Week 11 brought our class a full period of time to work on our group projects. Each group worked diligently on their projects for two hours before coming together and updating the class on the progress made. Each project seems to be coming along nicely for all of our groups, with a wide-ranging spectrum of objectives. Because we had no guest speaker or other new learnings this week, the week’s summary will focus on each group project’s prototype development.

Steering Wheel Attachment

The steering wheel attachment team (my group) began printing the key components of the base clamp for the device designed to ease the steering of physically impaired drivers. The group printed two major components successfully and added attachments to be finished printing after the class ended. Once all parts are printed successfully, the group plans to assemble the pieces and create the first version of the steering wheel attachments. Then, they’ll make modifications as necessary.

People Counter

The people counter team made excellent progress towards a working prototype this week when they successfully uploaded code to an Arduino. The group was able to get lights to blink at the push of a button, one step closer to achieving a light upon the passing by of a sensor. The group is now focusing on tackling that challenge in addition to the storing of values so that entrants may be tracked over time by store owners.

Hydroponic Vertical Garden

The first of our two vertical garden teams worked with MeshMixer to design printable housing parts to hold the indoor plants. The group successfully printed a drip nozzle and bottle cage and is looking forward to completing their prototyping pieces next week. This team realized it should shift their prototype to house four plants instead of eight upon learning how long their prints would take.

Customizable Earphone Grips

Team synergy recently made a pivot in their project direction when they learned that their solar-powered hot plate would not create enough energy to keep a beverage warm. Pivoting is a part of the design process, and this group made an excellent decision in abandoning its old idea once they knew it would not be sustainable.  The team has decided now to create customizable earphone grips that clip onto any pair of headphones and secure onto the ears of the user.

Coffee Pour Over Assistant

The coffee pour team is creating a system to easily pour coffee without human assistance. This week they decided to divide their system into two halves, top and bottom. They printed slides that the coffee can flow through as a placeholder until they can find a material that can better withstand hot water.

Vertical Garden

The second vertical garden team is building a garden to grow small plants and printed a base that will catch water. There are multiple pots in this garden with columns to hold up each pot and a box for Arduino sensors. They completed some of the wirings for their box as well as the printed base for the entire product during the week and are moving forward in their prototyping phase nicely.

Weekly Reading

Our weekly reading ties in quite closely with our work in class. The article discusses the many steps of prototyping: Finding test subjects, preparing the test, the test environment, testing, and updating the prototype.

As a class, we are in the ‘preparing the test’ phase during which we are printing the necessary materials and determining the testing subjects needed in order to successfully begin the test. Last week, each group finalized a project testing plan outlining who their subjects are, and how they would administer the test. In highlighting the ‘preparing the test’ phase, Marty Cagan writes about making assumptions and asking the right questions. These two ideas go hand-in-hand because asking the right questions allows project testers to eliminate their biased assumptions. These assumptions can become the demise of a project, which may not be solving the right problem in the first place.

Cagan also suggests asking initial testers what they might be willing to pay for a product if upgraded beyond the initial prototype. This allows creators to get a gauge of the value of what their product. Later on, the article stresses the importance of updating the prototype once feedback is obtained. Everything we have learned up to this point indicates that the best method to successful prototyping is to do so quickly, without worrying about perfecting the design. The faster we can prototype, the faster we can obtain feedback, and the faster we can improve upon our designs.

This week in class we were able to make a lot of progress on all of our projects. Although only 2 of us were there out of our group, we made an initial design for our coffee pour over assistant. We decided to separate the product into two parts. The bottom part, which consists of the four legs that support the object and it is also where you place the filter and coffee grinds. It was difficult to decide how tall to make it because coffee cups are all different sizes. Ultimately, we decided to make this portion of the product customizable so when we make the design open to everyone, the person printing it can decide how tall they want to make the legs. The picture shows the beginning of the 3D print for the bottom half of the assistant.

We were also able to cut out the part for the coffee filter pretty easily. We simply cut a filter into the top part of the bottom half. Next, we began work on the top half of the coffee pour over assistant. This is where the user will pour the water and it will slowly drip over the coffee grinds. We decided to have two slides that the water will drip through. The top one has several larger holes placed around the circle to slow down the water a little bit. The next slide will consist of much smaller holes which will control the water flow much more. The picture shows the beginning of the 3D print for the larger holes that the water will flow through. Because this is a prototype we printed it with the material in the MakerLab. When we create our final product we will use a different material that can withstand hot water over several uses.

