Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
17 Portable BCI Stimulator
 Bonnie Chen
Randy Lefkowitz
Siyuan Wu
 design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
presentation0.ppt
proposal0.pdf
Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) based on Electroencephalography (EEG) allow for the monitoring and analysis of ongoing brain activity in real time. The signals measured by this technology can be used to control user interfaces without the requirement of the human motor system. This technology can benefit those with paralysis and other severe disabilities. As of now, the majority of BCI systems are currently large and immobile, and therefore impractical for use in everyday life outside of a lab. There are several components to a BCI system such as data acquisition, a classification system, as well as stimulation, all of which must be made portable to create a portable BCI. To address this problem, we would like to focus on making a portable stimulator that can interact, through wifi, with the BCIs that are monitoring brain activity. The stimulator will consist of flickering LEDs at predefined frequencies, with attention to luminescence (we don't want our LEDs to blind the user so it must be at the right intensity for each user) as well as controls to adjust the frequencies while maintaining signals timing. Our design goals are to make the stimulation for the BCI and EEG portable and be integrated wirelessly so that users are not confined to just a lab setting and that the system could be tested and used in different environments.

Interactive Proximity Donor Wall Illumination

Sungmin Jang, Anita Jung, Zheng Liu

Interactive Proximity Donor Wall Illumination

Featured Project

Team Members:

Anita Jung (anitaj2)

Sungmin Jang (sjang27)

Zheng Liu (zliu93)

Link to the idea: https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=27710

Problem:

The Donor Wall on the southwest side of first floor in ECEB is to celebrate and appreciate everyone who helped and donated for ECEB.

However, because of poor lighting and color contrast between the copper and the wall behind, donor names are not noticed as much as they should, especially after sunset.

Solution Overview:

Here is the image of the Donor Wall:

http://buildingcampaign.ece.illinois.edu/files/2014/10/touched-up-Donor-wall-by-kurt-bielema.jpg

We are going to design and implement a dynamic and interactive illuminating system for the Donor Wall by installing LEDs on the background. LEDs can be placed behind the names to softly illuminate each name. LEDs can also fill in the transparent gaps in the “circuit board” to allow for interaction and dynamic animation.

And our project’s system would contain 2 basic modes:

Default mode: When there is nobody near the Donor Wall, the names are softly illuminated from the back of each name block.

Moving mode: When sensors detect any stimulation such as a person walking nearby, the LEDs are controlled to animate “current” or “pulses” flowing through the “circuit board” into name boards.

Depending on the progress of our project, we have some additional modes:

Pressing mode: When someone is physically pressing on a name block, detected by pressure sensors, the LEDs are controlled to

animate scattering of outgoing light, just as if a wave or light is emitted from that name block.

Solution Components:

Sensor Subsystem:

IR sensors (PIR modules or IR LEDs with phototransistor) or ultrasonic sensors to detect presence and proximity of people in front of the Donor Wall.

Pressure sensors to detect if someone is pressing on a block.

Lighting Subsystem:

A lot of LEDs is needed to be installed on the PCBs to be our lighting subsystem. These are hidden as much as possible so that people focus on the names instead of the LEDs.

Controlling Subsystem:

The main part of the system is the controlling unit. We plan to use a microprocessor to process the signal from those sensors and send signal to LEDs. And because the system has different modes, switching between them correctly is also important for the project.

Power Subsystem:

AC (Wall outlet; 120V, 60Hz) to DC (acceptable DC voltage and current applicable for our circuit design) power adapter or possible AC-DC converter circuit

Criterion for success:

Whole system should work correctly in each mode and switch between different modes correctly. The names should be highlighted in a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing way. Our project is acceptable for senior design because it contains both hardware and software parts dealing with signal processing, power, control, and circuit design with sensors.

Project Videos