ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : Hydration monitor in water bottles

Dohun Jeong (dohunj2) Bear Bissen (bbissen2)

Infrared sensor in the bottom of the lid and feedback on top of the lid

1. Introduction
   
   
   1. Statement of Purpose
      
      We aim to give people an interactive solution to control their water intake. We create a lid that measures water level within a bottle to monitor people's hydration level throughout the day. Our system has an advantage in that our whole system will be on the lid, and therefore will be easy to make multiple cases compatible for different types of water bottles (even if we don't make the actual bottles).
      
      
   2. Background Research
      
      75 percent of Americans suffer from chronic dehydration 1. There is a Kickstarter project called Gululu that targets kids' market 1. It uses inclinometer (which measures pitch and roll) and motion detector to find out if the child is drinking water or simply pouring it out. However, it contains lots of extraneous features, which only drains battery. We are trying to make a simpler solution. 
      
      
2. Design Details
   
   
   1. Block Diagram / Flow Chart / Timeline
      
      
      
      
   2. System Overview
      The power supply will give the water bottle the necessary power to use its sensors and and actuators.
      The microprocessor will keep track of and process data.
      The motion detector will take input from the environmental condition of the water bottle and give that information to the processor.
      The buttons will allow the user to select and enter information.
      The LCD screen will display the hydration level.
      The infrared emitter will bounce off the water in the water bottle and the sensor will detect it. This will be used to determine the hydration level.
      
      
3. Parts
   
   We need a battery, an infrared sensor, an infrared emitter, a LCD screen/wireless communication device, buttons (for user feedback). We may also need a motion detector so we will know when to turn on/turn off infrared sensor. We also will need a water proof receptacle to contain the water.
   
   
4. Possible Challenges
   
   We need to find a way to figure out if the person is drinking the water or pouring it out. We also need to consider when the water bottle is tilted. Configuring the data could be challenging. Inside material of the bottle may skew sensor data. Calibration? 
   
   
5. References
   1 "Gululu | the interactive bottle that keeps kids hydrated", Kickstarter, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gululu/gululu-the-interactive-bottle-that-keeps-kids-hydr/description. [Accessed: 22- Sep- 2016].
6. Weekly Update
   1. 11/28/2016 We tried out the optical reflection sensor that Oscar suggested. However, the sensor's detection range was too small (less than 8cm) so we decided to stick with our original plan of using a separate IR receiver/emitter. We also worked on a pseudocode for the monitoring software. Bear found that the ideal amount of water that we should drink is around 8 ounces every two hours. So we'll reflect that on the code when we return next week. 
   2. 11/14/2016 Demo day! We mostly worked on making sure that the prototype was up and running. We decided to add a button last minute so that the LED light indicating the water level will flash only if the button is pressed. We placed the button next to ground so that we only had to install one button instead of three. During the presentation, some of the suggestions that came up were to: use the reflective sensor instead of separate IR receiver and emitter and to learn to print a PCB board for the next semester. 
   3. 11/7/2016 Our goal was to create a working prototype. We realized why the Arduino wasn't reading the values correctly. The code wasn't uploading to our mini board. Because we have a demo due next week, we decided to abandon our mini board and prototype with our RedBoard. Our code worked very well and we got a prototype where the color of the LED changes depending on the distance that the IR sensor detects. Our next step is to implement a software that actually tracks cumulative amount of water that the user consumed and display the LED accordingly. 
   4. 10/31/2016 Our goal was to implement a working program involving the IR sensor and the LEDs. The first obstacle we encountered was trying to connect the Arduino mini board into our breadboard. We had to solder on the pin headers to make the circuit work properly. Meanwhile we wrote the code to print IR receiver value and turn on all LEDs just to make sure the connections are working. Serial monitor is spitting out weird values of IR receiver voltage. We used to voltmeter to find that the IR receiver is working, but the Arduino is not reading it correctly. Even after 
   5. 10/24/2016 We received our Arduiono Pro Mini board. We realized that we didn't order an adaptor that can connect the mini Arduino to a computer, so we are hooking the mini board to the Arduino board we already had and uploading the code through there. 
   6. 10/17 Our objective is to create an analog circuit so that if the water level is low, the blue LED (and the blue one only) will turn on and if the water level is in the middle, the green LED will turn on and if the water level is high, red LED will turn on. We obtained three comparator chips for the analog design version.
      Our challenge is to turn off the other ELDs while turning one appropriate one on. We anticipate to receive our mini Arduino by next week.
   7. 10/14 Our goal was to order all the parts necessary. We realized that we already have most of the parts necessary to build our prototype: IR emitter/receiver, and three color LEDs. We looked up Sparkfun tutorial and was able to build the prototype without much  difficulty. Our next goal is to create a feedback system, potentially using LEDs. 
      
      FINAL REPORT IS ATTACHED HERE: