PB & A #5

Patrick, Ben, and Arduino: Project Wrap Up

With the source code for our project finalized about a week and a half ago and the literal schematic of hardware components and assembly completed shortly after, all that was left for us was to actually build our device and record it in use. After nine weeks of careful planning, about $300 worth of component purchases, over 120 feet of wiring, and nearly 60 hours of bread board assembly alone, we wound up with the physical guts of our smart table:



What we're looking at is a highly complex system of shift registers, FSR's, and LED outputs. The FSR's (hidden beneath the cylindrical columns shown above) constantly sense the weight of the pint in place, relaying differences in pressure as the pint is consumed to the attached Arduino. The Arduino interprets the sensor data and turns on LED indicators accordingly; when half a pint is consumed, a single LED is turned on, when a full pint has been consumed, two LED's are turned on. This process occurs constantly for each pint sensing station.

The largest column, in the middle of the table is the pitcher sensing station and the randomized pitcher purchaser selection initiator. When an empty pitcher is placed on the central column, a series of LED's turn off and on in a pattern resulting in something similar to a digital roulette. The LED's gradually slow down to a stop and one user is selected to purchase the next pitcher for the table.

After assembling the guts, the next step was to place the supporting table top structure. An enormous amount of time was spent in the school wood shop precisely cutting down various pieces of our device, ranging from weight supporting dowels, to table ends, to our peg board table top:



It was essential that we make sure the hardware of our device was functioning properly at every step of assembly. Here we are testing the light housings as we attach our peg board table top support:




In order to create the illusion of glowing pint glasses, we hand cut stencils and placed them between layers of thin, light diffusing paper, and thick, durable sheets of Yupo, a synthetic water resistant polymer:




The Yupo created an excellent water resistant layer that protected the internal components of our table from the inevitable spills sure to occur once our device was in action:



As a final test, before the protective layers of Yupo were attached to our top, we ran our device with pint glasses in place (successfully, first try!):



...and here is the final product:



With our device assembled, our code running perfectly, and our spirits high, it was time to test it in the field and film the results. Once we began, it wasn't long before we realized that our device was in all actuality, a wild success. As the afternoon progressed, our filming process became more of a documentation -- our actors became our users as they were thoroughly enjoying themselves while interacting with our device. It was clear to us that we were "on to something" with this project when a small crowd of bar patrons started to gather to watch us use our table! In fact, it became something of a nuisance as our filming was being constantly interrupted with questions, comments, and not so accidental walk-throughs.

The randomized selection of the person to buy the next round was by far the most successful aspect of our device. The reactions we got from our users justified the project entirely -- it was pure entertainment resulting from a social interaction enhanced through the use of our device.

This is the short film resulting from that experience:



...and a few shots of the device in action:





Again, the project was a wild success. It took an enormous effort to get to where we are today but we are very happy with the results. In fact, we're considering looking into getting a patent!