Fall 2015
eyeGuide
People with vision impairments are constantly required to rely on others when they engage in everyday activities. The team plans to design an app that will allow the blind and visually impaired to get around independently. eyeGuide makes navigating across the university campus easier.
The guiding system is based on Wi-Fi positioning which is aided by the beacons. The navigation routes will be provided by Google-API Indoor Mapping. The voice recognition system acquires the destination from the user and then calculates and provides a viable route. The system corrects the user’s path by re-routing in case of deviation from the original route The main advantage of the system is to provide optimized directions using voice commands towards the destination inside the campus buildings involving low-cost and high accuracy hardware system.
Sober Wheel
Sober Wheel will be a vehicle BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) interlock that utilizes an optical sensor which will measure the absorbance of light in the Near IR(NIR) spectrum from the driver’s fingers. In the NIR spectrum, ethanol is detected without any interference by skin pigmentation. To ensure that the driver is not wearing gloves, a fingerprint scanner will be integrated with the optical sensor. If the user’s BAC is below the legal limit, an “all clear” signal will be sent to the vehicles computer and the car will start. If the BAC comes back over the limit, the car will not start and the user will be notified with both audio and visual signals.
The failed attempt will be logged and the information is sent to a monitoring service. If multiple failures occur within a small time frame the car will be locked out for a minimum of twenty four hours. The only way a vehicle may be used after it has been locked out is if an all clear signal is sent to the car.
Reptile Habitat Controller
The team is working on building an automated reptile habitat controller. The project will incorporate timers, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, heating pads and provide a single control system with one micro-controller. The area of the habitat dictates the selection of microcontrollers.
We were inspired to work on this project when learning that owners were having trouble maintaining the environment for their reptile pets. Proportional Integral Derivative controller is a control loop feed mechanism which is widely used in the industry. It is programmed so as to set the system with predefined values of temperature and humidity. The controller will use these values to compare them with the sensor values. The input signal is sampled many times per-second depending on the controller used.If the actual sensor value doesn’t match the predefined value, it will generate an output signal to activate the controlled device. Unlike On/Off control, it will determine the exact output value required to maintain the desired temperature/humidity.
Project SLIP
The idea of this project was generated because we were interested in reducing communication barriers between the hard-of-hearing and people with normal hearing capacities. This device will act as a teacher without having to physically go to a classroom and take the time to meet with an instructor personally. It will be interactive and display corrections if the intended sign is used incorrectly.
The focus is on creating a learning tool for people using this by teaching sign language. The second part of this is to create a translation tool. This would be used as an interpreter. The user will then be more independent and the communication barrier will be lowered. The first step is to put together a basic program that will recognize hand gesture. Next we can build upon what we have and add additional coding that will allow the Kinect to learn and memorize hand gestures. This process includes storing the data received from the user along with analyzing and returning proper text and speech. The final step of this project involves a professional sign language interpreter; we will need to find someone to teach the program basic sign and gesture.
Autonomous Pool Chemical System
Proper pool maintenance is vital for a pool’s lifespan. Hence, this system aims to accurately measure the chemical levels in a swimming pool and disperse the required chemicals into the pool autonomously. The main objective is to cut the cost by at least half the usual by autonomously and periodically testing and maintaining the chemical levels of the water. The prototype was simulated in a small scale fish tank as opposed to applying it to a large pool based on time constraints and labor resource. The critical parameter in this design is to accurately measure the chemical level in a pool. Depending on the dispersion of light in a sample, the concentration of chemicals will be determined. The alternative is to perform an image analysis on the sample to determine the concentration of chemicals.