PeraDot

• 

  Full PeraDot, with internal components

Inspiration

If you haven't been in an uncomfortable social situation, you probably are not over the age of 9. Whether you're 13 and feel uncomfortable at your first "real" party or 21 and getting hit on by a creepy guy at a bar, we sometimes need a way to discretely message people without whipping out our LED backlit phone. We sometimes need a PeraDot.

What it does

PeraDot is a small bag with two built in touch sensors that act as "dot" and "dash" in Morse Code. The bag also features vibrational feedback to indicate that a message has been sent. Using a wi-fi chip, the bag messages a list of pre-defined contacts and alerts them to your situation.

How we built it

PeraDot is programmed in C++ and uses an Arduino microcontroller alongside an ESP8266 NodeMCU wifi chip. The bag itself has two Arduino-compatible touch sensors sewn into an inner pocket, and a miniature vibration motor sewn inside.

Challenges we ran into

About 90% of the way through our hack, we accidentally fried our wi-fi chip, eliminating the ability to communicate wirelessly from the PeraDot for the purposes of our demo. Additionally, we initially received a faulty module, and spent large quantities of time attempting to debug it before determining that it was faulty.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The finished product has its full electronics hidden quite discretely, and looks aesthetically pleasing from the outside. Without knowing what you were looking at, it would be nearly impossible to tell the bag has electronic and communication devices inside.

What we learned

Hardware hacks are more time consuming and less reliable than we had anticipated. There is also a lot more variability in the provided equipment.

What's next for PeraDot

First, we need to purchase a new wi-fi chip, and after we have wireless communication again, we intend to write an app for PeraDot. We want everyone to feel safe and to be able to discretely message whoever they need whenever they need.

Built With

• arduino
• blynk
• c++
• esp8266
• nodemcu