B^3
Description:
In a market over-saturated with smart watches, we wondered what solutions could be achieved by smart-belts. Turns out, it's not a lot, but it sure was interesting...
Inspiration:
We were brainstorming ideas for the hackathon, and realized that the smart device industry was dominated by large companies releasing numerous lines of smart-watches. What began as a joke about smart-belts eventually turned into a half serious thought, which eventually turned into our project.
What it does:
We've got two things that we wanted to integrate on a belt, one being a device that checks your posture and notifies you if you're slouching. And the other was an app that would project an arrow indicating the directions to a user inputted location.
How we built it:
We split the team into two mini teams of two, with the idea of trying to have 2 different technologies that could potentially be integrated into a "smart belt". We all worked collaboratively on GitHub, aiding each other even if we weren't in each other's "teams".
Challenges we ran into:
In the App, a good portion of the challenges came from learning the maps/routing api. Actually plotting out a route between two points was far more of a challenge than expected. For the posture checker, calibration and finding the relative angles of the sensors turned out to be the biggest problem. There was also some confusion with building the circuit correctly.
Accomplishments that we're proud of:
We're really proud of actually getting the software to work correctly, even if the hardware (read: the actual belt) was very lacking. Given that it was our first time working with some of the software and hardware, we, as a team, did pretty ok.
What we learned:
A good amount about the google Maps and Directions API, a lot about JSON parsing Learnt a bunch about IO ports and working with microcontrollers and sensors. Also we learnt how to solder, which was pretty neat.
What's next:
We *actually* apply it to a belt.
Built with:
Arduino Uno, Android Studio, Accelerometers and Gyroscopes, Breadboards, Vinay's Phone and Red Bull
Prizes we're going for:
Arteck HB030 Portable Keyboard
Google Home Mini
TBI Pro Gaming Headset
DragonBoard 410c
$100 Amazon Gift Cards
Grand Prize
Fujifilm Instax Mini 26