Abrar Burk

From Wiki

day2
we started using prosessing...which im guessing is the basis of the programming work that we are going to have to do for our final sensor assignment. from what i saw it involved a lot o mathematics. reminded me of what we had learnt in school.also though the syntax had to be remembered..most of it was just based on pure logic.We also read up on david dunn who experimented with sound and noticed natures reaction to it. It gave us an idea that probably the final output of our project could probably be sound as a reaction to the pollution in the environment.
day3
we continued with working on processing on slightly more difficult things. we also started figuring out how to make prosessing react to a key pressed and bring out the desired change depending on how the program is written.
day4
we worked with the aurdino boards and figured how arduino software can be used to give instructions to the board. however all aurdino does is gives instructions to the board, in order to program the reaction of the board to any desired input, processing is used to write the programme which is then linked to arduino,which further gives instructions to the board to bring out the desired output.
day5
after reading up on the pollution problems in india, and the in efficient system,we realized that before we choose areas in bangalore for placing the pollution sensors, we need to do a thorough research as to which areas will give us a precise overall average. The presentations we saw on environment related projects done before like in the air and globos...kinda widened our ideas about what we can finally do. i felt that our final user interface, if it is on some public place in the city should be such that it catches every1s eye, but at the same time very simply explains itself to the public.
day6
we started using sensors on a very basic level. things like bend sensors and touch sensors etc were used to make the led glow etc. we also saw an interesting video on a bend sensor being used as a musical instrument. Since the computer doesnt actually understand musical notes, certain frequencies have to be assigned to the change in voltage which eventually results in the formation of music.
day7
from the pdfs that we obtained based on basic usage of arduino, i got a much more clear idea of how arduino works. i understood all the pre settings that have to be made before the arduino board is actually put to use, like finding and setting the usb port number, and uploading the program written on to the arduino board etc. also we started planning on making a sensor, that is well hidden and is like an interactive experience with the circuitory and wires well hidden. we planned on using a bend sensor to sense the wind and depending on the intensity the leds will glow either forming an H or an L on an led display.
day8
we continued working on the wind sensor, we had previously done a flex sensor making an led glow when it is bent, but in this case we had to use a series of leds to form the letter L or H. but the problem that it caused was that we werent sure of the resistances that we would have to use.
day9
this i thought was the most fun day as yet in this course.we got a little presentation on the basics of electronics, and alongside we did a few expperiments in order to get a better hang of it. the entire system of gates that we used was really cool. especially the oscillator circuit that we finally made, having an output through speakers was quite interesting. the varied kinds of sound that were created due to the sensitivity of the input LDR was awesome.
day10
well the entire thing about wamp and wordpress went way over my head so honestly i was completely confused about what happened.
day11
we were introduced to pachube, and we also started thinking about using a sensor and pachube together to make something worthwhile. we thought about making a poll counter and take a general pole in college, but then it didnt make much of sense to involve pachube and sensors in something like a poll machine. so we decided to use a light sensor to give a genral forecast of the day since now a days there is a constant change in the weather. we used an LDR, which depending on the light in the sky gives corresponding values. we tried to take it ahead by replacing the light values by words actually giving the forecast like "cloudy" or "sunny" or "semi sunny" etc.
day12
after working on the outer casing of our sunlight sensor, we met the scientists with whom we are doing this project. i finally thought i had a much clearer understanding of what we are actually doing and what the main purpose of this project is. the final goal quite clearly seems to be bringing about a change in government policy regarding pollution. we figured that the only way of doing that is making people, we citizens as well as politicians realize that pollution is killing all of us.
day13
inverting the lens of a web cam makes it a microscope. that was pretty cool. we were checking out toilet water and stuff like that under our web cam microscope. We saw the water bear. Also victor showed us a presentation on visual language, just general products, mostly fictional, but bringing out a thought or idea or awareness, which was quite useful for us as we are working on bringing out pollution awareness.
day14
we were discussing about products that we could make to bring about pollution awareness, the way we saw in victors presentation. wwe thought it would be good if we modified products that were very indian in order to get to the indian masses. we thought about incense sticks, lanterns, rangolis and things of that sort. we were working on how we could modify these things for the theme of pollution awareness.
day15




