Programming Timeline

Here is a timeline of how the programmers began coding the device to detect falls. The programmers began Week 2 and added finishing touches throughout Weeks 9 and 10. Unfortunately, a 10 week time span was not adequate to make the device's code foolproof (check for all scenarios) and incorporate a Bluetooth messaging system.

Week 2: April 10, 2013 - April 16, 2013

• Programmers looked at sample code that has an LED light on the Arduino blink on and off

• Code in Matlab to gather data from accelerometer and plot the derivatives of velocity (acceleration) to determine the difference seen for different scenarios 

Week 3: April 17, 2013 - April 23, 2013

• Downloaded Arduino and Matlab compatibility files in order to program the Arduino through Matlab
• The programmers decided at the end of the week that they would have more flexibility and ease incorporating a bluetooth shield and SD card shield if they used the Arduino IDE
• The Arduino IDE is programmed in the language C

Week 4: April 24, 2013 - April 30, 2013

• Code for collecting data from the accelerometer and saving it in the SD card (which is in the SD card shield)

Week 5: May 1, 2013 - May 7, 2013

• Created arrays to save the derivatives of all the velocities (X, Y and Z)
• First attempt to include conditional statements that determine the difference between movements such as a fall or walking 

Week 6: May 8, 2013 - May 14, 2013

• Modified program with conditional statements based on the experimental scenarios/movements tested (refer to Week 6 blog post for the complete list)

Week 7: May 15, 2013 - May 21, 2013

• Tested the program under various scenarios
• Problem: Program thought it sensed a fall when the user took off their device and placed in on a table 

Week 8: May 22, 2013 - May 28, 2013

• Worked on fixing the problem from Week 8 by including a time variable as well
• 1. Check the acceleration, if there is a large spike THEN
• 2. Check if the values before the 

Week 9: May 29, 2013 - June 5, 2013