FriendTracker

Inspiration: Friend Tracker is a solution to help Katie locate food and her friends in the cafeteria. Allowing Katie to quickly and conveniently evaluate her meal options, as well as finding a table with an open seat and people that she would enjoy eating her meal with. We were inspired to contribute to helping Katie accomplish her goals of an independent and enjoyable dining experience.

What it does:

Our Solution comprises of a Arduino, that utilizes touch sensors and light sensors to locate peoples positions in the cafeteria, particularly with seating arrangements. Using Identification cards, carry unique 8 digit codes in the form of holes, we are able to keep track of who is entering and exiting the cafeteria. We have created a card reader, using LED light and photoreceptors which is able to process the identification cards. By utilizing a network of touch receptors we are able to determine, vacant and occupied chairs. Utilizing Arduino’s bluetooth capabilities, we are able to then communicate these seating arrangement to Katie through her smartphone app. Our specialized app would then provide the necessary orientation and directional assistance. Along providing greater social information, we also have provided a solution to quickly and independently gather meal options. We have a provided an Amazon Alexa command that will retrieve and dictate all of the cafeterias offered meals.

How I built it:

We first started gathering the necessary components including the touch sensors, LCD Screen, Shield and Arduino. We hooked up the touch sensors to analog ports on the shield. We imported the library RGB_LCD.h so that we could send commands to the LCD screen, then we installed the Intel drivers so that we could properly interface with the Arduino board. We then began writing our code in he Arduino ID. Boolean and variable values that are able to capture and utilize all of our data from our sensors. We have created a 3D printed card reader, using LED light and photoreceptors. The corresponding identification cards are 3D printed, consisting of 8 unique holes that the card reader is able to analyze.

Challenges I ran into:

When our team was in the process of attempting to connect to Amazon Alexa we struggled obtaining authentication and accessibility to Amazon Web Services. We also had difficulties, connecting to the Arduino boards and realized that we did not have the necessary drivers that the Arduino boards required. We also had difficulties creating a standard size when we were 3D printing, as well as a long line when we were waiting for our prints.