day16
we had a presentation of our ideas about products. we finally decided on doing the chimer, the shirt and either the doorhanging or the pump. also we started wondering on how we can actually make the ideas materialize. about the crumpling shirt, i was thinking that, if we had some wires running on the inner side of the shirt in the shape of the lung, and if we stuck some iron filings on the inner side too, when the voltage would pass, and the magnetic field was created, the filings would be attracted to it and the shirt would crumple.
day17
we started making the circuit for the first prototype of our t-shirt. to start off, we decided to make a simple circuit with red and blue led. the blue one being on when the gas sensor doesnt detect any pollution, and the red one comes on when the pollution level rises by a bit. also because it had to be embedded in a tshirt, we stuck it using dst on the outer side of an old tshirt. the whole sensor action worked fine, but stopped working after a while for some reason.
day18
we were trying to figure out why the shirt stopped working. finally we realized that the values on the serial monitor were previously in 10s and now the values were beginning to show in 100s. so we changed the coding a little bit, making the 10s into 100s, and the circuit started working perfectly. we took a few videos to document it.
day19
we also started thinking about making the final tshirt which is supposed to crumple when it detects pollution. we were wondering if we could attach motors to the inner side of it which will rotate on detecting pollution, and hence crumple the tshirt.
day20
today the plan was to make the tshirt sensor again, with it embedded on the inner side of the tshirt, tho the new gas sensor that we got needed wires to be attached to it. soldiering the wires caused a huge problem because the surface of the leads refused to let the wires stick to them.
day21
we bought a brand new white tshirt, in order to make a more refined and usable tshirt. also yashas provided us with the led strips, a series of leds that light up like a band. so we started thinking abouta proper design in which we could make the leds light up. came up with quite a few ideas like the symbol of air,recycle symbol, an inverted tree, which also signifys the branches of the lungs. finally we decided to go ahead with the tree idea.
day22
so we thought about putting our tree idea into action today. we remade the circuit using the led strip. the circuit was working fine but the biggest problem was that the voltage wasnt enough to light up the entire strip, the red light on the strip was very faint. our next task was to figure out how to increase the voltage in the circuit.
day23 & 24
we made the led strio light up to the full potential , by powering it seperately with a 9 v battery...and the tshirt prototype worked fine..we documented it.

Project End Week 1

After the feedback we got from all the faculty we realized what always was a concern at the back of our heads, that just a change from blue to red light will not really appeal to the masses as they wont really understand the point of the shirt, because some people might see it as a blue lit shirt, some as a red lit shirt, and very few may actually see the transition. so we decided that we should probably program the lights to change constantly like an equalizer, so that people at least get a vague idea of what is happening.
also another concern has been as to how without really saying anything, people are to realize that the shirt is trying too make them aware about the pollution around them. i was thinking about having some words printed on the tshirt which make the idea clear or probably some illustrations,just the way the navneet eco buddy books have, you know which makes it clear that it is an ecofriendly notebook. but then again the idea of getting cliche with phrases like "save banglore" and stuff of that sort isnt really appealing. so we have to some how make the crumpling of the shirt very obvious that it is the shape of a lung. i think that will speak a lot.
we have also been researching on el wires and ways of using them. came across some circuit diagrams on the internet, and also a video as to how to soldier the wire to a power source connector:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZh8UCuKe64

Project End Week 2

the use of the el wire involved a lot of complications. we required drivers to spike up the input voltage, also there was the fear of the person wearing the tshirt getting electricuted. so because of the availability of resources, we finally decided to use the led strips only for the final shirt.also as the strips are not bendable, we had to think of a proper way of forming a lung type shape on the tshirt. we thought about things like a more geometric shaped lung, lung branches, and things like that. but none of them were giving the message in a clear manner. we realized that along with the lights we would also have to have some kind of print on the tshirt. so we finally came upon making the branches using the lights and having the outer shape of the lung printed.