Week 18

Applications and Implications

Propose a final project that integrates the range of units covered.

Learning outcomes:

Define the scope of a project.
Develop a project plan.

Have you answered to these questions:

What will it do?
Who has done what beforehand?
What will you design?
What materials and components will be required?
Where will they come from?
How much will it cost?
what parts and systems will be made?
What processes will be used?
What tasks need to be completed?
What questions need to be answered?
What is the schedule?
How will it be evaluated?

1. What will it do?

Do you usually have back pain for being sitted in a bad position while working? My final project aims to solve this probelm by making a posture corrector that can be worn, for example, while you are working or driving for long time.

This project will include two kind of sensors that will send information to an app about not only the body inclination, but also if the back muscles are being stretched more than they should. Whenever it considers that the subject is slumped an output vibration will be sent to make him aware of this bad position. It will also store that information in order to know how long have you been in a bad position and if you are reducing that time day by day.

2. Who has done what beforehand?

Some companies have also developed products to solve this problem. The two first products that you can see in the following images are devices that you allocate in your back and whenever you are not sitting correctly the device will vibrate so you can change it.

Upright
Lumo

The third one is an exo skeleton that the employees of Ford, the car company are using. This skeleton was created by Ekso Bionics, a company that creates them not only for workers but also for improvings people's health.

2. What will you design?

The designs that will be included in this project are:

Two PCB designs
T-shirt pattern designs: both 2D and 3D
Cases for the PCB that will be printed with the 3D printer
App design
Logo for the final product

4. What materials and components will be required? Where will they come from? How much will it cost?

These questions are answered in an excel file that I have created with the different things that I need for my project. You can acces by clicking on this link. There I have written down all the things that I need for the project, it's value, quantity and price.

5. What parts and systems will be made? What processes will be used?

Inclination sensor board

My final project has two boards that were milled with the Modela machine. The first one is the one that sense the tilt of the body. This board has an accelerometer that will be measuring the angle of the back, a vibration motor that will give a buzz when being in a bad position and the bluetooth that will be sending the information to the phone App.

Conductive fabric board

The second board has a Wheatstone bridge where the ends of the thread that makes contact with the conductive fabric will be soldered. These threads will give a resistance value that will be transform into back stretching information.

3D printed casts

I will use the 3D printer to print a cast that will be designed for each of the boards. This cast won't allow board movement and will be attacht to the t-shirt in a wat that it can be separated to be able to wash the t-shirt.

3D scanner

The t-shirt of my final project will be designed for each person individually. The reason for doing it like this is that it needs to be adjusted to the persons body to measure accurately the muscle stretching. I had used the 3D Sense scanner to have the 3D body of my model and design the t-shirt for her.

Wildcard week: textiles

I will use Seamly2D to create the patterns of the t-shirt according to my model measurements. I sew all the parts of the t-shirt together including the conductiv thread and the conductive fabric.

Laser cut t-shirt

I will cut the t-shirt pattern designs with the laser cutter. Like this the process can be reproduce for other people by simply changing the measurements.

Vinyl cutter:

I will include the logo of my final project in the t-shirt. For doing so I will do a design and I will cut it with the vinyl cutter, then I will stick it to my -shirt using the heat press transfer mahcine.

Phone App with Android Studio

Develop an App that receives the boards information and gives you feedback of your progression.

6. What tasks need to be completed?

At this point what I am missing for my final project is:

Electronics:

Thread board: connect the thread to the board and check if I can measure the resistance values that I wanted to.

App programming:

Finish the App design with Android Studio: I was unable to make the Bluetooh connection with the App so I have to continue with that.
Once I manage to connect the Bluetooth I will load the program that will send the vibrations when being in a bad position.

Vinyl cutting:

Design the final logo of my project and cutting it with the vinyl cutter for pasting it in my t-shirt.

3D printing:

I need to 3D print the covers for both of my boards.

7. What questions need to be answered?

I have been solving the different questions while developing this project everyweek so for now I don't have any!

8. What is the schedule?

I have been catching up with the things that I had to do whenever I had time during the week. For these next weeks my schedule will be :

9. How will it be evaluated?

My final project will be able to sense what is the body position of the person who is wearing the t-shirt, send that information to the app and give a buzz whenever is not the correct one.