Project Partners:
Jason Chang (jasonjc3, ECE110)
Owen Zhang
Taiyuan Hu (taiyuan2, ECE110)
Introduction
Statement of Purpose
Our project aims to turn the everyday chair into a more comfortable, convenient "smart" device that can respond to human input. Because of the ubiquity of chairs, this has real life applications ranging from the workplace to movie theaters. The primary objective of our project is to raise or lower the chair and armrests, as well as the tilt of the backrest, upon a certain weight being detected. Upon detecting a specific change in posture (by measuring different points of pressure and how they change), the chair will enable "sleep mode", creating a more comfortable environment for the user. Potential additions may include a fan and fingerprint / bluetooth recognition to personalize the chair, which would be needed to implement this into lecture halls, movie theaters, etc. This is useful as it removes the need to adjust the chair, especially in a shared environment. We plan on building a small model of the chair first to ensure the programming runs smoothly, before migrating to a real size chair.
Background Research:
There are numerous studies alluding to the importance of posture, not only for physical health but also for studying and work. Our group looked not only at chair studies, but also drew inspiration from the SleepNumber mattress, which changes shape based on the user's posture and preference. Similarly, our chair aims to alleviate posture issues across a wide range of people. In addition, our chair would complement the "smart home" system, a market that is currently growing.
Design Details
Block Diagram
System Overview
There are two main components to the smart chair-the base of the chair, and the back of the chair. As certain thresholds are passed by the pressure sensors on the base of the chair, the microcontroller will raise or lower the chair incrementally, with higher pressure corresponding to more height raised. On the back of the chair, rather than using purely the net pressure calculated by the sensors, the arduino will take in the distribution of the pressure; if the pressure distribution changes from bottom heavy (normal sitting) to top heavy (head against chair), then the chair will tilt back into sleep/rest mode, while elevating the legrest.
Parts
- Chair
- Pressure Sensors
- Arduino/Raspberry Pi
- Motors
Possible Challenges
Programming the microcontroller to recognize different pressure distributions may be a challenge, as none of us have extensive experience with Arduino/Raspberry Pi.
Communicating with the phone through bluetooth.
References
[1]S. Co. and S. Co., "How Seating Ergonomics Affect Student Learning - Smith Files", Smith System Blog, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://smithsystem.com/smithfiles/2014/08/06/seating-ergonomics-affect-learning/. [Accessed: 22- Sep- 2018].
[2]L. Viani, "Math + good posture = better scores | SF State News", News.sfsu.edu, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://news.sfsu.edu/news-story/math-good-posture-better-scores. [Accessed: 22- Sep- 2018].
[3]"Sleep Number", Sleepnumber.com, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.sleepnumber.com/articles/back-pain-study. [Accessed: 22- Sep- 2018].
[4]F. Richter, "Infographic: U.S. Leads the Way in Smart Home Adoption", Statista Infographics, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/chart/3919/smart-home-adoption/. [Accessed: 22- Sep- 2018].
Attachments:
ECE110 block diagram.xml (text/xml)
ECE110 Block diagram.png (image/png)
bluetooth_stepperlogic.ino (application/octet-stream)
ECE Honors Final Report Smart Chair.pdf (application/pdf)
Posted by mnwilso2 at Sep 25, 2018 10:03