Update Week 12:

We are working on the final video for the IAP presentations.

Here is an example of some of what will be on the video.

Hopefully one of the group members will post a video of the program?

We will see!

Update Week 11:

We mainly worked on the paper this week, and we did not make a video.

However here is a link to the marvelous paper.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6252240/Team%20Haptic%20Feedback%20-%20User%20Test.docx

There will be more to come!

We are going to work on the under armor model now so be ready!

Yeaaaaa!!!

Mythical Man Month: ch 16 17

Summary:

Most artificial barriers that once existed have been removed (severely restricted hardware etc)

Most Accidental difficulties have been solved.

There is no single solution to an overgrown and out of control project.

Software is extremely complex and unvisualizeable.  Visualization tools are very useful.

Conceptual errors are the meat of the problems that appear.

The author does not have much optimism for the usefulness of AI in software development.

covers several different hopes for greatly increased productivity in the future (automatic programming, experet systems, etc)

great designers are required to make great improvments to software.

NSB has become a core principle of many programming philosophies.

Update: Week 10

We are user testing!!

keep on rollin!

We need volunteers for next week!

Reports on Weeks 7,8, and [9]

I have been posting these on the wrong blog, they can be found here:

dlandinicapstone.blogspot.com

Week [9]: http://dlandinicapstone.blogspot.com/2011/04/results-for-week9.html
Week 8: http://dlandinicapstone.blogspot.com/2011/03/results-for-week-8.html
Week 7: http://dlandinicapstone.blogspot.com/2011/03/report-on-weeks-6-7.html

Sorry for the confusion.

-Derek

Report on Week 6:

Too many tests this week, shorter accomplishments:

More experiments with conductive thread.
Discusses desgin ideas.
Made test app for android.
Solder bluesmirf.
Poster presentations.

Report on Week 5:

Completed:

Conductive thread tests
Code Database Updated
LilyPad Ports Tested
Android Installed and Hello World written
Mock Up Shirt Tested
LilyPad Tested with "input"

The thread works!

Stringing stuff together!

Input Example!

Report on week 4:

Video explains most of it:

In case the sound sucks:

Sewing proof of concept
Lily Pad proof of concept
Simple designs made
Programming Samples
Database for Arduino Setup
Meeting with mentor complete

Report for Week 3

This week we are still behind a lot of hardware issues so we did the best we could with making models and talking to our sponsor about different things.

Tasks completed for week:

Translation from rough drawings to proof of concept
Mock up shirt to adjust proof of concept
Compile and complete hardware list for materials needed (this is the source of a lot of our constraints)
Installed Android and have it working on a native machine
Finished flow diagram to see how pieces of the project will work together

Here is the video of our weeks work.

Tasks for next week.

Begin initial programming of Lilypad.
Begin work with sewing machines and maybe get a live mock up.
Meet with sponsor about Geotrooper Program
Begin other coding if possible.

Flow Diagram

Here is the basic layout of how all the components will fit onto the shirt and how the different pieces of the project will fit together.

Mock up build

Basically, I started out by laying out one of my under armor shirts and literally laid blank cd's on the back to represent the location of the vibrating pads.  After that, I decided to put the shirt on and start sticking cd's in on my back to try and get a feel for where the shirt is tightest across.

I started out with the initial three with 1 on each shoulder and then one in the center of my back. Once I got those in a decent position, I put two more down a bit lower on my back on each side.

 I got them set in this position and it seemed fairly reasonable.  I then started cutting out circles of fabric so I could place them on my other under armor shirt.  I tried to match the exact positions I had found in my earlier pictures.  Notice that this markers are on the outside of the shirt.  This is just so it is easier to get a visual of where the pads will be on the inside.

 

Once I had them in place and taped down, I decided to just run a wire to represent how these pads are going to be connected.  This is just a rough idea and will more than likely be changed.

