Blog #6 - The start of a Bigger Better Heart 2.0

 Deciding on the Final Project 

Dean Sinnott, 20067691 

This week, we held a standing group meeting to brainstorm potential directions for our end-of-year IoT project. The goal was to have an open discussion and figure out what direction interested everyone, based on what we’ve learned so far — especially our focus on input/output systems.

After some discussion, we agreed to build on the work from the previous class group, who had developed a heart rate monitoring system that used the data to change the orientation of a bottle filled with thick water, simulating ocean waves. Since our semester heavily emphasized inputs and outputs, we liked the idea of continuing that theme but pushing for low latency and a more graphical multi-display dashboard using micro:bits.

However, we quickly ran into a challenge: there were a lot of big ideas, but not a lot of time. While some group members were extremely enthusiastic and willing to work outside class hours, we agreed that keeping the project within class time was a more sustainable and fair approach. The main difficulty was making sure everyone understood the need to limit scope so we could finish something that worked reliably - instead of trying to merge every idea and falling short.

We also thought about how this project might continue into future years. A lot of the work we've done so far has been quite code-heavy and networking-focused, which may not be accessible to every student who joins the module later. That led to a discussion about low-code and no-code approaches, which could allow new students to contribute more easily without needing deep technical backgrounds. We didn’t want Jason, the module lecturer, to have to relearn an entirely different stack just to support new groups. Making the project modular and approachable is key to keeping it going.

By the end of the meeting, we hadn’t locked in a final plan, but we had narrowed things down to two strong concepts:

  1. A multi-micro:bit dashboard to display real-time heart rate data in a simple visual format.

  2. Using an RTC (real-time clock) module with FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) to explore converting heart rate signals into sound waves for ultra-fast data transfer.

It’s still early, but this discussion helped us align expectations and start thinking critically about accessibility, and realistic goals.





















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iteration 2 | Jack | HRV Micro:bit Research

Image
Iteration #2 - Micro: Bit Research & HRV Jack Duggan | 20094010 | IOT Apps For the second iteration sprint of the module, I got hands-on with the Micro:bit. I had previously used these devices way back in secondary school for Leaving Certificate Computer Science, so the basics came back to me fairly quickly. We were sent home to 'research' the Micro:bit, and become familiar with it's basic functionality, before class on Friday the 2nd of February. In the class, I worked alone (as we had an odd number of students present) with a Micro:bit V2, an expansion board for the Microbit, and a heart rate sensor. Above is the physical setup Below is the device output screen with my finger on the sensor. The top graph shows my pulse as analogue input as identified by the sensor. Some mathematics is performed (as shown under the below graph) that converts these pulse values to HRV (delta_t). This HRV value is then displayed on the 'boxier looking' graph underneath. The way t...
Read more

Iteration 5.2 | Lock In | Jack

Image
Iteration 5.2 | The Lock-In 🔒 Jack Duggan | 20094010 | 10/05/2024 The "lock-in" was something initially devised months ago, an idea that involved taking a couple of days towards the end of the semester to commit fully to this module. As the semester began to wind up in terms of general workload, it became increasingly apparent that this "lock-in" would be necessary. In week 10/11 when we finally set it in stone, it was a great relief off all of all shoulders, knowing it was one less module to stress about, especially with already rampant workload due in week 12/13. With the lock-in pencilled in for the second week of May, it allowed myself and the others to put increased focus on other modules, and helped reduce the stresses we faced at this time. Eventually, the lock-in week did come around, and I and the others arrived in the room on Tuesday 7th May at 10am sharp. We had split into two teams, one team consisting of Emma, Conor and Eric that would look at adding H...
Read more

Week 1: HRV Review

Image
  What is it? Heart rate variability (HRV) is the measure of the variation between heartbeats. It is controlled by your autonomic nervous system (ANS). This system operates automatically and regulate process such as the heart rate and other bodily functions that are are not under conscious control. This system is broken into two branches the flight or fight (which preparing the body for action and stress) and the rest + digest (which promotes relaxation + recovery). HRV is influenced by the ability to smoothly shift between these two branches.  High HRV: Larger difference between successive heartbeats - Indicates a more flexible and adaptable autonomic nervous system.  Low HRV: Smaller differences between successive heartbeats - Indicates a less flexible autonomic nervous system.                                                ...
Read more