User Studies Questions:
1) Who is the ideal user?
2) Feeling of device:
– Gender-wise, do you think this kind of wearable is more proper for one gender to the other? Why?
– Compared to other popular wearable device (ie. Arm band, Wristband, Glasses…etc), do you think this device is designed for younger generation only?
– If yes,What would be ideal age range for this device? 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 49, over 50.
3) Function of device:
-If you live in the south, or a warmer geographic area, would you consider using a similar device other than sports or entertainment purpose? (i.e. heated-lining with water-proof material for working in a greenhouse or running errands in cold weather
4) Is this project instrumental, expressional, and/or educational? Does it work as this kind of project?
5) Is the user interaction engaging? How can it be improved?
As stated earlier, my project is to make a pair of heated of glove. Temperature sensor in this project is essential as it is responsible for measuring, reading and report back and control the temperature setting.
After some research, I first chose to work with TMP102, which is digital temp sensor that reads accurately up to 0.5°C. and requires very low current. From my ICM final, I learned not to be too overambitious and given the time frame, scope of this project and skill set learned from this class, I thought heated gloves should be something that is achievable…. until the decision to work with TMP102 is made.
The ill-fated TMP102.
First challenge is to get a accurate sensor readings.
I go to resident’s help session a lot because this is my very first time working Arduino and temperature sensor. For this project, I work with Maria and David; Maria is an expert in wearable, and David is an expert in Pcomp in general. After numerous attempts to solder, cannot get an accurate reading, and went back trying to solder more, and finally burnt my first and second TMP102, I went to Maria and David for help and guidance with my 3rd TMP102 sensor. None of them have prior experience working with digital temperature sensor, and for them to follow the direction and example code, the reading we got from TMP102 is weird — such as when we are sitting indoor, we will get a negative temp reading, or when we wrap the sensor with cold wet tissue, the temp did not change at all. When I was trying to google every possible solutions and other example codes and diagrams, they also have a hard time trying to figure out what went wrong.
After trying, trying and more trying, times and days pass by, I decided to put a hold on TMP102, and start all over to use the backup sensor, TMP 36, which is an analog temp sensor.
This is the code I try and thankfully I was able to get a normal reading from TMP36.
As TMP36 is analog, after getting reading from it,
1) I will need to figure out how to work push button with heating pad, while receiving reading from tmp36.
2) If I want to use a pushbutton to control the reading, do I use PWM or simply DigitalWrite is enough?
Challenge ahead:
It is relatively easy to make each component work separately. How to sync them and all work together is another story.