WEEK 17 / May 24

applications and implications

The assignment

This week's assignment was to propose a final project that integrates the range of units covered, answering questions like "what will it do?", "what materials and components will be required?", "what processes will be used?", etc.

 

 

What will it do?

 

My final project is a modular smart lamp for our Fab lab. It will be able to work individually or as a group of lamps, depending on the space available and the light intensity needed for each space. The objective is to have an attractive and simple light which can be controlled via a control device in which you can turn the light on/ off, change light  intensity, or use a light saving mode with the simple swipe of the hand.

 

Who’s done what beforehand?

 

There are many solutions for intelligent lighting. Phillips developed HUE, which is a smart light which changes colors and can be controlled on your phone. However I wanted to use a Natural user interface based on hand movements so that anyone in the lab could control it.

 

Phillips hue motion sensor was also an inspiration for using a separate control to control the lighting. They use it so lights can turn on when they detect movement, however I wish to use this to detect user gestures and also ambiance lighting to change the intensity of the light depending on how much ambiance lighting available.

 

What materials and components are required? + how much will it cost?

 

 

Where will they come from?

Most of the components come from Mexico city, the gesture control board I had to buy it fro friends since it is not existent in Mexico.

 

What parts and systems will be made?

What tasks need to be completed?

• Design lamp module
• 2D modeling of parts for CNC milling.
• Develop and test gesture control system
• Develop and design input and output
• Make sure the system works
• Fabrication of parts
• wood finishes for final product
• Build an iOS App of iPhone
• Connect the lamp into a Wifi network
• Build an API
• Launch a website
• Create a brand identity
• Test a business model

 

 

 

 

What questions need to be answered?

I need to answer the following questions:

what type of hand movements are most natural to the user to indicate a turning on and off of a device?

Can I develop a modular system which can work individually and as a group?

Is it possible to build an open source community around the lamp?

 

What is the schedule?

The schedule was done in trello.

 

How will it be evaluated?

The project will be successful if :

I have a product (lamp) which works in a system and can turn on and off (at least) with hand gestures.

The product looks simple and easy to use.