16. Applications and Implications¶
This week I start to plan the requirements for my project. My final project is to build a small form factor thumb controller for XR headsets. The key idea of the project is to replace XR hand controllers (like the ones in Oculus Quest) with a small form factor controller which can fit in a thumb, thus not occupying the entire hand.
Questions and answers¶
Who has done what beforehand?¶
I found two related peer-reviewed works:
- Shi, Yilei, et al. “Ready, steady, touch! sensing physical contact with a finger-mounted IMU.” Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies 4.2 (2020): 1-25.
It senses physical contact via IMU sensing data.
- Zhou, Hao, et al. “One Ring to Rule Them All: An Open Source Smartring Platform for Finger Motion Analytics and Healthcare Applications.” Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE Conference on Internet of Things Design and Implementation. 2023.
It proposes a ring for remote control based on finger movements.
I found two works done in Fab Academy in prior years on hand controllers.
In terms of goals and intents, my project is very similar to the ones from Yazan and Jari. The major distinction is the form factor. My project focuses on making a controller that can fit in a thumb as a ring.
What will I design?¶
- Body structure to package the thumb controller (3D design, fabricated by 3D printer, aka. additive fabrication)
- Logo for thumb controller (2D design, fabricated by Vinyl cutting machine, aka. subtractive fabrication)
- Custom PCB Board (Design in KiCad and Production with LPKF machine)
- Entire embedded pipeline (input, on-device reasoning, output, interfacing and networking). I will do interfacing with Unity3D on Windows 10 OS.
What materials and components will be used?¶
- ESP32C3 microcontroller for overall computations and connectivity
- IMU sensor for detecting thumb orientation
- FR2 substrate for PCB production
- 3D printer resin to build the structure for the thumb controller
- Soldering material
Where will come from?¶
University of Oulu’s research lab and Fab Lab Oulu.
How much will they cost?¶
The costs are not high, and the entire project can be done with a budget of about 50 USD.
| Qty | Item/Specification | Purpose | Price | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TI BQ25100YFPT (Standalone 1-cell, 250-mA linear battery charger with 4.2-V charge voltage and prog. pre-charge) | power supply without need of serial power connection | 1.99 USD | Digikey | Obtained the University of Oulu’s Research Lab |
| 1 | Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 Module | Brain | 4.62 USD | Digikey | Obtained from Fab Lab Oulu |
| 1 | Adafruit 9-DOF Absolute Orientation IMU Fusion Breakout - BNO055 | Sensing orientation of the thumb | 34.95 USD | Adafruit | Obtained from the University of Oulu’s Research Lab |
| 1 | Circuit board material for PCB production (substrate for milling PCB, pinheader, soldering materials) | To fabricate the PCB Board | ~5 USD | Obtained from Fab Lab Oulu |
Additionally, it does require a PC with the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system installed to be able to see the proof of concept.
What parts and systems will be made?¶
- Body structure to package the thumb controller (3D design, fabricated by 3D printer, aka. additive fabrication)
- Logo for thumb controller (2D design, fabricated by Vyln cutting machine, aka. subtractive fabrication)
- Custom PCB Board (Design in KiCad and Production with LPKF machine)
- Entire embedded pipeline (input, on-device reasoning, output, interfacing and networking).
What processes will be used?¶
- 3D design and 2D Design (i.e. Computer-Aided Design)
- 3D printing and subtractive fabrication with Vyln cutting machine (i.e. COmputer-controlled cutting)
- Electronics Design
- Electronics Production
- Embedded programming
- Output devices (showing results in Unity3D on Windows PC)
- Input devices (reading IMU data)
- Interface and application (Interfacing with Unity3D on Windows PC)
- Embedded networking and communications (Serial communication)
What questions need to be answered?¶
- The most important question: Can different thumb orientations be detected reliably by IMU data? I may need to use a machine-learning model for this one.
- With the Oculus hand controller, there is an Oculus headset, but I don’t have an open headset. So, the plan is to show a demonstration by manipulating objects in Unity3D. How to interface the thumb controller with Blender?
What will it be evaluated?¶
It should reliably be able to manipulate the orientation of 3D virtual objects in Unity3D by changing thumb orientation. More controls can be added later, but these operations should be enough for the prototype and project.
Planned time schedule¶
- Week 1: Assembly of structure (outer body of thumb controller)
- Week 2: Embedded pipeline, and PCB (if needed)
- Week 3: Interfacing, Early prototype testing
- Week 4: Packaging