Inspiration
We wanted to create something hardware related that eventually could have the potential to be a business. Our bigger vision is that Interage goes beyond keeping track the food in your pantry. On one hand, it will be able to track your family's food intake and give you the right amount of food according to your family's size, age and gender. On the other hand, the big vision is to build the whole pantry where the containers are glass containers and that way the user can buy "refills" instead of bean and rice bags - impulsing the ecologic perspective of less garbage and less contamination.
What it does
Interage measures the amount of food available in a container and allows the person who's in charge of the household to make the correct decision regarding what and when to buy - or simply to automatize this "refill" service. It also allows food suppliers to receive requests for food when clients are in need of refills.
How I built it - Hardware
We used six conductive rubbers from the tip of the Bic Tech Stylus pen in order to create six small circuits with 3.3V. This allowed us to measure the change in resistance due to the pressure caused by the change in weight of our recipients. This 6 measurements went into the Arduino Yun's analog inputs in order to then be calibrated, and then provide a value that allows the software to identify how full it is.
How I built it - Software
We started with an html5 template and adapted it to our needs; using javascript, php and mysql we obtained the values given from the Arduino Yun through strings over Wi-Fi and showed the needed values in order for the system to work.
Challenges I ran into
We needed a pressure sensor to get our idea started but we had none. We then googled different ways to make home-made pressure sensors and encountered circuit rubber was a good idea. The next challenge was "where can we find circuit rubber?" After doing some research and talking we figured out Stylus pens were a good (and easy to find) idea.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Everything! Specially getting the home-made sensor to work, we spent hours trying to calibrate it and to get measures that were the most accurate with the tools we had.
What I learned
Hackatons can be beyond tiring, but it's a great experience to spend many hours with a team trying to figure out everything - from the smallest to the most significant details of the project. Lesson learnt: always bring a hardware kit to a hackaton, you never know what crazy ideas you'll come up with.
What's next for Interage
We want to rebuild it with actual pressure sensors so we can get very accurate measures. Design the whole pantry with a CAD program and come up with a business plan. This will probably become our final project for Online Commerce (a class we're taking) and we'll use it to apply to a competition to get into GFSA (Global Founder's Skills Accelerator at MIT).
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