Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
26 Mailbox with delivery detection and notification
 Chengyao Zou
Haonan Wang
Peiming Wu
 Shaoyu Meng design_document2.pdf
design_document6.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
other1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
proposal4.pdf
Mailbox with delivery detection and notification
Problem: Sometimes people may forget to check their mailbox for some important messages about their cars or other stuff and it is very normal that people are waiting for something in the mailbox and it is really annoying to check the mailbox several times a day for some important mails.

Solution: We want to design a smart mailbox that can remind people when the mailbox receives a new mail. This mailbox can detect if there is a new mail received in the mailbox
and send a notification to peripherals. Besides, this mailbox is using solar power.

Solution component:

[Subsystem #1:] Sensing System
There are two layers in the mailbox, one is the receiving layer and the other one is for the homeowner to put the mail waiting for picked up.There are weight sensors in both layers. For receiving layer, there is a weight sensor to sense the weight change and a counter to count the number of times does the sensor sense the weight change to track the number of new mail. On the other hand, we also consider a light sensor to detect brightness changes since mails are turned in mostly in day times.

[Subsystem #2:] Motor System
A motor can be used to control the door of the mailbox. After receiving the signal from the user’s phone, a motor will start to open the mailbox door. So we don't have to always bring the key for opening the mailbox. It needs verification and mobile implementation that can communicate with the mailbox.

[Subsystem #3:] Notification System
The part of system allows us to give the notification to users once the Sensing System gives a positive feedback. It will push the notifications This part is connected to peripherals indicating if there is a new mail waiting for picking up. The peripherals include moblies phones or a dock that can put inside home and shows the status of mailbox.

Criterion for Success and Challenges:
Criterion for success means that a good interaction can be established between users and the mailbox; users can rely on the smart mailbox’s notifications as the credible information for their incoming mails. This project will make the experience of picking up new mails a better one than before.

The challenge of this project will be how do we detect multiple mails are being put in the mailbox at the same time and design the way that mailbox should communicate with peripherals. We also need to design a perpherials that can show the status of mailbox other than pushing notifications to phones.








Assistive Chessboard

Robert Kaufman, Rushi Patel, William Sun

Assistive Chessboard

Featured Project

Problem: It can be difficult for a new player to learn chess, especially if they have no one to play with. They would have to resort to online guides which can be distracting when playing with a real board. If they have no one to play with, they would again have to resort to online games which just don't have the same feel as real boards.

Proposal: We plan to create an assistive chess board. The board will have the following features:

-The board will be able to suggest a move by lighting up the square of the move-to space and square under the piece to move.

-The board will light up valid moves when a piece is picked up and flash the placed square if it is invalid.

-We will include a chess clock for timed play with stop buttons for players to signal the end of their turn.

-The player(s) will be able to select different standard time set-ups and preferences for the help displayed by the board.

Implementation Details: The board lights will be an RGB LED under each square of the board. Each chess piece will have a magnetic base which can be detected by a magnetic field sensor under each square. Each piece will have a different strength magnet inside it to ID which piece is what (ie. 6 different magnet sizes for the 6 different types of pieces). Black and white pieces will be distinguished by the polarity of the magnets. The strength and polarity will be read by the same magnetic field sensor under each square. The lights will have different colors for the different piece that it is representing as well as for different signals (ie. An invalid move will flash red).

The chess clock will consist of a 7-segment display in the form of (h:mm:ss) and there will be 2 stop buttons, one for each side, to signal when a player’s turn is over. A third button will be featured near the clock to act as a reset button. The combination of the two stop switches and reset button will be used to select the time mode for the clock. Each side of the board will also have a two toggle-able buttons or switches to control whether move help or suggested moves should be enabled on that side of the board. The state of the decision will be shown by a lit or unlit LED light near the relevant switch.

Project Videos