Author: akshatp@andrew.cmu.edu

BrailleTutor – Final Project – Akshat Prakash

BrailleTutor

Concept

The idea is to help in the adjustment-to-blindness training programs to allow “adults who originally learned to read print but lost their sight later in life” to learn braille.

Components

My braille system consists of a braille pad, that is an Arduino controlled six solenoid pin arrangement that creates one braille letter/number at a time. The system also consists of a companion android app that pairs with the braille pad to conduct lessons for the user to familiarize themselves with braille.

Walkthrough

The app consists of three modes. Learn, Test and Refer.

Learn allows you to learn numbers and alphabets paired with the braille pad. A letter/number is spoken and appears simultaneously on the braille pad.

Test allows you to test how well you have learnt numbers and alphabets. A letter/number appears on the braille pad and the app prompts the user for an answer, then giving feedback.

Refer allows you to refer to the braille representation of any number/alphabet in the English language. The user says a character and it is presented on the braille pad.

With this project, I could achieve harmonic communication between the android app and Arduino and synchronously generate alphabets in conjunction with the corresponding braille translation of the alphabet.

Simple Working:

Final Overview:

Issues and Conclusions

The issues I faced were those related to power, design and over-heating solenoids. I used a 12 V DC adapter to power the solenoids and made their action synchronous to generate the braille character.

All in all, I think this was a very satisfying project. I feel I have learnt enough in this class to take an idea and actually create it. Thank you!

Entire project folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rIW53AoUlIqoe380YHmB_wtATQnuxXon?usp=sharing

Braille Tutor – Rough Crit – Prototype – Akshat Prakash

  BrailleTutor

In this rough crit, I aimed to create my minimum viable product and prototype for the Braille Tutor.

Concept

The idea is to help in the adjustment-to-blindness training programs to allow “adults who originally learned to read print but lost their sight later in life” to learn braille.

Components

My braille system consists of a braille pad, that is an Arduino controlled six solenoid pin arrangement that creates one braille letter at a time. The system also consists of a companion android app that pairs with the braille pad to conduct lessons for the user to familiarize themselves with braille.

Prototype

The prototype, for purposes of the rough crit, consists of two solenoid pins controlled by an Arduino that pairs to my companion android app. The prototype does full justice to the proof of concept. I could achieve harmonic communication between the android app and Arduino and synchronously generate alphabets in conjunction with the two braille pins simulating the actuation of the corresponding braille translation of the alphabet.

The first lesson learn, displays an alphabet on the android screen and speaks it out. This is then communicated to the Arduino which actuates the pins (in the final version, I will have the rest of the four pins) in a 3D printed casing.

The second lesson generates a braille alphabet on the braille pad and asks the user to identify it.

I have more ideas for several lessons/braille dictionaries for the app. The final product will simply include these lessons and the rest of the four pins, enclosed in a professional casing.

Issues

The issues I will face are those related to power. Six solenoid pins are going to be using a lot of power and I need to find a way to make this more power efficient.

Video

Link to entire project folder (code and video) (May take upto 5 minutes to download):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sh-SdU1qkmg7sEIWPwzjY_qnY8RJJ0P4?usp=sharing

Evil Lord Kakoon – Akshat Prakash

I created a “trick or treat” project where people can come to get candy to and be “treated” by the evil halloween lord “Kakoon.” As a person reaches out for candy, “Kakoon” senses his/her presence and erupts in a melancholic tone and lights up his fiery eyes to drive away intruders.

I used a ping sensor, neopixel and speaker to achieve this effect. I had no trouble this time around with code or circuit and everything seemed to work in the first go. I also feel with more and more projects, I feel more comfortable with the creativity and art side of physical computing. A lot of the makeup for Kakoon was pretty spontaneous.

Link to project video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-XYwe_ldmF9bjNta2lWNzZnYUU/view?usp=sharing

The Circle of Life – “A child gives birth to a mother”

I saw this quote when I was a very little child and it has stuck to me till date. “A child gives birth to a mother” – I interpret this in two ways.

First, it could mean that only a child can make a woman’s life that of a mother. Having a child gives a mother another meaning to life.

Second, it could mean a girl child grows up to become a mother and continue the cycle of life.

For this project, I wanted to make a story around this theme. So, by using the concept of card-storytelling, I depict a girl child growing up to give birth to another girl child, who continues and this process goes on and on, continuing life.

On an implementation level, I used an H-bridged assisted DC motor to turn the circle of life as the story plays. For the cards, I used mini-servos to raise and drop the cards. These are programmed in unison to tell a story from beginning to the end.

Link to video and documentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-XYwe_ldmF9WUJzalFmd3RRcG8/view?usp=sharing

The challenges I faced were primarily setup related. I have never had any experience in designing and beautifying projects. This was my first small step towards making projects a bit more presentable than I had ever done. I still have a long way to go, but I respect the final iteration I landed up with.

Further, starting the servo motor was a bit of a challenge, but was quickly resolved by rewiring the entire circuit again.