RaceCare: Super Mender Bros

Hardware Interfacing
Embedded System Design

Inspiration

Inspired by my grandpa's struggle with stroke recovery, we've developed a digital platform that combines engaging gameplay with targeted exercises, using unique inputs and gamification principles to help motivate patients during challenging times. With personalized challenges and real-time feedback, our solution aims to empower individuals and redefine possibilities in rehabilitation.

What it does

So, what did we make to revolutionize rehab? Essentially, it’s an embedded system which takes motor input targeted to the patient’s recovery needs (which, for our demo, is finger and wrist dexterity), and translates that input into real-time racecar movement. True to the theme of SuperMenderBros, users will face a series of Longhorn themed obstacles, each maneuverable by exercising the target activity.

How we built it

We interfaced an SPI LCD display and several LEDs as output, as well as a motor and dial potentiometer as inputs. The embedded system reads the analog inputs, converts them to digital outputs, and sends information to a laptop via a Serial Port, which runs the main game using Unity.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into many challenges in both hardware and software. The hardware we used often malfunctioned and we had to take measures to filter out noise from the inputs. In the software, this was the first time any of us used Unity, so the learning curve was steep and it was challenging to create a functional game in just 24 hours.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that we were able to translate our understanding of C to C++ and C# in Unity, despite never having used those languages before. We’re also proud that we were able to manage our time pretty well, as it was our first hackathon. Technically, we are particularly proud of our collision detection system as it required a lot of debugging and exposed us to so much new technology. Most of all, we are proud that our project can be used to help others, albeit at a small scale (for now, we plan to improve on our work!).

What we learned

We learned how to learn. This hackathon taught us how to find solutions to problems we had no exposure to at all thus far. Technically, we learned how to use a game engine and build on our understanding of embedded systems with the ARM Cortex M0 microcontroller to pick up Arduino. This was a very cool experience.

What's next for RaceCare: Super Mender Bros

We have many plans to improve our product. We would like to add more range of mobility by interfacing new hardware components that exercise different nerves/muscles to accommodate more communities. In addition we would like to add new game features like power ups and boosts to make our game more fun and engaging.