Project C.O.D.I. | Overview, Current Proof of Concept, and Next Steps

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What is Project C.O.D.I.?

The name Project C.O.D.I comes from an acronym for Computerized Obstacle Detection Interface and its named after a 9 year old boy named Cody.  It's an assistive piece of wearable technology that is adapted from Music: Not Impossible technology, and its built into a Superhero costume.  Cody's superhero costume will help him compensate a rare disease known as peroxisome biogenesis disorder, that will cause him to lose his sight and hearing, by allowing him to feel what his eyes can no longer see and his ears no longer hear.  Most people with P.B.D. are not expected to live past the age of 10.  At the age of 9, Cody appears to be a special case, his condition appears to be stable, although that can change at any time. PBD has already cost him his peripheral vision and he's on the verge of profound deafness.

Current Proof of Concept

The current proof of concept we are sharing is one of multiple implementations envisioned for project Cody.   There are many many individual pieces that will create a mesh network progressing upwards to a wearable set of gauntlets, ankle wraps and vest (a set of sensor nodes).   This will allow sensor streams from one node to inform the other, e.g., the signal from the left gauntlet could inform the right and vice versa.

The mesh would be able to do the following:

• Minimize crosstalk between different nodes
• Merge the streams of all of the nodes to expand the field of view (map of the world)
• Predict in real-time how Cody will move through the mapped world and inform him accordingly

Wrist Wearable Proof of Concept

The current proof of concept we are sharing is one of multiple implementations envisioned for project Cody.   There are many many individual pieces that will create a mesh network progressing upwards to a wearable set of gauntlets, ankle wraps and vest (a set of sensor nodes).   This will allow sensor streams from one node to inform the other, e.g., the signal from the left gauntlet could inform the right and vice versa.

Figure 1:	Figure 2:
The motor driver and the microcontroller (purple board, leftside center) connected to: 2 ERM haptic motors (blue, above and below the purple board a USRF and TOF (right, center, TOF is the rightmost board, USRF is adjacent) an ambient light sensor on the backside of the wearable (red, blue & black braided wires)   Velcro straps allow the wearable to be easily applied.  The device is powered by a lipo battery (not shown).	The Backside of C.O.D.I Wrist Wearable Proof of Concept.   Visible above is the ambient light sensor which connects to the microcontroller on the palmside of the wearable   (red, blue, & black braided wires)

Figures 1 & 2 consist of a device that is mounted to a wrist guard.  The device uses both a time of flight sensor (TOF) and ultrasonic range finder (USRF) to measure the distances and then maps the distances to haptic vibrations.

The device has a narrow field of view allowing the wearer to move their hand, point the deviec, and feel the distance in the direction their hand is pointing.

Mapping is done using an inverse logarithmic function:

Figure 3:

Mapping of Distane to Vibration Strength.   Left: a remapping of the full sensor range to normalized motor output.   Distance is remapped using a decaying logarithmic function.   Right: A zoom of the first 50mm of sensing range.  While changes in vibration strength occur at a distance the majority of quantization is concentrated in the near field.

Next Steps

There are multiple implementations envisioned for Project C.O.D.I.

The C.O.D.I wearable system would consist of a set of gauntlets, ankle wraps, and vest (a set of sensor nodes).

Figure 4

Sketch of C.O.D.I. Wearables - The Body Layout     Wearables (shaded) displayed from posterior view (Left), anterior view (Center), left side view (Right).     Range sensors for vest can be seen in left and center views (yellow dots). For the wrist wearable, the approximate sensor emission location can be seen in the anterior view (darkened area).  This can also be seen in Figure 5.  For the wrist wearable it is important to shift the sensor as far back as possible in order to prevent interference from the fingers.  For the ankle wearable, the approximate sensor emission location can be seen in the anterior and left side views.  The approximate sensor spread pattern can be seen in the left side view.  The foot (pink), near (orange), & far (yellow) sensor fields for the ankle wearable are visible in the left side view.

Figure 5:	Figure 6:
Sketch of Wrist Wearable   The approximate sensor emission location for the wrist wearable can be seen in the center view (darkened area).   For the wrist wearable it is important to shift the sensor as far back as possible in order to prevent interference from the fingers.	Sketch of C.O.D.I. Ankle Wearable with Proposed Throw Patterns.   For the ankle wearable there are three distinct sensor fields of view. The first, the foot field, pink rays above, will be used to monitor the articulation of the foot with respect to the lower leg. The second, near field, the orange rays above, will project slightly in front of the foot and will be used to find the next stair/step. The third, far field, yellow rays above, will be used.

Feature List:

To fully enable the abilities described above in The Plan, the below feature will be needed.  Future features will likely improve accuracy robustness by including additional sensors and prior knowledge.

Minimum Requirements:

• Durability
  • Dust resistance, Waterproof, Impact Resistance IP672 minimum
• Power
  • Rechargeable power, 8hrs between charges
  • Wireless Qi charging
• Usability
  • Nodes (gauntlets, ankle wraps, vest) can act independently but will automatically detect and partner with other nodes.
  • Work in a wide range of lighting from pitch black to studio lighting and daylight.
• Sensors:
  • TOF
  • Ultrasonics
  • 9DOF / Accelerometer / Gyroscope / Magnetometer
    • Absolute orientation module e.g. BNO055
  • Ambient Light
  • Microphones
• Haptics
  • LRA

Future features:

• Sensors:
  • Temperature - Thermal Camera
  • GPS
• Communication
  • Cellular
• Integration
  • google maps/street view

Project C.O.D.I. |  Schematics, Arduino IDE Sketch, B.O.M, and Eagle Files!