Enclosure: Daedalus Technologies Project Proposal: Display Augmentation System

Transcription

1 T F Support Larry Zhao Cheif Executive Officer September 21, 2011 Andrew Rawicz School of Engineering Science Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 Re: ENSC 440, Project Proposal: Display Augmentation System Dear Mr. Rawicz: The attached document, : Display Augmentation System, provides an outline for our potential ENSC 440 project. Our objective is to create a dynamic product which can revolutionize how a visual display unit (VDU) operates, as well as improve its usability, functionality and convenience that it provides to its users. The proposal presents an overview of our Display Augmentation System. It outlines the design features, sources of information, budget and funding, team organization, and a projected timeline for completing the prototype. Additionally, it discusses the competitive advantage of the product on the market over current solutions. is founded by fifth year Engineering Science students: Larry Zhao, Ian Brown, Calvin Ho, and Jordan Angelov. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding our project proposal, please feel free to contact me by phone at (778) , by at lfz2@sfu.ca or at. Sincerely, Larry Zhao Cheif Executive Officer Enclosure: Project Proposal: Display Augmentation System Since Unversity Drive V5A 1S6 Burnaby B.C. CA

2 Project Proposal Display Augmentation System Prepared for: Andrew Rawicz (ENSC 440) Mike Sjoerdsma (ENSC 305) Simon Fraswer University Simon Fraswer University School of Engineering Science School of Engineering Science Prepared by: Larry Zhao Chief Executive Offier Ian Brown VP Finance Jordan Anguelov VP Hardware Calvin Ho VP Software Date: September 21, 2011 Revision: 1.0

3 Executive Summary A busy day at the office frequently results in unwanted soreness in the neck or back, and especially eyes when working in front of a monitor for long periods of time. Whether it is to complete an important business plan or drafting a software architecture document, a VDU is an essential tool in the Digital Age. Is there a device that can keep you in the optimal ergonomic viewing position and to help significantly reduce the likelihood of eye or neck strain? Our answer to this question is yes, there should and will be such a device. Members of have long suffered from the shortcomings of this new Digital Age. We have agonized and endured long work periods in front of a computer; thus, we decided to design and implement a product to increase the ergonomic and functionality of virtually any monitor, commercially or otherwise available, that utilizes the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) standard. Computer vision syndrome is defined by [1] as the complex of eye and vision problems related to near work which are experienced during or related to computer use. In 2005, it is estimated about 15 to 47million or about 14-23% of computer users suffer computer vision syndrome [1]. It could also lead to more serious injury such as: Asthenopia, Photophobia, and Presbyopia. Our product is intended to help alleviate or ease this problem and make computer users more productive, more comfortable, and more aware. With this increased level of comfort and awareness, it will significantly reduce the possibility of eye and vision problems. Since there are currently no existing solutions, only partial solutions designed for other applications, we hope that our product can become the new standard in this industry. Our Company,, is composed of four brilliant engineers in their fifth year of studies at Simon Fraser University. We have all worked together successfully many times throughout our career at SFU. We will utilize each member s strengths and skill sets to achieve our goal of creating a robust and dynamic system that will simplify our time spent in front of a VDU. Each of us will put in the necessary time to research, document, design and test our prototype. Following a three month project timeline, our product prototype is scheduled to be completed by December 2011, on time and within our tentative funded budget of $800. Daedalus Technology 8888 Unversity Drive Burnaby B.C. V5A 1S6 Executive Summary Page iii

4 Table of Content Table of Contents Executive Summary iii List of Figures v Glossary vi Introduction 1 System Overview 2 Existing Solutions 3 Possible Design Solution 3 Information Sources 4 Budge and Funding 5 Timeline 6 Team Organization 7 Coporate Structure 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Daedalus Technology 8888 Unversity Drive Burnaby B.C. V5A 1S6 Table of Content Page iv

5 List of Figures Figure 1 Initial System Concept 2 Figure 2 System Flow Chart 2 Figure 3 Initial Concept Design (wood represent a desk) 4 Figure 4 Gantt Chart 6 Figure 5 Milestone Chart 6 List of Figures Daedalus Technology 8888 Unversity Drive Burnaby B.C. V5A 1S6 List of Figures Page v

6 Glossary C2000 (Texas Instruments Real-Time Microcontroller) ESSEF (Engineering Science Student Endowment Fund) FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) GUI (Graphical User Interface) LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) PCB ( Printed Circuit Board) PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) RS-232 (Recommanded Standard 232) USB (Universal Serial Bus) VDU (visual display unit) VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) VP (Vice President) Daedalus Technology 8888 Unversity Drive Burnaby B.C. V5A 1S6 Glossary Page vi

