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Hardware Team

Inspiration

Growing up one of the group members had a friend from their childhood who was classified as blind, he had a lot of trouble learning in school and having fun at recess. We thought these glasses could help adults and kids navigate unknown or unfamiliar areas.

What it does

If the wearer gets too close to an object in the room, an ultrasonic sensor sets off an audible buzzer warning of the hazard. There are two modes with different buzzer settings, one that beeps less frequently, for areas that are more familiar and another for less familiar areas, which beeps more often. It can all be disabled with an on and off button.

How we built it

We began with an old pair of glasses that would then be used as the base for the product. Next, we taped an ultrasonic sensor near the lens of the glasses and connected it with an Arduino. After programming the sensor to go off from certain ranges, we connect the Arduino to a 9V battery. Then we attached a buzzer and programmed that as well. After that was all working we implemented a button and programmed the different functions.

Challenges we ran into

There were several challenges we ran into, including a malfunctioning Arduino, a faulty push button switch, and unsureness about the most effective way to store the actual board itself. Another challenge that most teams probably ran into was the lack of supplies. Since we found our team during hardware pick-up week we didn't have much time to order any parts not given, and only access to a 3d printer would have gotten our prints to us too late. We also had trouble with loose connections, as jumper wires provided a connection that was not the most secure, making the project more fragile.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the multiple modes function and the working on/off button. Not only that but the fact that the whole product works. Since it was our entire group's first time for hackathons, we were glad that we didn't pick a project that was going to be too difficult for us.

What we learned

We learned a lot about Arduino and the IDE since it was most of our team's first time dealing with Arduino. We also got to experiment with many different parts like ultrasonic sensors, movement sensors, sound sensors, buzzers, buttons, LEDs, and more. We also got more familiar with how different pins in an Arduino work.