The Weekend
On Saturday we went to the farmers market and I got some Chai mix and fresh vegetables. We also walked through the crafter’s area and it was fun to see the local talent. After the farmer’s market we went to the Village Deli for brunch. Saturday night we went to Dr. Siek’s house for a BBQ with the REU students, PhD students and the faculty from the lab. On Sunday, I finally got around to seeing Wonder Woman and it was great.

Monday
I spent most of today making my prototype. I am designing a medication box with a light sensor that will illuminate the LEDs when the box is opened or if the box hasn’t been opened in 12 hours. I had the files ready but was having difficulty adjusting the speed and power settings on the laser cutter. I made a smaller design and was trying to get the right speed and power. I thought the laser cutter was sparking even though it was not cutting all the way through the cardboard. I talked to Ben about it and he said to make sure it cuts all the way through the cardboard and that cardboard looks like it is sparking when it is being cut but the laser isn’t going all the way through so it shouldn’t cause any damage to the bed. After discussing the speed and power with Ben, I was able to create the box and put it together with hot glue.  Ben, Mina, and I met today to talk about the progress of the paper and we got some helpful feedback from Ben. We decided our final deliverable will be a paper discussing our work from this summer. We are going to be discussing data from the participatory design workshops and comparing our modified version to the standard version characterized in the literature. Additionally, our results section will present data from our toolkit and details of selecting different parts and the criteria used. We will also present data on how the toolkit was received by older adults and what purposes they used it for.  The rest of this week I will work on finishing my prototype (maybe starting another?) and writing new sections of the paper as well as revising old sections.

Finished Box (side)

Finished Box (top)

Tuesday
Today, I worked on sewing my circuit for my prototype. Yesterday I finished the box but now I had to add the electronics. I decided to sew the LilyPad, LEDs, and light sensor into a black fabric with conductive thread so I drew my circuit out by hand and then stitched it with conductive thread in the fabric. It took me a while but I got it to work. I also wrote code so that the lights will come on when the box opens or if the box hasn’t been opened in twelve hours.  After working on my prototype, I started watching a video of the previous participatory design workshop session. The quilting group had some good ideas for adding electronics to their products. A lot of their ideas were based on aesthetics but they made the quilts more interactive. 

Sketched Circuit

Sewn LilyPad Components

Wednesday
Today I read another REU project’s paper wrote my feedback for them. It’s interesting to see different styles and ways of approaching the writing problem. I also worked on my box prototype a little more. I added some aesthetic touches so that the lilypad circuit was no longer visible and put in a flower. The prototype is not a final version but I’m glad I sewed everything because it gave me some ideas on how to improve the process. For the next version I want to use little velcro patches so that the lilyPad is accessible to reprogram and change the battery. Additionally, I would ideally want the lilypad to be able to use in a sewing machine so that less hand sewing is required. I think that adding conductive fabric pads with a ring to get a good connection beneath the lilyPad so it could be safely used in a sewing machine. After working on my prototype, I went to the workshop meeting and learned about Abstracts, writing peer reviews and having an online presence. I will have to work a bit more on my website. After the meeting, I went back through the ShareLaTeX document to add a few changes to the introduction and related works section.

Thursday
Mina and I met with Dr. Siek this morning to discuss our progress this week. We talked a bit about prototyping and how using the electronics that will eventually comprise the toolkit will be helpful in making it easier for older adults to use. I mentioned my idea for making the LilyPad compatible with the sewing machine and Dr. Siek thought of another way of attaching conductive thread through the holes. I hope to try both and see what works best later on. We also discussed making a guide so that people will be able to use the kit on their own. Ideally this guide would have general tutorials on how to attach components, use a sewing machine with conductive thread, and avoid short circuits as well as coding guidelines, example circuits, and example projects. After my meeting with Dr. Siek, I began designing a 3D model of a LilyPad base. I also finalized my peer review comments and took a refresher course on plagiarism. Then I finished watching the first participatory design workshop video.

Friday
Friday morning I updated my slides for the ProHealth lab meeting and edited the abstracted for our paper. Then I went to the ProHealth lab meeting and heard about what the others were up to this week. After the meeting I began to watch the second particaptory design workshop video and unpacked the recently delivered electronics. Then, Dr. Siek, Mina and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to pick out some new fabric for our prototypes and some other sewing materials. I went down to the prototyping lab and tried to 3D print my Lilypad base and worked on new files in illustrator for the next version of my medication box prototype. The first base I printed had pegs that were slightly too big to fit in the Lilypad so in the future I’ll make the base with longer, narrower pegs. The updated version of my box uses new images that I created in adobe. This week my goal was to create a working prototype and I was able to do so. Making the prototype was difficult, especially getting the settings right on the laser cutter for cardboard and sewing the components together. For the next version of the prototype I hope to make the box from wood with original images, make the lilyPad accessible, make the sewing easier and make aesthetic changes to the fabric.

LilyPad Base

Song of the Week