May the Force be with you!

All components of our design have been acquired, allowing us to start building the gloves. We sautered the force sensors and pancake vibrators to their respective wires. The breadboard-DAQ system is producing an excellent output graph; we simply need to add the vibrators to the system to finish the design.

A diagram of voltage divider and three force sensors. Ours is set up in a similar fashion.
http://arduino.cc/en/uploads/Tutorial/virtualColorMixer_bb.png

DAQ Attack!

We have made progress connecting the DAQ to Lab View. We were able to generate a graph that varied with the force we put on the force sensor.

Connecting the Wires

The voltage divider has been connected to the DAQ.
Voltage divider to the left, DAQ in the right.

Labview has been chosen to work with because of its comparability with the specific DAQ. The voltage divider has been connected to the DAQ and calibration of the device is in process.

Et tu, Labview?

We downloaded the program Labview. We are considering using it instead of MatLab. We are going to experiment with both programs to see what will be best for our project.

Using the breadboard, we figured out what our circuitry would be. Then we acquired a voltage divider. We are still developing the code from MatLab to acquire the data from the force sensors. We need to figure out how are specific DAQ information should be interfaced with MatLab.

Mail time!

A few days ago we obtained the force sensors that we had ordered. This week in lab we will be attempting to create our set up and implement our MATLAB code.

You can't resist resistivity!

On Tuesday we ordered three of the FSR400 sensors, which are due to be delivered on Friday or Saturday. Today we figured out what resistors we need for the breadboard between the DAQ and the voltage input from the force sensor. We have also a general idea of what sort of coding is needed for our MATLAB program.

Spark!

We aquired a DAQ device, began looking at the MATLAB code from the first term's accelerometer unit in order to convert it for our use in force detection, and have planned out the configuration of devices. We contacted another teaching fellow, DJ Bucci, who will help us set up the voltage divider to read inputs from the force sensors.

After speaking to Deepak Siromani, we have identified that many prosthetic users have difficulty sensing the force exerted by the artificial limb on an object. In order to solve this, force sensors will be implemented on the finger pads and palms of artificial hands and the amount of force will be quantified by MatLab which would then be relayed back to a vibrator which would vibrate against skin in proportion to the force being applied, notifying the user of the force being applied.

Currently, we are talking to Deepak Siromoni in order to narrow down our field for design and actualise a product which would most aid prosthetic patients with the constraints of our budget and time.