7 Introduction In modern society, there is an growing trend of increased computer usage and dependency in office, school, hospital, and government settings. With more people requiring increased sessions of working with or around computers, problems are bound to arise. A predicament of sorts is growing where more and more citizens are being plagued with eye, back, and repetitive-strain injuries with no end in sight. A Finnish study reported the annual incidence of neck pain among [visual display unit users] to be 34%. A prospective cohort study from the USA reported the annual incidence of neck/shoulder musculoskeletal symptoms to be 58 cases/100 person-years [2]. This study shows that with the increase in heavy computer usage, the number of patients will also increase significantly. With this in mind, our product has the potential to ease a growing problem in the area of computer-related injuries as it arises. Those of us here at have noticed the increase of musculoskeletal symptoms and have decided to improve the the lives of people through the development of our Display Augmentation System which utilizes our auto-adjusting monitor stand and image processing algorithms. The Display Augmentation System is designed to create a more comfortable environment for heavy computer users while it auto adjusts the monitor position to better suit the user s needs. After researching current Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) products, we discovered that a motorized TV wall mount was the only comparable product. It had remote control functionality but lacked the face-tracking and complexity of our Display Augmentation System. Upon further investigation, we discovered no other comparable products that mirrored our design. This gave us the drive to move forward with our Display Augmentation System even more. Our proposal will also discuss the system design, proposed solution and potential solutions. Timeline, budget cost list and requirement will also be included in the proposal. To emphasise the duties and capability of, member s details and corporate structure are also included. Introduction Page 1

8 System Overview The idea is that the system will consist of a platform unto which almost any LCD monitor can be mounted. The platform will rotate left and right +/- 90 degrees as well as pitch up and down -15 to +35 degrees. The LCD will have a USB webcam camera mounted on it (most computers usually have one mounted there anyway). The camera shall be connected to the computer which will be running a MATLAB Graphical User Interface (GUI); the GUI shall read the camera data and from which identify the user s face or head. Once it s identified the program will determine the position of the user relative to the center of the screen; that information will then be sent to a micro controller over a serial port. The micro controller will control two servo motors on the platform. There shall also be several buttons on the base to manually adjust the center position of the monitor. Figure 1 Initial System Concept Figure 2 System Flow Chart System Overview Page 2

9 Existing Solutions There are many different TV and computer monitor stands on the market that can rotate and pivot and move in all directions [4]. None of these stands utilize any sort of new innovation and all require the user to manually adjust their position. The main reasoning behind the project was why should the user have to deal with something so trivial when it can be done by a machine? There is currently one system on the market that functions in a similar manor to ours, the Displays2go Remote control TV mount [3]. The main difference is that their mounting system is specifically designed for wall mounted TVs, only tilts up and down (unlike our two-axis approach) and uses a remote control to adjust the position. Possible Design Solution Our solution calls for a MATLAB program reading data from a camera and implementing an image processing algorithm to identify a users. The webcam data is analyzed, sent to the microcontroller, compared to ideal face positioning, and determines whether or not either of the two servo motors need to be activated. The micro controller will also have an infrared sensor connected to determine the range of the user. Based on that result, The GUI program will turn off the display when the user is farther than 1-2 meters from the computer and turn it on when the user gets closer to save power. The mechanical design will consist of a base plate (for support) unto which a metal shaft is attached. At the top of the shaft there is a nacelle box that houses the two servos and the mechanism that connects to a VESA standard plate unto which any VESA compatible LCD monitor can be mounted similar to figure 3. Possible Design Solution Page 3

10 Figure 3 Initial Concept Design (wood represent a desk) Information Sources A lot of the inspiration and rational behind this project is derived from our own personal experiences from school, home, and Co-op. We will use this as our knowledge base to research and design our project accordingly. We have already begun researching existing products and high-end monitors only to find that there are no similar products as of yet. Our ESSEF presentation also proved to be an unexpected information source. As a result, we will now be making use of the VESA monitor stand standard so we re making good progress already. Information Sources Page 4

