Weekly Updates

Week 12, 5/12/22 Project goal for week: final project updates Individual goal for the week:

  • student 1
  • student 2
  • student 3

Overview of what was accomplished

Week 11, 5/5/22 Project goal for week: final presentations

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Finalized the research of visually impaired children and related education; designed the templates with the group; recorded the final slides.
  • Henry: Recorded final report slides; finalize the prototype together with team members; held the group meeting.
  • Yuan: Designed the final prototype and prepared for the final presentation. 
  • Accomplished final report with team members.
  • Finalize the prototype, ran users play-test sections for feedbacks and analysis.
  • Recorded presentation slides and create accessible captions

Week 10, 4/28/22 Project goal for week: 

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Participated in the group meeting and drew plans for the final template outcome.
  • Henry: Met with team members to work together for the final prototype. 
  • Yuan: Worked together for the final prototype. 
  • Held work meeting with team members; bought the materials needed for our final prototype.
  • Used lazer-cut machine to finalize our prototype.
  • Took pictures and recording videos for final presentation
  • Working progress image

Week 9, 4/21/22 Project goal for week: 

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Met with the team members and discussed about the final prototype details. 
  • Henry:  Discussed with team members about the details of final prototype including materials, sizes, etc. 
  • Yuan: Talked about the final output for the prototype and designed the templates. 
  • Held work meeting with team members to discuss details and working section schedule about the final project.
  • Used Adobe illustrator to draw templates for next week’s laser-cut section.

Week 8, 4/14/22 Project goal for the week: getting feedback and advice and start revising the project

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Meet with Daniel and the whole group; asked for advice and research issues; made the revision plan.
  • Henry: Connected with Daniel to schedule the meeting. Discussed with team members about project ideas and next steps.
  • Yuan: Talking and meeting with Daniel. Decided the next step to achieve. 

Overview of what was accomplished:

  • Held the first zoom meeting after mid-term report Daniel and Tara, organizers of TPP. Received useful feedbacks and advice from the mid-term report.
  • Re-discussed about the direction and goal about our project. Discussed about the value and meaning of our project.
  • Inspired from Daniel and Tara about our new directions; Meeting pictures

Week 7, 4/7/22 Project goal for week: digesting the feedback from midterm presentations

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Meet with team members and discussed about the feedback.
  • Henry: Held meeting with team members and discussed about feedback and next steps.
  • Yuan: Meeting with the team members and making plan for next step. 

Overview of what was accomplished:

  • Met regularly with our team members.
  • Read feedback from mid-term report together and discussed our next steps.
  • Sent meeting invitation link with Daniel.

Week 6, 3/31/22 Project goal for week: Midterm Presentations

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia:Kept working on the template
  • Henry:Kept working on the template
  • Yuan: Kept working on the template

Overview of what was accomplished:

Week 5, 3/24/22 Project goal for week: Midterm presentations

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Made some parts of the midterm slide and recorded the presentation; built the template with the team.
  • Henry: Recorded mid-term report slides; built the prototype together with team members; held the group meeting.
  • Yuan: Making the prototype for the mid-term. Recoding the video and powerpoint. 

Overview of what was accomplished:

  • Accomplished mid-term report with team members.
  • Drew and Created our new prototype by using laser-cut and Adobe Illustrator
  • Recorded presentation slides and create accessible captions

Week 4, 3/10/22 Project goal for week4: Meeting with both Dr. Rizzo and Daniel from TouchPad Pro Foundation; getting ready for the future plan. 

Individual goal for the week: 

  • Cynthia: Meeting with Dr. Rizzo, Daniel, and group members; coming up with a general structure of the template series. 
  • Henry: Scheduling he virtual meeting with Dr. Rizzo and Daniel, meeting with them and the group members for discussion; presenting current progress and ideas about the template themes. 
  • Yuan：Meeting with Dr. Rizzo, Daniel, and group members. Talking about theme of the template, and making plan for the next step.

Overview of what was accomplished

  • Held the zoom meeting with Dr. Rizzo and Daniel; got inspired by their ideas for making the graph.
  • Presented the current progress and ideas about the template themes; received reflections about our initial prototype and developing ideas.
  • Learned about other braille art devices, e.g. Draftsman Blind, but it is very expensive.
  • Discussed and finalized our current project goals and directions – creating tutorial graphs for elementary school kids to help them identify basic graphs.
  • Here is the link to some images of our current project progress.

Week 3, 3/3/22 Project goal for week3: Designing the graphic orders in Ai; laser-cutting a first-step prototype of the templates.

Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Collaborating with the group members together in the design process; using the software and laser-cut machine to make the prototype. 
  • Henry
  • Yuan: Working together with group members to design and apply our initial prototype and trying the laser-cut machine to apply. 

Overview of what was accomplished

  • Measured the size of the existing magnetic drawing pads and drew the shapes according to the size in illustrator.
  • Made the very first prototype of the simple graphic template, cardboard as the material. 

Week 2, 2/24/22 Project goal for week2: Meeting with Dr. Rizzo and learning about his expectation; brainstorming for ideas. Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Scheduling the virtual meeting with Dr. Rizzo; meeting with Dr. Rizzo and the group members for discussion; coming up with ideas about the template themes. 
  • Henry: Meeting with Dr.Rizzo and discussing about basic project ideas. Also shared some ideas about the initial prototype.
  • Yuan: Meeting with Dr.Rizzo, talking about ideas, discussing the themes and next steps for the project. 

Overview of what was accomplished

  • Held the first zoom meeting with Dr. Rizzo; got clarified about the project structure and goal. 
  • Collaborated in a google doc file for brainstorming of the possible themes. 
  • (Big thanks to Amy) Got physical samples of the existing braille displays to help know about the device better. 

Week 1, 2/17/22 Project goal for week1: Getting in touch with Dr. Rizzo; creating a general plan. Individual goal for the week:

  • Cynthia: Emailing Dr. Rizzo for meeting schedules; meeting with Daniel via zoom with the group. 
  • Henry: Meeting with Daniel and the group to discuss project ideas
  • Yuan: Meeting with Daniel and discussing ideas with group members

Overview of what was accomplished (pictures and links encouraged!)

  • Contacted Dr. Rizzo via email, and he introduced Daniel Lubiner, the CEO and Founder of the TouchPad Pro Foundation. 
  • Conducted research on TouchPad Pro and other technology helping people with visual impairment. 
  • Held a zoom meeting with Mr. Lubiner and got to learn the general info about the company.