I was doing some research to find out which materials people use in the 3D printing world to use with hot water. I found a website with a discussion on the topic. I think I will also go to the FabLab and talk with the gurus there to see what they think would be the best material to use.

In the upcoming weeks my group plans to test our product with users and see what we need to change with the original design. We will also gather material to use for the top half of the design that can withstand the hot water and not potentially leak toxins into the water. More to come in the upcoming weeks!

After some deliberation, my group (Team Synergy) has decided to pursue a different project idea. We realized that our original design for a solar-powered hot plate would not be able to generate a sufficient amount of energy to keep a beverage warm, so we decided to switch gears and try to make customizable earphone grips instead.

We’ve begun the prototyping process in efforts to catch up with the rest of the class, and are playing around with multiple ideas as of now. While we don’t have photos to share as yet, we’re trying to create something that will clip onto any pair of earphones and then wrap around the user’s ear to hold it in place. We were hoping to get the exact measurements of each users’ ear so that the grip has a customized fit. The original idea was to use 3D scans of each ear to come up with the right size grip to print, however, we realized that the scans have to be re-scaled anyway so there was no point in adding an additional step. We are now thinking of coming up with a base design and then tweaking it according to measurements we take by hand for each user.

Despite the fact that we’re behind schedule, I am trying to remind myself that our prototype does not need to be perfect when we test it for the first time. As the “Prototype Testing” article from SVPG advises, I think we’re going to have to rely on a highly iterative process of getting feedback and implementing changes before quickly retesting the product. It’s also very important for us to keep the test subjects in “use mode” as opposed to “critique mode” as the article suggests. We want to identify what will help make the product serve an actual use case, and then reposition it accordingly.

I’m looking forward to the next few days of prototyping and testing—we will certainly have more updates to share by next week!

Assigned Reading

This week’s assigned reading was all about the process behind prototype testing. I really learned a lot from this resource that I did not know before about the development/testing stages of a product build. One that that stuck out to me is three important use cases I need to be looking out for when I observe participants: “the user got through the task with no problem at all and no help; the user struggled and moaned a bit but he eventually got through it; he got so frustrated he gave up.”

Each of these categories provide valuable insight into understanding how a given test subject interacts with the product we created. In our case, with our steering wheel assist tool, we will be closely monitoring our test subjects in a closed environment (parking lot) to observe the way they install and use the tool. It was helpful to understand more insights behind testing.

Class Reflection

As my peers and I begin to learn more about various 3D printing software and the various capacities of it, we are also delving deeper into our final projects – and making some fantastic progress! I am truly seeing the three pillars of this course come to life. The reflections of my classmates this past week really embodied the learn, make, and share culture of this course. The weekly reflection posts provide an opportunity for my classmates and I to share what we’ve learned and to also digitally collaborate with our peers to confirm and share new learning experiences.

This past week there were a lot of learned objectives. The first main one was to learn and use the Autodesk Meshmixer software. We did this by engaging in an activity of utilizing scanners from a company called Sense 3d. In class, the scanner was attached to an iPad. From there, our instructor demonstrated how to use the software to scan a human face. Although not perfect, the quality and efficiency was surprisingly high. One of my classmates Ajie noted that “it was amazing to see the shape of the scan appear in real time, as we circled around our classmates’ faces.” Introducing the software now, after all the hands-on experience we’ve already had with 3d printing software, allowed us to more deeply appreciate the power of the scanning software. Here is what a scanner attached to an iPad looks like:

The learning objective to learn the capabilities of Meshmixer and how it works was definitely achieved through the activity of scanning and 3D printing our faces. Scott noted that we learned how to “use cameras/sensors to scan physical objects and create digital representations of it” and Helen stated that “scanning technology opens up the possibilities for so many neat projects.” These are some of the few reflection statements taken from from my classmate’s posts highlighting how we learned and were inspired by 3D printing scanning technology.

