Friday, December 9, 2016
Final Presentation
Just as a disclaimer, these are just the slides and not what we said over them.... Some might not make sense but they should look cool.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Last Week of Work
Where are we now? What is left?
Our current situation can be aptly summarized by these two pictures, the head programmer angrily working out the bugs in the code while the product taunts and frustrates him with its unwillingness to work the way it is supposed to. Well that was where we were... In the last day, and this last week, I have one job. To take that giant mess of wires and minimize it, make it look nicer and be more permanent. To accomplish that, I have this tiny bread board:
... Somehow I feel that by the time I'm done with this, I'm actually going to be rather good at soldering. Well, at least better than I am now.
This is my last job and frankly, it is my last chance to contribute. I wired the original prototype and I might have provided the original idea, but all the coding and most of the work has really been done by my partner. I have very little claim on what the product currently is. I hope by doing a good job on this part, I can actually prove that I was a contributing member of the team.
Now the last thing I need to talk about before presenting on this product is where this idea falls on the fallowing diagram:
So, what are we building? I would hope that this emergency first aid device is not new technology in an existing market but for a while I actually believed it was. Needless to say when the success percentages popped up I was rather distraught. I thought that the internet of things was something new, something rarely heard of, while the problems with emergency first response were age old and well recorded. Now I know better, I think, the internet of things is rather new but it has already become the foundation of modern appliances. So, while not entirely new, IoT can be said to be a field that is deeply rooted but still branching out into new application. Similarly, the problems in emergency response, while recorded, have never been addressed in an appropriate way or really at all. Finally this puts this product, if it is found to be a viable solution to the problem, into the 31-37% chance of success... Not perfect (kinda like the product) but better than nothing.
Friday, November 18, 2016
Parts and costs
Looking towards the future!
Here is a brief overview of the parts we might consider if we were to make an actual functioning device that does everything:
Or
-----------
Roughly: $165.50
(or $175.50)
All told, the price is… a lot more than we would like to spend on this product let alone in this class. Also, probably a lot more than any customer would be willing to spend on this device. What to do? This list also does not include a value for time spent assembling the darn things or the cost of material to make real housing for the devices (still not sure what that might look like) as well as a host of other small things (like the cost of solder used) that might pop up in manufacturing and retailing. Buying in bulk and replacing parts with base components to solder ourselves would cut the cost per device down by close to $40 or more but still not leave the final price at a level that I am confident would sell. There is also the possibility that, as this is a device created for the public benefit, it might be subsidized in some way by emergency services. Nearly every phone bill does include a service charge to fund emergency services. Perhaps some of these funds might be directed to help provide crucial first aid information to the general population as well as better location for emergency services and call centers. While all this might not bring the cost below $60 or even $70, I find these prices more acceptable. In the end this project requires a great deal of more research and development to produce a final product that fulfils all our requirements. The final device will not be cobbled together from parts bought somewhat haphazardly from different websites and hopefully the final cost for the consumer would be between $40 to $50, close to the cost of a fire extinguisher and other life saving devices.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Proof of Concept - The Aftermath
Proof of Concept - Review
Last week, Kevin and I were tasked to show that our product idea was actually a viable proposal to solve the issue of emergency services being unable to accurately locate individuals in need of aid. This is what we have so far:
Now this might not appear to be a whole lot but it does help display the main functions our idea needed to work:
- A working display
- An accurate location
- Wireless connectivity between a phone and the device
All that is left is getting all the first aid information we can to be displayed on that tiny screen! Well that and a host of other features we might think up along the way.
- The ability to input additional information about the emergency and send that to emergency information.
- A quick and easy way to find the correct first aid procedure for the current emergency.
- A long lasting and easy to charge battery.
These are just a couple ideas, but what is abundantly clear is that we are running up against the limit of what we can do with our limited budget, time and expertise. Should we actually look to making this a viable product, the components we use would have to be altered and swapped out. We are still researching what those component should be so more information about that later. For now lets focus on what can actually be accomplished by the end of this course.
- Adding an alternative power source.
- Displaying first aid information.
- Possibly add the pulse sensor.
- Create a more permanent housing for the display and photon.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Project Update
Project Update
Quick note: From last week, I was very lucky in having been able to pair up with Kevin Li, an individual with computer skills far beyond mine. His blog is: http://excellentexception.blogspot.com/ . Together we have an expanded budget of $40 and so have expanded the possible features we might include in our prototype.
What was done today?
- Got all the parts in today.
- Discovered that we are missing a particular cord to connect the charger to photon bord… Probably going to have to find one of those soon.
- Worked on geolocation to provide an accurate location for the photon.
- Still a whole lot to do with this and I really don’t understand any of it. Kevin will probably lead the effort on this.
- As far as I understand, this geolocation is used in conjunction with a google feature that will determine the location of a device based on the Wifi signals near it.
- https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geolocation/intro
- Worked on getting the screen to work.
- While we did eventually get the demo program to run on the screen, it was only with an UNO board and not with the photon.
- Works rather well though, quite a bit better than I thought it would based on its rather cheap price.
What needs to be done by next week?
- Work on getting the display to either:
- Work with the arduino and display relevant information to first aid.
- Just work with the photon.
- Work on the geolocation and sending a location to a print screen.
Questions?
- The screen needs a lot of wiring (see picture below). How am I supposed to make this into a portable device?
Friday, October 21, 2016
Project Requirements and Timeline
- Required features for final project:
- Can take pulse.
- Can provide information to user on first aid measures.
- Can send a location to a computer or to a mobile device.
- Can take in information from the user on the type of emergency.
- Required features for proof of concept:
- Can provide information to user on first aid measures.
- Can send a location to a computer or a mobile device (IFTTT?).
- Required Parts:
- Particle Photon board (already acquired)
- Glove (optional)
- GPS (optional → too expensive for prototype)
- Pulse Sensor (already acquired)
- Some form of input (buttons?)
- Power source
- Rechargeable/Coin?
- Timeline
- Friday 21st October:
- Complete list of parts to be ordered
- Complete timeline and project planning
- Monday 24th October:
- Order all parts
- Begin researching first aid response to different situations
- Begin experimenting with pulse sensor
- Begin experimenting with sending information (a preset location) to a computer
- Friday 28th October:
- Receive (hopefully) all parts for the project
- Determine how best to fit everything together
- Glove? Wristwatch? Portable device?
- Begin experimenting with display
- Friday 4th November → Proof of Concept Presentation:
- Have something printing to the display
- Have a location being sent from the photon to anything else
- Friday 11th November:
- Start to integrate research on first aid into what is being displayed on the screen
- Begin experimenting external power supply
- Add pulse sensor in some capacity
- Friday 18th November:
- Market research
- What is the problem?
- Why does this solves the problem?
- Who is the target market?
- Projected costs?
- Begin experimenting with user input into the device
- What is the emergency?
- How many are hurt?
- Is it safe yet or are things still dangerous?
- Friday 25th November:
- Clean up loose ends
- Friday 2nd December → Final Presentation of product
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