-
Picture of the board in our classroom, which motivated us to work hard throughout the hackathon.
-
Board full of calculations and beautiful drawings
-
Group picture of our team after all of our hacking...
-
Helix path shape generated by the phone moving during an experiment.
-
Phone model in Unity that is moved through the linear acceleration integral calculations
-
A code snippet showing the double integration algorithm to convert from acceleration to position.
Inspiration
A physics teacher of one of the members introduced them to a program called “Phyphox,” which allows access to all kinds of sensors on a given device. From there, it became a fun thought experiment on long plane rides to imagine how to reverse engineer the plane’s path from the x, y, and z acceleration data. Meeting the talented and motivated team at HackUPC 2023 made it a fantastic choice to finally experience this possibility.
What it does
The program takes the object’s x, y, and z acceleration data and displays its inferred position in three dimensions.
How we built it
First, the two programs, Phyphox and Unity, had to be able to communicate. To achieve this, a .csv reader was made. Next was the challenge of computing the object’s position from its acceleration and displaying this data as a 3-dimensional scene.
Challenges we ran into
The most difficult part was the highly error-prone nature of real-world data, combined with the sensitive nature of taking two successive integrals, which made the inaccuracies very noticeable in certain types of environments.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
With the many challenges and countless roadblocks that appeared, it has been extremely rewarding for the entire team to see the idea’s potential slowly come to light. The project’s highly challenging but doable nature made it a perfect choice for our skillset, pushing our abilities further with every attempt.
What we learned
Our team is very diverse, both in background and in ability. The skillset of a math enthusiast, a Unity developer, a 3D modeler, and a coding competition participant enriched everyone’s understanding of fields they would otherwise never have indulged in. On top of this, the project taught the team the messiness of real-life data, with its errors and imperfections, and how to work with and around it, making the most out of the least with what we choose and what we’re given. Being surrounded by like-minded people motivated everybody to work more productively and do better than on any contextless solo project, effectively combining our strengths. Naturally, the friends and memories we gained bring limitless value into our futures.
What's next for 3D Tracking from Acceleration
The future of this project is ripe. If used to its full potential, this application could be a highly accurate way to track virtually anything. With a refresh rate of 100 per second and 12-decimal-place accuracy in readings, it has the potential to be the most precise method of 3D tracking for by far the least cost, requiring nothing but a device and a free app installed on it. It might even be possible to extend this to mid-air and underwater tracking, making it plausible to track planes or submarines.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.