Last update Team Omega 2013
Monday December the 16th was a busy day for Team Omega. Not only did we have the Alpha presentation, we also etched our second prototype board (See post 18th December for aftermovie). We fixed our last bugs and tested out our system on a large scale, the results were great. We gathered at 14:00 in room E03:32 where we unpacked all our hardware and props and decorated and setup the entire space.
We used 16 chairs with sensors mounted on them, a gamebox which illustrated our GUI, some sheets to cover up our area and lots and lots of ducktape.
Installing everything took 1 hour and 45 minutes, because we needed to debug and fix some sensors and we needed to have the correct arrangement for each sensor for each seat, this took a really long time.
We were very pleased with the results from the Alpha test, because our system was working very well and the accuracy was great. We also got feedback from other students on our system.
Most people could figure out what the system was designed to do and what its purpose was, without telling them anything.
The question gave us better insight in the reaction and decision making of people who use our prototype. People really appreciated that we are able to show where there are seats available.
The only remark we had was about our GUI, because we showed too much information, next time we can use 8 seats instead of 16 seats and we will remove the individual seat indicator, so the information could be shown more clearly.
One more thing to remember for the Beta test is that we must be able to construct our setup more quickly, this can be done with implementing less chairs and better documentation how the system needs to be connected.
After the Alpha test we soldered the etched board it using components that we ordered from Conrad.
We are currently working on documentating our hardware and software and adding the last software and hardware to our system. For the hardware: We are currently implementing both the milled board and the etched board to support our system.
For the software: We have developed a website that illustrates real-time NS information board that can be found at the platform and we have added our gradient colors in there to show where in the train it is busy and where the most seats are empty. You can look up all stations and almost all platforms, using the implemented NS API. ย
(http://sas.rdfl.org/interface/index.html?station=Amsterdam_Centraal&platform=11b) If you donโt know how you should type the name of the station, then remove the arguments in the address bar: http://sas.rdfl.org/interface/index.html and you will be able to select the station. Note: The gradient on the website doesnโt represent the real world yet, but we are working on a simulation that will support this. We are currently building a simulation that will be able to calculate if our system has effect or not, and when it would be most effective. Last but not least, Team Omega wishes everybody a great and technical 2014!
