CSE 477 Spring 2014

The bottom of the case, with clips to hold it to the belt.

The top of the case. The upper compartment is to hold the PCB, and the lower compartment will hold the battery. The hole between the compartments is for running the wires for the battery. The gap in the wall of the PCB compartment is to expose the micro-USB connector.

The case from the side to show the shape of the clips.

The case lid, with a lip that will fit in the top of the PCB compartment.

This is just a first draft, and there's some things I need to improve. One idea we had is to have the battery be inserted through a larger hole in the PCB compartment, so that it's not exposed to the outside. We also want to have a switch that is engaged when the device is not being worn (i.e. when there's nothing in the belt clip). Our idea for that was to recess small buttons in the back surface of the case, and make the clips have posts on them that would actuate the buttons when the clips weren't being worn. However, I'm not sure how we would make this work, considering there wouldn't be a PCB surface to mount buttons to, and buttons of other mounting styles would be too bulky and deep. Other ideas we had for a "deadman" switch seemed too difficult to engineer in the time we have, and/or unreliable.

This is a weekly update on the iPhone app. I create an create incorporated some UI design from Zach. I used Core Data database to store the data from the actual device. Concretely, when iPhone sync with the device, all the data will be stored in the Core Data database in the iPhone. In the future, we could synchronize the local Cora Data databases to the cloud, so that user/authorized person can look at the data online.

We got some good feedback on what elements of the UI were liked, and what parts they didn't think were necessary. A summary:

• The Details screen included the same numbers as the Summary, which was unnecessary. It should focus on showing the breaks in sitting throughout the day as this is "one of the most important concepts for health benefits".
• They would like activity (walking/moving/etc) separated from standing time in the analysis.
• They currently use bar charts to show daily stats on how long a patient spent lying, sitting, standing, and moving, either with the bars separated or with them stacked on each other and distinguished by color.

The UCSD group also mentioned they would like a feature where the application asks patients how they are feeling throughout the day and tracks that as well; however, this would be a stretch to implement in the time we have available.

Based on the feedback, last week I drew a revised paper prototype for the Details and Week View screens. For the Week View I decided to use separate bars for lying, sitting, etc., but we could also stack them into a single bar for each day. This might make the UI less visually noisy, but I feel it could make it a little harder to compare the size of each bar between days.

For the Details screen, I filled in the graph with different shades to represent the different categories. In the finished version, this would be colored. The examples Dori sent us use a "stoplight" color scheme: red for sitting, yellow for standing, and green for moving. The examples from UCSD use the same color scheme, plus purple for sleeping time. We would probably adopt the same color scheme for our application.

For the next week, I plan to CAD up a case that will hold our battery and PCB. I've got some experience with Solidworks and with 3D printing so it should go fairly quickly once I figure out how to use the Dimension printer we've got in the lab. I'll need to figure out the precise dimensions of the battery and the PCB with our components attached, so that I can make a case that's compact but still fits everything. I'm planning to make the exterior gently curved, so that it will fit nicely on the hip, which will make the design somewhat more complex. Also, we'll need it to be in two pieces so we can put the hardware inside it, and the way those pieces will attach is still up in the air. We may resort to using one or two small screws to hold it together.

Edit: add the cycling data

In the past week, we were able to ordered most of the needed hardware, and I was able to use Eagle to start making custom PCB. Eagle has a lot of open source libraries for the hardware we ordered, yet I had to make my own libraries that I could not find online. For example, I made DC/DC buck converter TPS62730, and its footprint size is 1.5mm x 1.05mm, therefore even every little error could be critical.  I also made a library for KTIX9 accelerometer that is little bigger the DC buck converter. 

However, after talking with TA and Professor Patel, we decided not to use buck converter for two reason, the first one is it is not necessary to DC buck converter to make the system power efficient since the system will be operating with 3.3 V; the second reason the DC buck converter package is QFN, which in not human solderable. It is better off not to use. In conclusion, we will need finalize the both schematic and layout the PCB, and then launch 1x1 scale PCB on printing paper, and check if the parts we order fit into spots.

I didn't draw the interface for pairing the phone and the device yet. The part I'm most unsure of is the calendar display; It might be better to display the summary information on the calendar visually, rather than using numeric times.