Week 9 Progress:

A more elegant power supply was built for the device. It uses a 2.1mm m-type plug to provide DC power into the Arduino device. The finished power supply is displayed below.

With the completion of the power supply, the final design of the prototype appears to be ready. Below is an image displaying the final design. Note that and LED was added for notification purposes.

Code is stil being written and will be posted once completed. After much difficulty the team has got array lists working in order to calculate and store data. 

Week 8 Progress:

The source of the bluetooth shield error still has not been discovered. However, another problem has presented itself. The device appears to not record data from the A1 pin while the bluetooth shield is plugged in. Consultations with TA's in class resulted in the discovery that the bluetooth shield uses A1 to communicate with the Arduino and therefore the Accelerometer cannot use A1. The team is working on creating a way to bypass this problem using a breadboard and some jumper cables to redirect the input of A1 from the Accelerometer to a different analog input pin. This will result in changes to the coding in order to account for the change in pin number. Pictures of the completed bypass solution will be posted once it has been completed.

Week 8 Update: The team worked with a TA and came up with a simpler solution to the pin problem. A plier was used to bend two pins over in order to free up A1. Below is a picture of the solution.

Week 7 Progress

The team has continued work on the programming of the device. The team is still working on learning the ins and outs of the Arduino IDE language which appears to be a combination of C, C++, and some other unique syntax. In addition, the bluetooth shield arrived and is being configured. Unfortuneately, trying to compile the test code for the shield results in the following error:

In file included from Slave.pde:31:
/Users/ravishah/Documents/Arduino/libraries/NewSoftSerial/NewSoftSerial.h:71: error: conflicting return type specified for 'virtual void NewSoftSerial::write(uint8_t)'
/Applications/Arduino.app/Contents/Resources/Java/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino/Print.h:48: error:   overriding 'virtual size_t Print::write(uint8_t)'

The team is working on doing some research to figure out the cause of the error. It appears that it may be due to some changes in the libraries that Arduino uses. 

Week 6 In Class Progress

In class today, the programmers worked on coming up with conditions that define what position the device is in. Some of the conditions that need to be tested are listed below.

• Static Postures
• Falling (an unintentional transition to the lying position)
• Standing
• Sitting
• Bending
• Lying
• Both linear acceleration and angular velocity are used to determine whether or not a transition is intentional
• Dynamic Transitions
• Walking on stairs
• Walking
• Sitting
• Jumping
• Laying down
• Running
• Running on the stairs
• Quickly sitting up and down
• Quickly sitting down in a reclined position
• Falling
• Forward
• Backward
• Right
• Left
• Inclined fall (down the stairs)
• Do height and weight have an effect on the acceleration values?
• yes, however, the program will be using relative distances between values and thus the actual values themselves can be different

Week 5 Progress: May 1 - May 8

This week, the group again focused on two main aspects: getting the device to work properly, and creating the CAD models for the case.

Soldering was done in order to wire the device to allow it to fully function independently from the computer. Now that the total size and dimensions of the device could be calculated, the group was able to construct basic Creo models of what the case will look like. The models are depicted below:

The case:

The lid:

We plan to finalize these models to include an opening for a picture. This way the device would double as a locket. Unfortunately, the device is extremely thick and would probably be uncomfortable to wear. Luckily, many of the parts we are using can be reduced in size greatly for an increased price. A finalized marketed version would be much smaller. 

After the models are finalized, we will construct the casing using the 3-D printer.

Week 4 Update: April 24th- April 30th

The team finally got an Arduino SDcard shield in order to log information collected from the accelerometer to an SDcard during tests. The code to have it log was provided on Arduino.cc and worked flawlessly. The current plan is to use native Arduino IDE code to log the data. Using MATLAB to do the same will be investigated. In addition, the team came up with MATLAB code that will automatically send out an email in order to simulate an emergency responder being called.

Arduino with SD Shield and Accelerometer Connected 

Completed Package With Battery Connected

Week 3 Progress: April 17th - April 23th

This week, the group focused on two main projects: the final aesthetic use of the product, and allowing the product to run independently of the computer. 

After discussion of how the product would be worn by the consumer, it was decided the accelerometer would fit into a necklace. The top section would fold open like a book to act as a locket where pictures could be stored. Since the product will be a necklace, the group worked on designs to minimize the volume of the necklace to not make it uncomfortable or unsightly to wear.

The group also wanted the product to run independently of a computer so it could be worn and tested in real-life situations. To do this, the group purchased an SD Card Shield for storage of the data as the memory of the Arduino is not large enough for all of our graphs and data. A nine-volt battery and adapter for this were also purchased to allow the product to be powered without the use of a plug-in power source.

This week the group hopes to fully automate the product and finalize mathematical models to be used for testing.