P13015: Navigation Aid for the Blind and Deaf Michael Bova (CE) – Team Lead Kevin Alderfer (CE) – lead engineer guide – dr. beth debartolo sponsor – National Science Foundation

Project Description + Customer Needs Navigate a blind/deaf individual to any desired destination Calculate the shortest distance between any two locations Intuitive interface without the use of visual or audio feedback > 10 navigated trips on a full battery Budget: $200.00 Improve upon existing design

Design Summary Forearm sleeve with attached housing case Housing unit contains microcontroller, magnetometer, lithium-ion battery, keypad, and radio frequency transceiver Sleeve has three vibrating motors sewn into the fabric for haptic feedback Active radio frequency transceiver as nodes around KGCOE 2nd floor

Notable Changes to Design Adoption of ez430-RF2500 transceiver Active tags - Power redistribution Access point End devices (nodes) Signal strength used to determine position Restructuring of map

Schedule Week Planned Task Progress/Actual Work 1 Update Map Data Complete 2 Update Nodes to send ID 3 Assemble Battery Packs/Node Testing 4 Fix Magnetometer Implementation 5 Implement Tilt Comp. & Create Interface Between Transceiver/MCU Incomplete (33%) 6 Power optimization/replace RFID reader code Ordered new magnetometer/worked on tilt comp. 7 Test ez430 integration Lots of soldering 8 Full system testing Implemented Magnetometer/began paper 9 Write tech paper, create poster Integrate ez430, created poster 10 Presentation/Demo Integrate ez430, finished paper Schedule

Progress Node network created and operational Magnetometer/accelerometer correctly implemented Map data structures updated for new transceiver data (node ID and signal strength) Physical and software interface created between main MCU and ez430-RF2500 access point Still debugging UART connection, however, which has delayed full system testing

Bill of Materials Item Quantity Cost eZ430-RF2500 8 $160 16 Borrowed AAA Batteries & Battery Holder 10 $23.81 Magnetometer (replacement) 1 $33.64 Total

Suggestions for Future/Lessons Learned Be vigilant with team members and deadlines Reposition the physical device to eliminate unwanted acceleration vectors New PCB must be created to incorporate ez430

Questions?