Sean Greenslade's Progress

Here is a small report on the different parts of all the projects I've been working on since December.

ICCI
This is my main group, and I've done several things for it. My main achievement is puck circuit 2.0. Using what I learned from building the previous circuit, I improved the design of the 2.0 circuit. The circuit itself is more compact, allowing an extra battery to be included. Along with moving the heat spreader, the circuit had some small layout changes to improve the design.
On the software side, I modified the mouse control application to accept calibration directly from the puck. This makes having an extra "calibration pen" unnecessary.

Dehumidifier
For this group, I built a two-part system. One part is a relay-controlled AC outlet. This allows a low-power circuit to control a wall power appliance, like a dehumidifier, without risking electrocution. The other part is the circuit itself. This circuit monitors the humidity of the room with a digital sensor and controls the dehumidifier based on the measured value. It has expansion capabilites, so it can be modified to read soil moisture and control a water pump.

Misting System
For this group, I have been an electrical advisor. I have aided them in designing the power systems for their pumps, helping them keep it safe and effective.

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Elevator Pitches

Prior to the InvenTeam going on Winter Recess this coming week, we decided to create and present an initial elevator pitch for each project. An elevator pitch is a short explanation or description of a project or invention, usually focusing on its market value or advantage over current products. The idea is that the project can be explained in under two minutes (the average time of an elevator ride). Elevator pitches are often used by entrepreneurs to explain an idea to investors in order to receive funding.

Following is an elevator pitch for each of our three projects:

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ICCI Product Development

On Friday Jill, Sean, and I met with Nancy Wheeler from the Greenberg Child Care Center at Skidmore College. We presented our project to her in hopes of testing our system prototype there. She told us what she thought of our project and gave us ideas and suggestions on how to improve it. She also told us about how they currently use computers and showed us around the facility. 
She was very interested in having us test our system there and we hope to set up a date within the next few weeks. We are very excited about this opportunity and await further feedback about our system. 

The Greenberg Child Center

Where we would set up our system.

The computer they currently use.

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Mid-Year Meeting

On Thursday, we had our Mid-Year skype conference with Ellen Dickenson. We gave her a PowerPoint presentation on our current progress, goals, and community service progress. She gave us comments and suggestions on our projects and business proposals.
We also found out that Ellen and others from the Lemelson-MIT Foundation will be visiting our school on March 9th. We will be doing a presentation for them and attending a Lemelson-MIT Foundation scholarship presentation that night at RPI as well. We plan to accomplish a lot in the next month as we are nearing the final stages of our project.

The link to the scholarship ceremony:
http://www.eng.rpi.edu/lemelson/

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ICCI Demo with Computer Game

This video shows how this system can be used with computer games that currently exist. In the video you can see Joey playing Backyard Baseball, a computer game from 1997. Of course in our system the puck will be used on the ground not help up in the air, but for visibility purposes we chose to present it this way.

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