Prototype components

On this blogpost we are going to give an update on the prototype building process. Below we describe you the main components that out prototype belt consists of.

The three main parts on the prototype are:

1) the belt: built using the vibrator motors , wires and the fabric

2) android phone for having the navigation system 

3) raspberry pi board which is a mini computer that is used for prototyping.  

On the picture you can see the elastic we are using for the prototype.

The raspberry pi board and required modules are directly connected to the belt, and controls the patterns of vibration based on the data that is generated from the navigation application in android phone and is transferred via bluetooth connection. 

We have divided the process of building the prototype into 4 main parts: 

1) building the belt mechanics

2) programming the raspberry pi for driving the belt in some predefined formats (different patterns of vibration can be defined for telling the users different things about the next move).  

3) Building an android application that is capable of turn-by-turn navigation over a free maps and navigation system. This application will send the data about the next turn and the distance remained to reach the next turn which then will be "translated" to the user by the vibration patterns. 

4) Bluetooth communication between part 2 and 3: Part 2 should be capable of receiving the bluetooth messages and part 3 should be capable of sending messages. 

The belt in the making

Where are we now?

- We have the belt (part 1) 

- We have the raspberry pi with bluetooth receiver working (part 2)

- We have the android application but not the bluetooth sender. 

We are at the second half of part 3. when we have the second half of part 3, then some tests would be needed to make sure the bluetooth communication between the phone and belt is working flawlessly, and that is when part 4 is also completed and we will be ready for final presentation.