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.