The next major learning objective was to make tangible progress and improvements on our final project. In addition to having time in class to meet with our project teams and work on our final projects, we also dedicated time to presenting updates to the entire class. It was neat to first hear about the progress other teams were making and then to read about it later in the form of reflection posts online. I wanted to highlight where some of the final projects are at.

1. Hydroponic Vertical Window Farm:

I am very excited to see how this project turns out. I am absolutely fascinated by the capabilities of hydroponics. The project team behind this has already taken multiple trips to the Fablab to gather materials to begin building a prototype. In her post, Helen noted that the team “gathered an Arduino and other components needed to start programming the sensors.” Some of the software and resources we have learned about that this project team plans to use is Fusion 360 and the Fablab.

2. Steering wheel Knob

I am currently one of three students working on this project. We have made progress in finalizing our need group and our plan to go from design to creation. We plan to make customizable knobs that can be twisted onto an attachment that could be placed on any type of steering wheel. The bottom attachment (part that goes directly onto the steering wheel) would have an indentation jutting out of it that would allow for any knob to be twisted onto it. Here is a picture of what we are modeling our prototype after.

3. Pour Over Coffee Project

This project is focusing on creating a design that will make it easier to pour over coffee. The team noted that they want to be able to “create a design that can help control the speed at which the hot water from the pour-over coffee contraption is falling through to the actual coffee and mug.

So far, this course has been a wonderful learning experience. My classmates and I have definitely learned the power of 3D printing and all of its wonderful capabilities. I am beyond excited to see everyone’s final prototypes come to life in the coming weeks!

In class on Wednesday we learned about scanning and prototyping. We were shown how to use scanners that are attached to an iPad. We were shown how the technology renders and image of the person it scans which can then be modified and printed. I find the whole scanning process to be very useful as it saves so much time when you want to build off of something that exists rather than create a whole new model. I visited a maker lab in Israel that had amazing scanning technology with capabilities a lot more advanced than the scanners in class. It’s amazing to view the prototypes you can render just from a scan.

The video of Jay Leno’s garage was really cool because it showed the power that scanning can really have on an industry. They showed how they could scan a part they needed and rather than going out and buying it, they could produce it in-house and make it even better than one they would have bought. My dad is a carpenter and works with similar tools and equipment so it was interesting to see how 3D printing and scanning can impact all consumers. I did not get to make a scan of my own, but maybe I will have the opportunity next class.

Norman and I worked on our project for most of the class period. I am in charge of designing the prototype so I hopped on fusion 360 and got a good portion of our model finished. Norman was also able to find some of the parts he needed for the technological aspect of our project. I’m excited to finalize the design and really see it come to life!

This week was one of my favorite weeks in class. We started to learn how to scan and eventually 3D print those scans! We started with learning how to scan ourselves. I got the opportunity to scan one of my teammates, Jason. We used iPads with a Kinect. In order to scan, the person being scanned had to stay completely still while the scanner slowly moved 360 degrees around the person being scanned. After this process, we put the scans on the cloud and downloaded them to the computer. After cleaning the scans, we then got to 3D print it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to printing my face, but I got to see one of my classmates, Shayna’s come to life! The amount of detail the scan created was extremely impressive.

This week we also watched a video on 3D scanning with Jay Leno. He was trying to print a car part that broke/rusted over. He scanned it, then revamped it, and printed a new car part that was the correct dimensions and size! Doing this is less expensive and less tedious than finding a car part elsewhere. An important aspect of scanning is the process of reverse engineering. In the case of Jay Leno’s garage, he had a part that needed fixing because there wasn’t enough ventilation in the part, so after they scanned it, they added ventilation holes to the part, creating a new and improved car part.

In addition to scanning, we moved further along in our project planning. We made our Project Testing Plan and determined our test subjects. However, after some further research and talking to experts at the Fab Lab, we may want to change course for our final project.

Overall, this week was very informative and allowed my group and I to talk out the details of our project.

Class activities this week centered around 3d scanning technology and project prototyping. Vishal started off class by familiarizing everyone with 3d scanning technology and reverse engineering. This Lynda video does a great job demonstrating the technology’s capabilities. Our class experienced the technology first-hand with a 3D Systems scanner. This scanner attached to an iPad in order to utilize the local camera to collect the necessary data. I developed 3d scanned busts of my classmates with this tool and an app called ‘scanner’ on the iPad.