11 Budge and Funding Our project can be divided into two sets of expenses - Electronic and Mechanical. As you can see in the chart below, we have set out realistic cost projections for the two sections of our project. We have also allowed for unknown expenditures in our individual sections by adding miscellaneous sections. We felt that dividing up the expenditures would be appropriate because within our Display Augmentation System lies two sub-projects stemming from the hardware and software side of the project. Electrical Equitment Unit Price Qty Price Printed Circuit Board $ $ 200 Infrared Proximity Sensors $ 20 2 $ 40 Microcontroller & Development Tools $ $ 160 Miscellaneous electrical componets $ 40 1 $ 40 Mechnical Total $ 440 Equitment Unit Price Qty Price Servo Motors $ 20 2 $ 40 Webcam $ 30 1 $ 30 Designing and building the base $ 90 1 $ 90 Buttons and controls $ $ 100 Other controls peripherals $ $ 100 Total $ 360 Total Cost $ 800 Budge and Funding Page 5

12 Thanks to the ESSEF project fund and parts library, a majority of our funding and parts are taken care of already. If any costs remain, we will absorb them ourselves since our project is designed to be relatively low cost and a majority of the parts will be donated to the ESSS in accordance with the rules of the ESSEF project. We also have a number of parts and equipment available to us personally, from SFU and through the Vancouver Hack Space. Timeline Figure 4 Gantt Chart Figure 5 Milestone Chart Timeline Page 6

13 Team Organization Organization, planning and teamwork play an important roles in the success of the project. We will begin by planning every step carefully to evenly divide the tasks throughout the team to ensure that our project flows smoothly through to completion. Weekly meetings will then be set up to maintain the group dynamics and work flow. Work will be assigned to teammates and issues will be discussed during each meeting. The rest of the meetings will be for discussing future plans and potential issues that may arise. To avoid multiple teammates working on the same issue and to help facilitate task completion, we have set up a Google Groups, Documents and Calendar to improve group efficiency in addition to having a central place to store and share critical information. We have assinged Larry Zhao to be our Chief Executive officer and resource manager followed by Jordan Anguelov to be Vice President(VP) of Hardware, Calvin Ho to be VP of software, and Ian Brown to be VP of Finance. Each of us will be focusing on our area and will be assigned a portion of the project. Team Organization Page 7

14 Coporate Structure Team Larry Zhao CEO Larry is currently in his final year of Electronics Engineering. He possess both software development and quality assurance experience working at Safeway Canada s IT division. He had the opportunity to collaborate with IBM, Clarity and NCR on various projects. Larry will also bring a strong entrepreneurial make-up to this team. Ian Brown VP Finance As a fifth year engineering student, Ian has a lot to offer the team on various fronts. Acting as both the financial manager and programmer of the project, Ian will have a key administrative role to play in managing the project s timeline and development schedule. Ian will also use what he learned from the eatart Foundation s Titanoboa Project to keep software development on track, hardware integration smooth. Jordan Anguelov VP Hardware Jordan has a strong background in embedded system design as well as product development and PCB design. He has spent three semesters working in industry designing PCBs and products, he is capable with Altium PCB designer and DS Solidworks. Jordan has a deep understanding of microcontroller/digital signal processor architectures; he has experience with writing firmware for the Texas Instruments C2000 line of microcontrollers and the Atmel AVR Calvin Ho VP Software Calvin is a fifth year Electronics Engineering student in Simon Fraser University and has knowledge and experience from his one year co-ops at Research In Motion (RIM). Throughout his academic career, he gained a strong background in FPGA design, embedded systems, C and Assembly language programming. His contribution to the team will mostly be developing on the software side in face recognition. Coporate Structure Page 8

15 Conclusion At, we hope our Display Augmentation System will provide a low-cost implementation for an emerging problem in our increasingly computer-dependant society. Our Display Augmentation System will create a more comfortable environment for the heavy computer user. With its unique features, it will make working long hours with computers a more enjoyable experience. With the use of our expertise and hard work, we have created a capable team to achieve an exciting product. We believe that this product will be delivered on time and achieve our high expectation. Here at, we believe that we will help ease the strain of heavy computer users in our increasingly technologically dependant society. Conclusion Page 9

16 References [1] Y. Zheng, et al., Computer Vision Syndrome: A widely spreading but largely unknown epidemic among computer users, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 24, no. 5, pp , Sept, [2] J. Wahlstrom. (2005). Ergonomics, musculoskeletal disorders and computer work [online]. Available: [3] Display2go. (2011). Remote Control TV Mount Utilizes Motorized Tilt Feature [Online]. Available: [4] Studio Economik.(September 2011). LCD Monitor Stands. [online]. Available: References Page 10