Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
38 Automatic Toothpaste Dispenser
 Haoyu Tian
Renjie Fan
Yanbo Chen
 Soumithri Bala design_document3.pdf
design_document4.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
photo1.jpg
presentation1.pptx
proposal1.pdf
 Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
Previous idea posts:
https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=30597
https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=31524

# Problem
Most of the toothpaste dispensers in the market so far are operated manually. Some of them are electrical but they still only support squeezing the fixed amount of toothpaste each time the user pushes a button. There are other major problems related to the existing toothpaste dispensers. For example, users are unable to set the amount of toothpaste being dispensed, and there are no supporting smartphone apps to collect the products’ metrics and visualize the data for users.

# Solution Overview
We propose to implement a new automatic toothpaste dispenser supported with a smartphone app, based on the PSoC 4 BLE board, sensor programming, RFID, and Android development. The dispenser will have the following distinct features from current products:
1. Multiple tubes of toothpaste can be put into the dispensers at the same time and the dispenser can choose which toothpaste to be dispensed by identifying the RFID sticker on the toothbrush.
2. Using RFID to identify users（In detail, we put different RFIDs on different toothbrushes for kids or adults and the machine can identify which one is using the dispenser and dispense a specific amount of toothpaste that has been previously set in the app. ）
3. The user is able to set the amount of dispensing toothpaste of each RFID on the app.
4. Tracking the amount used by each user and visualizing the corresponding short-term(day/week) and long-term(month/year) usage on the smartphone app.
5. Powered by the external source (wall socket). Two components require electricity: the board and the motor.

# Squeezing Mechanism
we plan to implement the function by measuring the distance between the squeezing component and the head of the tube. As the squeezer is powered by a motor, we could use an encoder to monitor the rotation of the motor to achieve the goal. In our blueprint, the squeezer would be a cylindrical object rolling from the tail to the head of the toothpaste tube.
Apart from the squeezer, we also would use a "buffer" to control the amount of toothpaste dispensing. Basically, toothpaste coming out from toothpaste tube will be firstly stored in the buffer and then be dispensed out to the toothbrush. The exit of buffer is smaller than that of the toothpaste tube. Our design for squeezing mechanism does not need to control the amount of toothpaste coming out of the tube, we just need to set the mechanism to a safe value and every time when our buffer(reservoir) is empty, the mechanism will push some toothpaste into the buffer. We only need to control how many toothpaste coming out from the buffer.

# Sensor Subsystems
-Ultrasonic sensor for detecting toothbrush
-RFID attached to toothbrushes. Passive RFID reader embedded in the dispenser to determine which toothbrush is being used to hold toothpaste.

# Processing Subsystems
App/Dispenser interface: Embedded Bluetooth protocol.
Mobile Database for app: WCDB (mobile database framework)

# Power Subsystems
PSoC BLE board powered by USB.

# Criterion for Success
Our final product is an automatic toothpaste dispenser that is capable of containing more than one tube of toothpaste, identifying RFID tag from the toothbrush and distributing predetermined amount and type of toothpaste once the toothbrush is put inside the dispenser. We can use smartphone to set the amount and type of toothpaste. We could also store and calculate each user’s usage of toothpaste for some intervals and parents may used it to monitor the child’s correct usage of toothpaste.

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Jackson Lenz, James McMahon

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Featured Project

Jackson Lenz

James McMahon

Our project is to be a reliable, robust, and intelligent irrigation controller for use in areas where reliable weather prediction, water supply, and power supply are not found.

Upon completion of the project, our device will be able to determine the moisture level of the soil, the water level in a water tank, and the temperature, humidity, insolation, and barometric pressure of the environment. It will perform some processing on the observed environmental factors to determine if rain can be expected soon, Comparing this knowledge to the dampness of the soil and the amount of water in reserves will either trigger a command to begin irrigation or maintain a command to not irrigate the fields. This device will allow farmers to make much more efficient use of precious water and also avoid dehydrating crops to death.

In developing nations, power is also of concern because it is not as readily available as power here in the United States. For that reason, our device will incorporate several amp-hours of energy storage in the form of rechargeable, maintenance-free, lead acid batteries. These batteries will charge while power is available from the grid and discharge when power is no longer available. This will allow for uninterrupted control of irrigation. When power is available from the grid, our device will be powered by the grid. At other times, the batteries will supply the required power.

The project is titled S.I.P. because it will reduce water wasted and will be very power efficient (by extremely conservative estimates, able to run for 70 hours without input from the grid), thus sipping on both power and water.

We welcome all questions and comments regarding our project in its current form.

Thank you all very much for you time and consideration!