A week dedicated to developing our ideas for final projects

For my final project, I will be attempting to solve a problem that all of us face: indecision. I will be creating the Wheel of Indecision. This wheel will be hooked up to an LCD monitor below and will take the stress out of choosing a place to eat. On the LCD monitor, the user will be able to select and deselect which restaurants they want to choose between, and select their spot on the wheel. There will be certain restaurants offered to be added that include an API that will aid in simplifying the ordering process even further. If an API is available, users could take even more decisions off of their hands by selecting a price range and having the wheel decide what to order for them and completing the order with the API. After the wheel is spun, the stress of making that decision of pizza or pad thai is over and you can finally enjoy a well earned rest.

I am planning on creating a Python-based framework and a set of APIs to get access to menus for restaurants and order online (only available with some APIs (i.e. Dominos Pizza)). I was worried initially if enough local restaurants have available APIs for ordering, so I am leaning currently towards having the final wheel be a Dominos wheel, as Dominos is an exceptional eating establishment.

I have been working on planning the project in the spiral design, where no matter my time constraint, I will still have a tangible final product at the end of FabAcademy. In order to achieve this, my first goal will be to have an operational wheel that spins and the electronics to detect where the wheel ends up afterwards. After this, the wheel will be made to be used with only Dominos Menu Items so the order will be created through the API. This will make sure that I will have something to show at the end of the course to demonstrate my learning and effort.

Fab Charter

The Fab Charter illustrates what a fab lab is and describes the network and responsibilities associated with fab labs. Fab labs are an international network of spaces for innovation and collaboration. The network provides "operational, educational, technical, financial, and logistical" support to everyone no matter their local lab's limitations. Fab labs are open to everyone and expects users to always be mindful of the safety of people and the machines, the operation and maintenance of the lab, and their own ability to contribute and instruct others in the lab. Individuals are entitled to the rights of their own inventions, designs, and processes, and businesses that use fab labs as incubators are expected to work harmoniously with other users and are expected to benefit the lab with their success.