Technova Hackathon '22

tldr:

Fidgie Qlickr is our team's, Hackuna Matata's, submission for the 2022 Technova Hackathon. We developed a smart fidget toy using SolidWorks, Arduino C, Figma, React Native and Matlab.

What:

We, as a team, developed a smart fidget toy with various fidgeting features such as a joystick, clicker button and a slider that collects usage data through push buttons and potentiometers which is wirelessly sent to an app via an ESP32 board.

The app uses an algorithm coded in MATLAB to analyze the data to provide users with several insights such as frequency of use, periods of intense use, which feature is used more often etc.

An app prototype was developed on Figma to create a layout of the user interface with pleasing visuals. (check out the images on the right)

We also worked on making an actual app using Native React that involves setting up an account, answering questions to personalize user experience and view all data insights.

Why:

The theme of the hackathon was "Bridging the Gap", and our idea was based on increasing accessibility in tech. Fidget toys are a very common tool people use to help them focus and our goal was to improve on an already popular product and make it 'smart'.

As a mechanical engineering student, I wanted to build or at least plan a hackathon project that involves a physical aspect. I found a team (who are actually my friends) that shared my vision. We were a multidisciplinary team from mech, tron and syde; and with this idea concept, everyone was able to contribute a unique skill from their respective program.

How:

We spilt the project into 6 phases

Everyone worked on the research phases. We found ample amounts of research that support the viability of our idea.

My area of focus was the 3D CAD model and and analyzing the data.

I made a quick sketch of what the model should look like. I made sure to add a variety of fidgeting features along with an ergonomic design. I quickly modelled everything on SolidWorks and made sure the product had a appealing look. I made sure that the interior of the model had enough space to house all the hardware components by using component CAD models from an online source.

Check out the model on the side!

Next, I focused on analyzing the data that was transmitted by the ESP32. The hardware was set up in a way such that it would send data in the form of numbers as shown in the figure on the right.

The first column acts as an identifier as to what component the numbers in the row refer to. In this case, 1 refers to the clicker button and 2 refers to the slider. The second column refers to the number of milliseconds that have passed since turning on the toy and the third column refers to the value that was received by the respective hardware component.

I coded the algorithm on MATLAB to analyze the frequency of clicks per second and how intensely the slider was being used based on the speed of the movement. All data was represented in the form of graphs. Check out the graphs below!

Check out the links below to read a more detailed overview of our project:

What did I learn:

Although we didn't win, we had A LOT of fun working on this project. It was my first time using MATLAB in a project and I was blown away by how useful MATLAB actually is. A small algorithm that would take 10+ lines of code in any other language only took 1 in MATLAB. I look forward to learning more about MATLAB and becoming proficient in the language.

I loved working in a multidisciplinary team and learning so much from my friends. 

Shoutout to Sarah, Beverly and Tiffany for being amazing teammates! <3

What's next:

The hackathon is over but I wouldn't mind coming back to this project and finishing it if my team ever has time together.