Third Eye for the Blind

I’m working on a third eye for the blind, which is a device utilizing multiple sensors hooked up to an arduino. The sensors give back information on the blind person’s surroundings, making navigation easier.

Engineer	School	Area of Interest	Grade
Chris	Lynbrook High School	Computer Science	Incoming Junior

Reflection

This experience in BlueStamp has been a great one, and I’m glad that I took this opportunity. It was my first time doing an engineering project, and assembling all the parts together and doing the code was quite fun. There were some confusing moments, and at times it also got boring, but that was all part of the process. Getting familiar with all the parts in the kit was like getting introduced to a fancy and complicated looking lego set, and it got me excited for what was to come. I also learned to be flexible, and to be able to adjust my goals according to the situation. Overall, I gained quite a bit from this three week program of BlueStamp, and who knows, I might come again.

Final Milestone

When I finished my second milestone, I had thought that my final milestone would’ve been to solder everything together. However, after soldering my vibrating motor wires to a jumper wire, I realized that I was much too inexperienced with soldering to get everything done in time. There was also the chance that I would mess up the soldering, and that would complicate things even more. So, the only soldering I did this third week was for the vibrating motors, and I changed my third milestone goal to soldering the vibrating motor and to get my device into a shape that could be worn, instead of soldering everything together. The main tool I used to assemble everything were the zipties, and they actually proved to be pretty effective. Since I was also using the breadboard instead of the perfboard, I had a larger project, and that made connecting everything together easier as well.

Second Milestone

My second milestone was to complete a final prototype with all my sensors and devices working. During the time of my first milestone, I had only finished the code for my ultrasonic sensor, but during this second week, I added the buzzer code, as well as the temperature sensor code. So, I now have a fully working prototype, and one final device I want to add is the vibrating motor, as that will make communication with the blind person easier. I haven’t added it yet, as it seems adding it will require some soldering, and so that will be done in the third week. Speaking of soldering, since my prototype is currently connected to the breadboard, I plan to solder everything together to make something more permanent, doing this also in the third week.

First Milestone

My first milestone was to assemble my first prototype, and get started with the code. The first week was mainly filled with familiarization, as I was dealing with new parts I had never dealt with before, and approaching an unfamiliar subject for me. Learning how everything connected seemed like a daunting task at first, however, after I learned that jumper wires were the major connectors, I realized that assembling my project was just like assembling a more complicated lego set. The sensors in my first prototype include the ultrasonic sensor and the temperature sensor, and I’m using a buzzer along with a vibrating motor to signal to the blind person when something is too close or of an extreme temperature. I had also originally planned to completely follow the original project design, but I quickly realized that the parts I had were different from those the original designer used, so I had to make my own modifications to the design.