 

As of right now, the shirt is unwearable due to the fact that I used tape to hold down the fabric.  As soon as you put it on, the shirt stretches and the tape can't. For my next build, I want to use adhesive Velcro strips because I think that will work a lot better than tape and yet it is still removable just in case we want to make any changes to the overall design.  If that doesn't work, I can probably just sew pockets into the shirt where the vibrating pads will sit.

Finalized Materials List

Here is the finalized materials list that Nathan and I worked on and compiled.

Kyle Casey
Patrick Frith
Derek Landini
Nathan Rauser

Materials List:

//All items linked are the desired model/brand.

1X Android Phone with Geotrooper program:

~$150-$500

Will take anyone provided by A&M, the ones that were handed out in class looked fine.

1X Geotrooper program

I don't think this has a cost, from what I understand this kind of program we can get from graduate students at A&M

Vibration pads

From what I understand these are provided by the school as well, if you need me to look up what we can use for these please do and we will get back to you asap.

Conductive Fabric/Thread:

Again from what I understand this is already provided. Dr. Hammond said she had access to both. If you need us to look some up we can easily find it.

Possible database to store Android/Teensy Code

These are already set up, from what I understand we will have access to these

Simple black thread (for sewing, this might be covered in the request for vibration pads)

We just need some thread for sewing, simple thread from Wal-Mart would do.

4X Form fitting shirt – Under Armor

http://www.underarmour.com/

~$20 each

1X Digital Compass

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8656

Used to help calibrate system and for system functionality

~$150

//I know this is kind of expensive, if you know of a cheaper model that has the same functionality that's fine. We tried to find the cheapest one we could.

1X Breakout Board

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10275

Used to program the Lily Pad

~$15

1X Lily Pad

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9266

Used to support Bluetooth

~$20

1X Coin Cell Battery for Lily Pad

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8822

Used to power Lily Pad

~$1

1X Bluetooth Dongle

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9358

Similar to a BlueSMiRF

~$65

If we are cleared to go with the Bluetooth Dongle we would need a:

1X Female Head Connector

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9429

~$1

Report on Week 2:

Kyle Casey
Patrick Frith
Derek Landini
Nathan Rauser

This week in our group we have done much of what you currently see in the various posts. We were able to plan a lot of the mapping concepts as well as flesh out initial discussions on how we want the interface to work as well as a list of materials that we would need for the project. We have a clear direction and were able to meet with Dr. Hammond and discuss some of the ideas that we had in mind and were able to talk with her about concepts and how they will all work. More of our drawings will be scanned and posted this weekend along with the weekly video and pictures of everyone in the group. For next Thursday we will have more models and some initial coding done to present to the class.

What we suspect the clothes to look like:

Slightly larger version with more ideas.

What we want the app application to look like is in the post below.

Team Video:

Team Pics:

Kyle Casey

Patrick Frith

Derek Landini

Nathan Rauser

Map Concept

When a soldier drops into an area, the application will calculate his location in relation to the objective.

As he approaches the objective, the distance and orientation in relation to the objective are updated.

When the soldier's orientation leaves the acceptable error boundry, the application will indicate which direction he needs to travel.

Materials list

Wandering arround the internet I found this:
http://www.talk2myshirt.com/
which ought' to be a useful resource for us

First off, we'll need an android device!
Looks like it will be between $150~$500 for a device, be it a phone or tablet (wouldn't that be fun).  I think we should get the latest phone we can afford, a faster phone makes everything easier.  One thing to consider though is that we may need to root the phone (I'll discuss this more later), so we should pick a model that's been cracked.

Underarmor or tight-fitting underclothing of some sort will be necessary to play with.  Some of us already have some, but it may be worthwhile to buy a fresh piece:
http://www.underarmour.com/

We have a couple choices as far as interfacing with the phone goes:
We could use the teensy pad, which has development support for windows, mac, and linux.  There is also source code available.  We could use a rooted android phone equipped with GCC to compile the source natively and we *might* get the teensy working, I have my doubts about this though.  Also, using the teensy makes any bluetooth option more complicated.

There is the ever present Arduino (and its assorted variants), for which there are android libraries.