Due to the nature of scanning people and the complexity of our equipment, most of the scans I attempted were failures. However, I have some tips for those of you who have yet to try 3d scanning an object. First, try to remain the same distance from the object at all times during a scan. I attempted multiple scans in a narrow part of the classroom and noticed one side kept turning out better than the other. The quality of scans improved by going outside. Secondly, don’t be afraid to circle around somebody multiple times. The more data you feed into the software, you will generally get a better result. Lastly, try to stay away from direct light. The scan of my bust was 95% perfect besides a glaring hole at the tip of my nose. I theorize the brightness of the light reflecting off my nose confused the camera. Here is a picture of my bust.

Rather than re-scanning my bust, I can edit the previous version to fill in this hole. Using an editing software called MeshMixer, one can also fill in surface cracks, solidify the insides of the model, make a flat base, and export for eventual printing. I will post my finalized bust in next week’s post.

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Whilst others we scanning my fellow group members and I continued to work on our hydroponic drip system prototype. We have pretty much finalized our design unless an issue arises during user testing. I drafted the testing protocol and relevant questions in hopes of gathering any information we can use to improve the final product. I have never actually tested a physical prototype before so I’m anxiously waiting to get started. Now we are focused on actually building the prototype… easier said than done. I rummaged around in the basement at the FabLab and found a PVC pipe that we will use for the main support. Since we are essentially scavenging for materials, we have made a couple slight adjustments to the prototype. We are now planning to run the tubing up through the PVC pipe. The wooden hook we had planned on using now may be scrapped for a T-junction of PVC pipe. We have acquired a suitable sump pump from the FabLab that is capable of pumping water to the top of the apparatus. We met another guru at the FabLab that is a great resource for stability questions. I have yet to hear back from engineering faculty members that I reached out to for help with a pH sensor.

TL;DR The prototype is slowly being built, piece by piece.

Until next week,

Michael

This week in class we started by learning about how to scan objects and send them to the computer and eventually print them. First we all took scans of our busts using the iPad application and camera attached to the iPad. Then, we were able to send it to the computer where we could touch up the images of our busts to allow for a smoother printing process. I found a cool article about a man who also 3D printed himself for the Manchester Science Festival.

We also watched a video of Jay Leno in his garage where he scanned an object and was able to print a replica of that object. Before class this week and prior to watching the videos assigned for the week, I had no idea you could scan an object with a camera and be able to print it. This must be an incredible application, especially for manufacturing businesses that have several different parts that are either expensive or hard to find.

We also made progress on our projects this week. We were able to finalize the designs we have for our projects and start developing prototypes which can be tested later this week.  Our team was able to designate work to each member allowing us to be as efficient as possible. I am interested to see how our testing goes with our users, and hopefully they will find it beneficial.

This week I was not in class because I was in San Francisco for an interview. I was able to visit the BrightEdge office. This was a great experience being able to see a tech start-up office environment. Everyone is working very hard to stay competitive in the industry.

The USF Alliance for Integrated Spatial Technologies video was insightful and interesting. It discusses 3D picture capturing and being able to bring the data back and making it tangible. Elizabeth Salusky a marine biology Ph.D. student printed an oyster habit from the Q pro. She is using it to see how it attracts other oysters and how other animals use it as refuge spaces. I cannot believe it is possible to print these habitats. This shows how advanced 3D printing technology is moving and the opportunities for our future. Scientist are able to print their experiments testing beyond what they ever have before. I find printing living creatures/organs the most useful aspect of 3D printing because it will allow us to learn more about our bodies and human kind.

I decided to do further research about this ASIT program. I found another program similar to USF, but as University of California, Santa Cruz. The Center for Integrated Spatial Research is a similar program that uses spatial technology and methods. They do a lot of research with animals such as marine mammals, birds, and turtles. Also with climate change, this could help find solutions to environmental problems such as air pollution, gas leaks, contaminated bodies of water and overall reduce the carbon footprint. I really enjoyed learning more about these two programs. Attached is information about the UCSC program https://ugr.ue.ucsc.edu/CISR.