Beholder

Early stage construction

Inspiration

Our idea for a sonar-based hack came from disassembling different hardware that we happened to have on hand and figuring out how it could be used. Initially we planned to build a belt for the blind, and people who look at their phone while walking, to warn of potential collisions. After discovering what would be available at the Hackathon, we re-purposed our hack to be for those wearing an Oculus Rift.

What it does

The sonar sends an analog signal of varying voltage in indicate the distance the sound wave traveled after adjusting for temperature. Then the Arduino calculates the velocity of the nearest object relative to the wearer by comparing the difference in distance with the previous readings and if the object is too close or if the object would hit the wearer under an adjustable time frame a signal is sent to a speaker which emits a frequency based on the distance of the obstacle.

How we built it

We first tested our major components using a breadboard. Then, after fully attaching the various components we wrote the code to convert the data the sonar gave to evaluate velocity and distance of potential obstacles. The enclosure was made of wood, designed in Solidworks and engraved and cut to leave room for the sonar to operate properly while keeping it compact.

Challenges we ran into

Without any prior experience in circuits, Arduinos, sonars, or laser cutting, we learned many new things during our first hackathon. We were also missing critical components on the first day due to delayed shipping we had to improvise by writing psuedocode.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As a group of freshman, we accomplished a lot more than we expected from our first hackathon. We're proud of the fact that we managed to get everything that we planned to implement working by the end of the hackathon despite having little to no previous experience with the physical side of EECS.