A simple option that rather appeals to me is the lily pad Arduino module + bluetooth dongle option.  If we do this, as the lily pad board is very minimalist, we will need a usb to FTDI (the cable supported by the lily pad) board like this to program the pad before bluetooth is working.

we'll also need a power supply, a coin cell is good enough for the lillypad and a few LEDs, but I'm not sure about the power requirements of the vibrating pads.

There is also the option to include a compass module in our shirt, if we wan't it to actually work we'll probably need something like this.  Its' kind of expensive (150 :( ), but it works when tilted (which ours definitely would be).  There are cheaper options that might be made to work, but they would require a good bit more effort/time on our part

As far as vibrating pads, I haven't been able to find any, I think we should talk to dr. Hammond about this. We may need to alter our power supply if they are very demanding.

we'll also need some way to move data/power arround:
conductive ribbon is a good option for our project.

I would like to note that all of this stuff is not waterproof, which would be a big plus for our hardware.  we would have to make some alterations, primarily in data/power transmission to make this waterproof (I think the rest of the hardware can be potted/encased to make it waterproof).

Team Proposal

Kyle Casey, Patrick Frith, Derek Landini, Nathan Rauser
Capstone
Team Proposal

GeoTrooper Haptic Feedback System

Introduction
          
           Our team has chosen to do the haptic fabric project.  All of us found the idea to be very interesting and potentially useful. We also found that we had a interest in not only programming but, also in the hardware end of computer science. This project allows us to tackle a very important issue that soldiers will face everyday and bring a very unique answer to a rigid set of constraints. This project could be extremely important for soldiers in the field.  It will allow them to communicate and receive instructions without making a noise or using a light. Allowing the soldier to be able to do this dramatically decreases the chance for him to be detected by the enemy and thus, have a higher chance of accomplishing his/her mission. We started by covering the basic ideas of the project and answering the important questions of how do deal with the lack of light, sound, and still have effective communication, then went into design decisions and goals.

Project Plan

           There are three main tasks to our project along with a few secondary tasks.  The first main task is the android phone.  This phone is going to be programmed with the geotrooper software but we are going to need to modify it to be able to send and receive messages with our haptic fabric system. The phone program will ideally be able to select a location and then match this location with the users current location. The program will then also determine if the user is to the left or right of its target “path” and send signals accordingly. The second task is to build the output system for the trooper.  This consists of a form-fitting shirt that the trooper will wear underneath the rest of his gear.  Attached to this shirt will be 3 to 5 vibrating pads placed in strategic locations across the troopers back.  This will allow him to feel a vibration in different areas so he will be able to identity different signals from the phone. The pads will be used to represent different signals to the solider, the left side vibrates with the soldier is to the right of the desired path, the right side when they are left of the desired path and they will all activate when the soldier is close to the desired path. The third main task is the communication between the phone and the clothing. The system will need to consist of a few different pieces of code that will all interact, the geotrooper system will need to activate the different loops to tell which pads to vibrate, and then activate the systems on the shirt. All this will be built in individual steps and then combined at the end and testing the system in a small space.
           Once the systems are complete, the solider will be able to use the system.  So the idea of this is to allow the soldier to receive silent instructions through the vibrating pads on his back in order to meet objectives on his mission.  An example of this is say a paratrooper drops in behind enemy lines at night.  He needs to follow way points set up on the geotrooper system but getting out his phone and looking will give away his position and possibly get him killed.  By pushing a button on his phone, the phone will give him a vibration in the direction to the nearest way point as well as the distance to the way point.  This will be communicated silently and with any light pollution.  Once the soldier has reached the way point, he can push another button on his phone and get the heading for the next way point or to back to base.

There are some tasks that we discussed in the development of this idea that we had to consider secondary to the main tasks.  However, if we have time, we would really like to add these to the system, the first one being a heart rate monitor.  This would serve in a couple different ways.  Having heart rate monitor would allow us to put a basic kind of security on the device.  If for some reason the heart rate monitor no longer senses a heart beat, the phone will go into a lock down mode.  This can start a timer that either, the solider can undo with a special code or if the timer reaches zero, it will purge the phone.  Some other things we will add are more input and output commands that will be tailored to what soldiers would find useful on the battlefield. We had also discussed the idea of adding a digital compass to the soldiers garb that would allow for more precise communication with the system and would allow the soldier to add a heading and adjust their heading based on those directions.

