#rsacompetition

Website: RFduino - ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES FOR YOUR PROJECTS (RFduino.com, 2013 - 2014).

To be able to integrate and program all these ideas we need a socalled “motherboard”. 

But what are “motherboards”? The hardware of a “motherboard” exists out of a circuit board with a micro controller; so a kind of mini-computer with simple AVR micro controller boards. The other thing is the software, which allows someone to program different processes and transactions. After writing a program with the software one can simple transform it to the board through an USB cable. In this way different sensors or lights can be controlled. Different “motherboards” are out there, for example the boards from the RFduino collection (Elektronik-Kompendium, N/A).

Image: Shrunk down an Arduino to the size of a finger-tip (Open Source RF, 2013)!

These RFduino boards are boards with the size of a fingertip, which were invented by Open Source RF with Kickstarter. These boards are a platform, which offers people to create and build in a simple way their own technical idea. However, through the simple hardware of the RFduino it is quite low cost. It depends what module but the prize is around 15$ - 20$. All in all I can say the RFduino is small, cheap and able to do a lot out of itself but is also reduced to do the essentials. Additional is it possible to enlarge the RFduino without much soldering by combining it to other boards, which is really important if it comes to the point where one needs more then a few conductive points (RFduino.com, 2013 - 2014).

Thus our motherboard-research we also found this “motherboard”, it is called FLORA Arduino. So what is it?

Video: What is FLORA? (Adafruit Industries, 2013, Apr 16)

Basically there are two versions of the FLORA Board: The simple Flora and the Flora V2. The “original” Flora wearable board is built out of the Atmega32u4 micro controller including an mini-usb port. The difference to the new Flora V2 is that it has micro-usb instead of a mini-usb. The power controlling is created to be flexible and easy to use (Adafruit, N/A).

Image: How to Use the Adafruit Flora Board - Arduino Tutorial (DeCristofaro, 2012).

The great thing is that you can use these boards with external battery packs from 3.5v to 9v DC because there is an onboard battery connector with protection diode for use. However an important point what we found within our research is that FLORA is fabric friendly. All the components on board won't snag delicate garments because they are flush to the PCB (FTDI headers won’t be used) (Adafruit, 2016).

Video: FLORA vs GEMMA (Adafruit Industries, 2014, Mar 19)

Image: Open Source RF, . (2013). Shrunk down an Arduino to the size of a finger-tip!. [photograph]. , retrieved from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1608192864/rfduino-iphone-bluetooth-40-arduino-compatible-boa.

Image: DeCristofaro, J.M. (2012). How to Use the Adafruit Flora Board - Arduino Tutorial. [illustration]. , retrieved from http://www.instructables.com/file/FVNT1HNIDUR1IWP/.

Elektronik-Kompendium. (N/A). Motherboard / Mainboard / Hauptplatine. Retrieved from http://www.elektronik-kompendium.de/sites/com/0309231.htm.

RFduino.com. (2013 - 2014). RFduino - ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES FOR YOUR PROJECTS. Retrieved from http://www.rfduino.com.

Adafruit. (N/A). WEARABLES / FLORA. Retrieved from https://www.adafruit.com/categories/92.

Adafruit. (2016). UPDATED PRODUCT – Adafruit Flora V3. Retrieved from https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/07/07/updated-product-adafruit-flora-v3/.

Adafruit Industries. (2013, Apr 16). What is FLORA? Adafruit's Arduino-Compatible Wearables Platform [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiBbRU5rwQc

Website: Our slimmest, most stylish heart rate tracker (Fitbit Inc., 2017).

In the past it was included to wear a complicated belt around the chest if someone wanted to measure the heartbeat while doing sports. Sometimes it was comfortable, sometimes it was not but it transmitted the data through ANT+ to a receiver. A new invention offers now the possibility to disclaim the belt around the chest and to measure the heartbeat at the wrist. At the current point these FitBit bracelet are in trend because they include four main sensors: movement sensors, optical sensors, bioelectrical sensors and a GPS chip (Fitbit Inc., 2017).

Image: How FitBit Works (FITNESS TRACKER TEST, 2017).

An important point for our project is the possibility to measure movements/heartbeats so inspired by the FitBit bracelet we decided to work with these kind of movement sensors. These movement sensors can be divided into two groups: acceleration sensor and gyroscope sensors. These are little elements, which are built into electronic components to form the whole movement sensor. They belong to the MEMS-components (micro-electro-mechanical-systems). While the acceleration sensors are measuring the linear movement in all three layers (muscle till blood vessels) the gyroscope sensors are analysing the rotation of these movements. Because these sensors work analogue to each other they can discover all different kinds of body movements with the received data. Through different amplitudes one can see for example the movement of arteries at the leg and if it is a constant stimulation (i.e. jogging) or if a medical danger exists (i.e. heart attack) (FITNESS TRACKER TEST, 2017).

Image: Single elements of a FitBit Braclet (Morrison, Elvidge, & Gingerich, 2016).

Image: FITNESS TRACKER TEST, . (2017). FITNESSARMBAND, PULS- & SPORTUHREN VERGLEICH - Funktionsweise (How FitBit Works). [Illustration]. retrieved from https://www.fitness-tracker-test.info/wp content/uploads/2015/01/funktions-weise.

Image: Morrison, J., Elvidge , J., & Gingerich, M. (2016). Fitbit Alta Teardown. [Photograph]. , retrieved from http://www.chipworks.com/about-chipworks/overview/blog/fitbit-alta-teardown.

Fitbit, Inc. (2017). Our slimmest, most stylish heart rate tracker. Retrieved from https://www.fitbit.com/de/home.

Website article: Temperature Sensors Market (IndustryARC, 2016).

While I was trying to understand temperature sensors I also found this report. It was published 2016 by IndustryARC and analyses all different types of sensors and their structure within the field of various industries for example automobiles, metal manufacturing, and consumer electronics etc. This summary of the report helped me to realizing how important temperature controlling will be in the future. Even if we as a group decided to not work with these sensors I still believe they will become more and more “trend” in the future. 

Image:  Temperature Sensor Market Revenue (IndustryARC Analysis and Experts Insights, 2016) 

Image: IndustryARC Analysis and Experts Insights. (2016). Temperature Sensor Market Revenue. [Illustration]. Retrieved from http://industryarc.com/Report/123/global-temperature-sensors-market.html.

Image: Weekly Group Meeting (Kothoefer, 2017).

Today we had our third group meeting for our term project. The group members presented their research and development steps about different subjects.  We then discussed what kind of research information we include to our main project idea. We also formed a framework around our idea what will be presented to our tutor tomorrow to get more feedback.

My general research was about all the electronic components that are possible to include into material. I found quite a lot and presented it through videos from youtube and articles from different websites. After a discussion what we will include in our idea, we then formed topics, which needs more detailed research. Therefore I am going to have a look on micro GPS sensors. Researching different topics is something what I really like to do so you can imagine that you will see a lot of technical research at this blog..

After just 3 weeks of working together I need to say that the communication and interaction between my group works good. Everyone listens to the member who is talking, explaining and presenting. It also makes me feel really relaxed and comfortable as an international student that nobody is ashamed to ask “dumb” questions. Through that we created an efficient and good feeling environment.