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Adding Bluetooth Audio Functionality + Custom CAD Glasses
06/27/2017 at 16:47 • 0 commentsI have now thought of using a reverse AUX cable Y splitter plus an AUX-to-Bluetooth transmitter module in order to get the blind user to hear the sounds through Bluetooth instead of the inconvenient AUX chords. The user will wear wireless Aftershockz bone conduction headphones to hear the beeps now. This will hopefully make this device less fussy to put on especially if it is a viable product for the market.
Furthermore, a friend of mine has helped me to create these custom CAD glasses out of PVC material embedded with the HC-SR04 sensors. Ultimately, the user will wear these glasses and the bone conduction headphones. The circuit board will be in a case in the user's backpack for portability. The bone conduction will turn on automatically with the press of a button on the Bluetooth module.
Here are more pictures of beta users trying on my whole device so far:
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Using Adafruit PowerBoost 500 as rechargeable power source
06/27/2017 at 16:26 • 0 commentsI have decided to get rid of the normal battery packs and use the Adafruit PowerBoost 500 rechargeable shields instead to power my two Arduino boards for my project. This is great since it means that my device becomes more compact and portable. Furthermore, it can be recharged using a microUSB cable and switched on and off which makes it really good for the users.
This is what the overall device looks like with the whole thing stacked and switched on.
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Testing prototype on a beta user
05/09/2017 at 19:22 • 0 commentsI have used the two Arduino Uno boards fitted with the Mp3 shields and HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors to make a basic prototype for this stage of my project. I have loaded up some basic sound samples to the board to be triggered when the user is in close proximity to any objects detected by the left/right sensors fitted on a pair of glasses. The code I used was only around 100 lines which is not that much.
I have filmed a beta user wearing this in order to see the effectiveness of this prototype. He just wore the goggles and walked around the room, trying to navigate himself out of harm's way. It went out Ok but still wasn't 100% reliable.
The next stage would be to try this device out with a Raspberry Pi and try to make the sensors communicate with the board through bluetooth and also to some wireless headphones via bluetooth also.
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Using two sensors for left & right sensing
04/28/2017 at 19:35 • 0 commentsI have now duplicated my code that I have done for one HC-SR04 set-up in order to now have two ultrasonic sensors acting as left/right eyes for the blind user. I will later work on how to combine reading the two sensors on one micro-controller board (probably a raspberry pi) in order to save space on the device. I will then work on using 4 sensors for front/right/left/back of the user in order to try to achieve a full 360 sensor set up.
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Experimenting with the HC-SR04
04/25/2017 at 19:20 • 0 commentsIn order to get a pair of 'eyes' for my device, I would need to look into using some sort of range-finding sensors for calculating distance. I have looked into first experimenting with a cheap option, which is the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor which can be bought off sparkfun, ebay etc.
I have hooked that up with my Arduino Uno plus MP3 shield which I already have loaded up with some sound samples I want to trigger in order to simulate a parking sensor in a car. I have successfully done that for one which looks something like this:
I have hooked the Arduino to a speaker but in actual use, the user would be wearing some sort of wireless earbuds or headphones.