Team Bio

Kyle Casey

I feel like I can contribute a lot to this project.  I am a more than capable coder as well as builder.  I don’t have much experience programming for an android phone but it is something I have always wanted to do.  I’ve gone through all the required coursework while and also picked up some skills where I currently work.  I feel like I can contribute to this team by building the actual device as well as helping to code the tinsy board and android phone.  I’m familiar with c, c++, java, javascript, php programming languages as well as SQL database interaction.  Along with my technical skills, I also have some novice experience sewing.

Patrick Frith

    I can contribute to this project through my experience in UI design and my knowledge of software engineering.  I have experience with circuit design, and though I am unfamiliar with the Android programming language I’ve coded in enough languages that it should be easy to pick up.  I have some sewing experience, so I should be able to contribute to the production of the fabric interface.  I was in the Corps of Cadets for four years, so I should be able to provide insight into some of the situations that a soldier might experience in the field.  I have a knack for figuring out how to make things work, so I can make a positive contribution in the design process.  I have experience with c, c++, c#, Java, python, prolog, haskell, lisp, SQL, and OpenGL, so I will be able to work an any area of the project that I am needed.

Derek Landini

    My contributions to this project will come in the form of building hardware and doing circuit work on the actual clothing itself. I have a good core of programming in my background have have taken all relevant courses for my major but feel like programming in general is not my strength. I did do well in circuit design and EE-like courses and feel I could contribute to the design, wiring and testing of making the application on the phone interact with the vibration pads on the shirt. I also have a modest amount of sewing experience just from repairing items and clothes that I own as well as creating rain ponchos with Boy Scouts of America. I think my main responsibility in this will be doing most of the hardware work and then assisting in the testing of the software with my other group members.

Nathan Rauser

As a CS major I've done loads of programming projects, so I'm fairly fluent in C++ and familiar general coding practices and concepts for a long list of languages.  What excites me about this project is the hardware end.  It's fun to make stuff!
My responsibilities on this project will focus on making hardware talk to software in a usable way, which I know will be a challenge.  This project goes into many areas that I have never experimented with before, so it ought to be quite interesting.

Research Benefits

    This project would be a great asset for the military especially in stealth and night time engagements.  A long term goal for this project is to have each of the soldiers phone’s networked together so that at any time on the battlefield, your comrades know where your are.  I don’t know of any systems like ours that communicate to the trooper with out sound or light. I’m sure there is a system that accomplishes a similar goal but I doubt that it is as light and as durable as our device will be.  This device, even if it isn’t production savvy should help give some ideas to military contractors to focus on different kinds of interaction between soldiers and their devices. We have also considered that this kind of research might not be the most elegant solution for this but it is a step in the correct direction. We have considered that with future computing this kind of system could be upgraded to incorporate different kinds of computing technology and be used to show many different items to the soldier such as: terrain, enemy locations, recent battles and other information to keep the troops safe. We have also considered that we could combine this with another groups work with the responsive fabric keyboard and incorporate different motions into the system and allow the user to input commands and issue orders to the troops that would then be communicated through multi-modal interfaces.  It might be possible as well that our project interests another graduate student here at Texas A&M who will develop our ideas even more. The biggest impact this kind of system has is its simplicity. Due to the design and the very simplistic function of the system it would be very easy to recreate and reverse-engineer to be improved upon and add more functionality and technology to make it even more effective on a larger scale.
    On a broader scale, I hope this will help give more ideas to inventors to use different means of communication other than just sound. There are many cases in which a communication device that has a good feedback system but lacks the constraint of sound would be useful and beneficial to the worker. Having this kind of system will hopefully spark some more interest in ‘soundless’ communication and help to expand the field as a whole, perhaps go into devices to help assist those who cannot hear. Perhaps the system could be improved in such a way that the military could incorporate a system like this so that soldier who are deaf or hard of hearing could serve their country. Expanding this kind of system to including message communication with Braille or some form of “vibration short hand” to issue orders and inform of battle, change in orders, change in marching plans etc. Also, I think sometimes people take our men and women of the armed forces lives for granted.  Anything that can be used to increase their chance of survival should be pursued and developed so that we can make it safer for them. This product not only reduces risks of light and sound but also is a very cost-effective solution to these problems that will not hinder the soldier in anyway. One would think that this kind of technology would help broaden the view of how military units move and communicate and will make it much safer for each soldier if combat separates the group. Keeping our troops in great numbers and being able to keep each person alive and accounted for is one of the biggest military goals and the product cannot do anything but to assist this.

