Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Sensory Awareness Device for Bars and Restaurants |
Carl Wolff Evan Lindquist Megan Heinhold |
Amr Ghoname | design_document3.pdf final_paper2.pdf photo2.jpg photo1.PNG presentation1.pdf proposal1.docx |
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| # Sensory Awareness Device for Bars and Restaurants Team Members: - Megan Heinhold (meganjh3) - Evan Lindquist (evanl3) - Carl Wolff (cwolff2) # Problem There are many people who suffer from conditions that affect their ability to operate in certain environments such as ADD, epilepsy, and sensory processing disorder. Those affected by these conditions often look to avoid certain triggers such as loud noises, flashing lights, and crowded areas. Beyond common sense predictions, there isn’t a reliable way of gauging how many of these triggers will be present at a bar or restaurant. # Solution Describe your design at a high-level, how it solves the problem, and introduce the subsystems of your project. Our solution to this issue is a small device that can be purchased by a bar or restaurant to gauge its sensory attributes. The device will require a one time set up and then can be left to passively acquire real-time data on light and sound levels within the establishment. The device will regularly upload this information to an app so that any individual can monitor possible triggers and general ambiance of a location prior to going inside. This will allow individuals to find optimal environments for them based on preferences for ambient noise and light levels. The only comparable service we could find is Google’s “Popular Times” function which shows the predicted crowd levels for establishments throughout the day. Our device improves on this by providing live data distributed into different categories as well as the aforementioned “crowdedness level”. # Solution Components ## Subsystem 1 - Power Our device will receive its power from a wall outlet. Due to the safety concerns of working with high voltage, we would like additional guidance from a mentor TA on how to properly go about this. Our current plan is to use a commercial adapter that steps down the voltage from 120V to ~5V for usage with our other hardware subsystems. ## Subsystem 2 - Sensor Block This subsystem will contain all of the sensors used to acquire data about the environment. It will consist of photoresistors that will be able to report data on the ambient light level as well as the presence of any lighting effects (such as strobe lights); microphones to detect the overall sound level (combination of human noise, music, and assorted background noises); and temperature sensors to report the ambient temperature. ## Subsystem 3 - Microcontroller This subsystem will regularly poll the sensors within the sensor block to capture data about the environment. It will handle safety matters (strobe lights and excessive noise) in pseudo-real time by analyzing the data from the sensor block to detect flashing lights and/or noise above a certain decibel threshold. If it detects any safety hazards, it will immediately output a hazard signal. The device will also track the running average of sensor readings that are not safety related. It will output these averages at a reduced frequency (say once every ten minutes). The MCU will send the averages and hazard signals to the Wifi module so that they can be sent to the app. ## Subsystem 4 - Wifi Module This subsystem will allow our device to transmit the data it collects to our app via Wifi. ## Subsystem 5 - App The app will allow users to view the current ambient levels of a specific bar, as well as any safety alerts that have been recorded in the past few days. For the purposes of this course, we will focus on a web application. ### App Backend The app backend will need to communicate directly with our devices, receiving the transmitted data and storing any data we wish to keep for historical purposes. ### App Frontend The app frontend will serve two different personas: that of the bar/restaurant and that of the business patron. Each of these users will be able to login and update their establishment’s general information and view real time data of their choice, respectively. # Criterion For Success The device should require an initial set-up and then be almost entirely maintenance free. Identify medical safety hazards, specifically strobing lights and sound levels over a safe threshold; report these hazards immediately. Average compiled sensor data to determine ambient light, sound, and temperature levels over 10 minute time intervals. Transmit this data to an app, and have it displayed in an easily accessible format. |
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