Dino's mid-term report

Mid-term Project Post

by Leave a Comment

Weight Controller by Dino and Shane

Instructor: Professor Andy

Before this mid-term project, we did a group research project. Although the idea of group project didn’t inspire me of this project, it did provide me with a clear recognition of what kind of artifacts are interactive and watching other groups’ performances and ideas also enabled me to be more imaginative. 

Our project’s function is just like its name — it can help you control your weight. People who want to cut body fat efficiently will calculate their carbohydrate take in, while many people are not very clear about how much they should take in. Our project can help people who are frustrated with this kind of problem by showing how much rice they should take in for each meal according to their weight. to make it scientifically right, I did a lot of research to write a formula that calculates the right amount of rice. While due to the restriction of our coding level, we just choose rice as the variable because it is the most common staple food in Shanghai, which can have wider audience.

In the beginning, our prototype was more basic. We planned to build a general weight controller that calculates the proper mount of rice according to people’s average weight. But our professor pointed out that it was not interactive enough. Considering people’s weights vary a lot, and an interactive artifact should be differently used by different people, so we designed a remote for inputting people’s weight.

In the process of building, the circuit is quite easy, but because we need to add a remote to our artifact, the code was frequently messed up. If we uploaded the scale sensor code and remoter code separately, they worked well, but as long as we integrated them together, they got messy. But we finally made it with the professor’s help and working through the night.

There is another point that is worth mentioning during the user testing session, a professor gave us precious advice that it was bothering if users had to stare at the screen and read the prompt, and it would be better for us to have an introduction page to tell users how to use it. So we added a liquid crystal display to our project to make the prompt more straightforward. 

I think my project is interactive, but not very imaginative compared with other projects. Like the professor’s comment, our project is rather particular, which can be really used in some regions, while others tend to be more entertaining. As I have stated, I think my project is rather interactive, after modification. What I think we can improve is our appearance. We could have paid more effort to work on cardboard and do some painting, but apparently, both of us wasn’t good at it.

Documentation: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-E2idtQyk-H0JjxDD2oo6f57lo0_8aiR?usp=sharing

Material: acrylic plate, screw, scale sensor, breadboard, Arduino

code:

<pre>

#include <IRremote.h>
IRrecv IR(11);  //declear IR receiver pin;
int weight[3];  //weight is an array of 3 integers, that is for 3 digit number;
int buzzer = 9;
int led = 12;
int number;
int digit = 0;
int weightstored;
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  IR.enableIRIn();  // Start the receiver
  Serial.println(“Thank you for using the diet scale, this is a scale that weights on the mass of the food to calculate if it fits your diet.”);
  Serial.println(“Sadly, as for right now the scale is only capable of weighing on rice.”);
  Serial.println(“First, please dial in your weight in Kilogram using the IR remote, press the pause button to confirm.”);
  Serial.println(“The input only consists of three digits, once it reaches the third digit the counter would start over, and, also, sadly, as for right now there is no backspace or delete all button.”);
}
void loop() {
  //If the IR receiver receives any signal from a remote
  if (IR.decode()) {
    convertIR();
    if (IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 4077698816 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 4010852096 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3994140416 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3977428736 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3944005376 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3927293696 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3910582016 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3877158656 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3860446976 || IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 3843735296) {
      for (int x = 0; x < 3; x++) {
        weight[digit] = number;
        //Serial.println(weight[x]);
      }
      digit = digit + 1;
      if (digit % 3 == 0) {
        digit = 0;
      }
    }
    delay(100);
    IR.resume();
    weightstored = weight[0] * 100 + weight[1] * 10 + weight[2];
    Serial.println(weightstored);
    if (IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData == 4194680576){
      Serial.print(“You have confirmed that your weight is “);
      Serial.print(weightstored);
      Serial.print(” kg.”);
      Serial.println(“Now, please put any amount of rice on the tray.”);
    }    
  }
}
//convert hex number from receiver
void convertIR()  // convert IR code
{
  switch (IR.decodedIRData.decodedRawData) {
    case 4278238976:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the POWER button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4244815616:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the FUNC/STOP button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4261527296:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the VOL+ button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4211392256:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the FAST BACK button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4194680576:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the PAUSE button”));
      break;
    case 4177968896:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the FAST FORWARD button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4144545536:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the DOWN button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4127833856:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the VOL- button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4111122176:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the UP button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4060987136:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the EQ button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4044275456:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the ST/REPT button, currently this button is useless, sorry.”));
      break;
    case 4077698816:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 0 button”));
      number = 0;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 4010852096:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 1 button”));
      number = 1;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3994140416:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 2 button”));
      number = 2;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3977428736:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 3 button”));
      number = 3;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3944005376:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 4 button”));
      number = 4;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3927293696:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 5 button”));
      number = 5;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3910582016:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 6 button”));
      number = 6;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3877158656:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 7 button”));
      number = 7;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3860446976:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 8 button”));
      number = 8;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 3843735296:
      Serial.println(F(“You have pressed the number 9 button”));
      number = 9;
      return (number);
      break;
    case 0:
      Serial.println(F(“You are holding down the button, that’s useless.”));
      break;
  }
}

&nbsp;</pre>

Hello world!

by 1 Comment

Welcome to Web Publishing @ NYU. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start creating your site!

Online help is available via the Web Publishing Knowledge Site (wp.nyu.edu/knowledge) and the ServiceLink knowledge base (www.nyu.edu/servicelink). Through ServiceLink, you can find step-by-step instructions, as well as tutorials.

Digital Accessibility

As content creators who create and publish text, images, video, and audio, you must adhere to the NYU Website Accessibility Policy (https://www.nyu.edu/digitalaccessibility/policy) when creating and publishing digital content.

Web Publishing-specific Digital Accessibility Best Practices and examples of how to ensure your content are compliant are available at https://wp.nyu.edu/digitalaccessibility

If you have additional questions, contact the IT Service Desk for assistance. Support is available 24/7/365. For more details, visit www.nyu.edu/it/servicedesk.