Bret

Daily work log 11/8/16

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Today I open up the extension cord to see what I was going to be working with. I expected two solid pieces of copper instead, I found many very skinny pieces.  Will need to consult with kyle about how to go about working from this point on.

Daily work log 11/2/16

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Went to home depot and found a very help person who was knowledgeable in electronics.  I have decided to use an extension cord as the backbone of my non-invasive device.  I will plug both the power source of the Arduino and the washing machine into the extension cord, then open up the extension cord to read the voltage of the washing machine. I am working and talking to kyle about different technique with resistors to bring the voltage down to a readable amount and then using the Arduino’s built in 0-5V reader to read the voltage.   Began working with online bread board and Arduino simulators to begin testing.

Daily Work Log 10/31/16

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Just wrapping the wires around the cord, doesn’t work, neither does attaching the wires to the prongs of the plug.  I am thinking about going to an electrician or home depot to find someone who knows where to measure the voltage

Progress Update as of 10/19/16

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I’ve obtained an Arduino uno board and have been working and messing around with the sensors given to me.

Also, I have obtained a Watts up meter and have watched and measured the voltage used during different cycles and different machines.  I have arrived at the conclusion that any Voltage over 100V indicates that a machine is running.

Up next is getting a voltage or current sensor for the Arduino board and working to connect the board to the wifi.

Project Topic

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Project Idea (Charlie is the Advisor):

Developing some sort of hardware/software combination that would allow for monitoring of washers and dryers on Earlham’s campus. I would then create an app of some sort so that students could go on to the app and be able to 1) get notifications when a machine is done 2) look to see which machines are available so that they do not have to make the trek to their closest washing machine only to find out that that the machines are all taken.  Right now, my idea for the hardware is just a machine that is plugged into the outlet at the same spot as the machine, kind of like an adaptor, and will broadcast a signal telling whether the machine is running or not.  The software will then simply read the broadcast to determine if a machine is running or not.

Project Ideas

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<!–Idea 1:

Developing some sort of hardware/software combination that would allow for monitoring of washers and dryers on Earlham’s campus. I would then create an app of some sort so that students could go on to the app and be able to 1) get notifications when a machine is done 2) look to see which machines are available so that they do not have to make the trek to their closest washing machine only to find out that that the machines are all taken.  Right now, my idea for the hardware is just a machine that is plugged into the outlet at the same spot as the machine, kind of like an adaptor, and will broadcast a signal telling whether the machine is running or not.  The software will then simply read the broadcast to determine if a machine is running or not.
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Idea 1:

 

Developing a piece of software that is able to perform population estimation by scraping information from popular sites. I would most likely scrape instagram posts with tags, twitter posts that mention a location, facebook photos with location tags, and also if possible recent google searches regarding the location.  For instance, if 1000 people in the last day had searched on google, food locations on Miami beach, it is a good predictor that a high proportion of those 1000 people are visiting Miami beach in the near future.  Then a person would use my piece of software to say, search how busy Miami beach on that day, and a predictor of how busy it will be in the near future. This approach would require a lot of probability into the calculations.

 

Idea 3:

 

This idea would be the same concept as idea 2, but instead of scraping information, i would obtain the location information (or create fake data as charlie suggested) and process that data to then provide a more accurate depiction of the population at a location at any given moment.  The predictive capability will then be based on past data that i had collected.