point.” There’s an idea of using hand gestures, such as moving the left hand from left to right, to control a device. The specific application mentioned was to control a small car using an Arduino. The car’s movement would depend on the hand gesture – for instance, opening the hand would make the car move forward.
4. Remote Control and Communication:
Some possible situations might involve remotely controlling lights. At the moment, the setup allows for computer control of the lights, but there’s potential for replacing this control mechanism with other input devices, such as switches or laser tripwires. To facilitate this, a wireless module has been acquired to allow two Arduinos to communicate with each other.
5. Raspberry Pi Integration:
A significant portion of the discussion revolved around setting up Raspberry Pi’s. Challenges faced include a laggy setup and issues regarding Python environment installations. One of the primary goals with the Raspberry Pi was to write Arduino code on it and use the Raspberry Pi to upload the code. The vision is to use the Raspberry Pi as a control mechanism for other devices, potentially leveraging its webcam.
6. BCI Devices:
A brief mention was made about Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) devices. It appears that there has been no significant progress in this area, with one of the primary reasons being awaiting specific hardware components.
Preparation for next week’s Quarters:
We are going to showcase at least 3 different prototypes: the proximity sensor, the hand gesture recognition, and the remote communication between arduino and PC.
Week 3-Quarters
On Friday, our team presented our Quarterly Update. We demonstrated our prototype’s progress to the faculty and received valuable feedback that we’ll incorporate as we move forward with the project. There were some questions regarding the setting and narrative of our project.