Hardware/Software Components

• Android Phone with geotrooper program
• Some kind of input/output controller to interface with our phone and devices
• Vibration pads
• Form fitting shirt (likely we will use Under Armor for this)
• Components to connect devices
• Geotrooper program
• Digital Compass
• Possible database to store Android/Teensy Code
• Simple black thread (for sewing, this might be covered in the request for vibration pads)

This list is subject to change as the project moves along in the development process.

Initial Project Proposal

Kyle Casey, Patrick Frith, Derek Landini, Nathan Rauser
Capstone
Team Proposal

For our team proposal, we are doing the haptic feedback in conjunction with
the geotrooper project. Our device is going to have three main components but this
number could easily increase over the course of the project. Our components include
some kind of form fitting shirt that has 3 to 5 vibrating pads on it, an input device that will
either be a glove or an armband that serves as a touch device, and an android phone
that contains the software.
The soldier will where this vibrating shirt under his gear. The shirt will connect
to the phone by running a wire through the trooper’s clothes. Basically the soldier
parachutes down at night. As soon as he lands either his phone or a small digital
compass will get his general heading and then sync it with the software. He now has
his relative direction in conjunction with the way point. The software draws a virtual
path from the soldier to the way point. The soldier will follow this and if he should stray
off the path, the vibrating shirt will either vibrate on his left or right shoulder in order to
steer him back in the correct direction. This is our most important task to accomplish
at the start. Once we get this working, we will work on the touch interface. This would
be used to issue different commands to the phone such as, find current distance to
way point or skip to next way point. The device would then respond to the trooper
through vibration. For distance, the device could respond by pulsing for every 100
meters to the target. So if the target is 1000 meters away, it will pulse ten times. These
are the main goals for our project.
If we get these tasks working up to near perfection, we do have some secondary
goals in mind. The first secondary goal would be to address the issue of security. Our
idea for this was to include a heart rate monitor for the device that could determine if
the soldier has been killed or the phone has been removed from the soldier forcefully.
This would lock the phone down or possibly even wipe it depending on the situation.
Another long term goal would be to network multiple soldiers’ phones together possibly
through the beacon. This would allow the soldiers to communicate to each other
through vibrations and eventually increase their awareness on the battlefield. We could
also continuously add new commands to the device as well up to a certain extent. We
want each vibration response to be simple enough so that it requires very little training
to interpret each vibration. If it gets to complicated, it would be equivalent to learning
another language. That is something we really want to avoid.
As this device comes together, the possibility for expanding it really seems
almost limitless. This device would allow soldiers to communicate in a hostile
environment without having to speak a word. This coupled with basic security would
create a secure system that could serve our troops in extremely hostile environments.

Report on Week 1:

Haptic Feedback group week 1:

This week we are in our group:

Kyle Casey
Patrick Frith
Derek Landini
Nathan Rauser


We have decided to flush out our ideas even more and we have decided to focus mainly on the haptic feedback system and then we can add some of the other elements if time permits. Essentially the first parts of our system are going to be the clothes with the haptic vibration pads. The second part going to be the GPS program on the Android phone that will be used for the guide. We have a few mock up drawings and we have discussed hours of work among the team.

The initial proposal will be posted in another post after this.