Weekly Assignments Final Project About me

19. Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income

For this assignment, I reflected on the intellectual property, future possibilities, dissemination plan, development status, and potential income of my final project.

Dissemination Plan

The design files, source code, process documentation, and development notes for this project are available as part of this Fab Academy documentation website. The intention is to share the complete process openly so that other people can understand how the project was developed, replicate it, adapt it, and give it their own personal touch.

I would love to see this project being modified for other spaces, communities, and contexts. Since it was designed as a registration and interaction device for entrepreneurship spaces, it could also be adapted to makerspaces, innovation hubs, classrooms, laboratories, events, or any place where it is useful to track visits and improve the user experience.

Intellectual Property and License

All documentation, design files, source code, and development materials for this project are shared openly through this Fab Academy documentation website. The goal is to encourage learning, replication, and future improvements by other makers, students, and institutions.

This project is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Under this license, anyone is free to copy, redistribute, remix, adapt, and build upon this work, provided that appropriate credit is given, the material is not used for commercial purposes, and any derivative work is distributed under the same license.

I would be excited to see others replicate this project, adapt it to their own spaces, and contribute new ideas or improvements. Sharing knowledge and building upon previous work is one of the principles that makes the Fab Academy community valuable.

Future Possibilities

From our side, we plan to continue modifying the local server and explore an alternative that allows the project to scale to multiple entrepreneurship spaces. The goal would be for several spaces to use the same type of device, collect user information in real time, and store it securely in the cloud.

To achieve this, we would probably integrate the device with a registration form that is already being used in our current spaces, instead of using the test form created during this project. The main challenge would be connecting the physical device with the existing form and database used regularly.

This development would require several tests, iterations, and collaborations with other departments or people from Tecnológico de Monterrey, especially to make sure that the information is stored safely and that the system can work properly across different locations.

Potential Income

At the moment, this project is intended as an internal tool to improve the experience and data collection processes within entrepreneurship spaces rather than as a commercial product.

However, if the concept proves successful and scalable, future opportunities could include adapting the system for innovation hubs, makerspaces, coworking areas, educational institutions, events, or community spaces that require visitor tracking and engagement analytics.

Any future implementation would likely require additional development, cloud infrastructure, maintenance, and integration services rather than revenue generated from the physical device itself.

Completed Tasks

  1. Designed and fabricated the physical enclosure of the device.
  2. Integrated the main electronic components, including the ESP32, LCD screen, RGB LED, buzzer, PIR sensor, and servo motor.
  3. Created a local web interface for user registration.
  4. Connected the interface with a database structure for storing visits.
  5. Tested the use of NFC stickers to open the registration page from a mobile phone.
  6. Developed a dashboard to visualize visits, profiles, reasons for visiting, and frequent users.
  7. Documented the design, fabrication, electronics, programming, and testing process.

Remaining Tasks

  1. Improve the server setup so the system is more stable and easier to access from different devices.
  2. Explore a cloud-based database option for real-time information storage.
  3. Connect the physical device with the official registration form or database currently used by our spaces.
  4. Test the system in a regular basis with users.
  5. Evaluate privacy and data security requirements before scaling the project.
  6. Adapt the design so it can be replicated in multiple spaces.

What Is Working?

The physical device is working as an interactive registration capsule. It reacts to motion, displays messages on the LCD screen, uses light and sound feedback, and connects with a local registration interface. The dashboard also works and shows useful information about the visits registered through the system.

What Is Not Working Yet?

The current version still depends on a local server, which limits how easily it can be accessed or replicated in multiple spaces. The NFC interaction works, but some phones may open the link differently depending on their browser settings. The system also needs more testing before being connected to an official database or scaled to different locations.

Questions to Resolve

  1. What is the best way to connect the device to the official registration system?
  2. How can user information be stored securely in the cloud?
  3. What data should be collected to improve the experience without collecting unnecessary personal information?
  4. How can the same project be adapted to different spaces while keeping a consistent experience?
  5. Who needs to be involved from Tecnológico de Monterrey to make the system scalable?

Planned Development

The next stage of the project would be to test the system in an entrepreneurship space for a while, collect feedback from users, and identify technical improvements. After that, the local server could be replaced or complemented with a cloud-based system. Later, the device could be adapted and replicated in more of our spaces.

This expansion would take several tests and collaborations, but it could add value to the user experience and help us keep a better record of how our spaces are being used.

What I Learned

This project helped me understand how intellectual property is not only about protecting an idea, but also about deciding how a project can be shared, replicated, and improved by others. I also learned that scaling a prototype requires thinking beyond the object itself, including data management, user privacy, documentation, maintenance, and future collaboration.