Puppet Master final project page with links to all my Fab Academy work:
http://as220.org/~anna)

Puppetmaster Overview

My final project for Fab Academy is a universal remote I am calling PuppetMaster, due to its ability to control out of reach objects / devices using the fingers. This is the revised final project proposal - the first proposal was overly ambitious and encompassed too many sensor types in too short of a time period.

First Working Prototype: The first working prototype (illustrated in the PuppetMaster v.1-v.2 [capacitive sensing] post) uses thin copper sheets to create a capacitive sensor between the index finger and the thumb.

For Fab 6: By Fab Academy graduation I propose that PuppetMaster will consist of a fabbed board that reads gestural input from accelerometers.

Overall Project Goals / Design Considerations:

• Create a remote control that takes input from finger movements / gestures
• Remote is small and wearable (will likely look like a bracelet or a watch) with connections to the fingertips.
• Remote is comfortable enough for long-term wear, will help to relieve hand / joint fatigue

Project Plan

Short Term Project Stages (Completed by Fab 6)

All board(s) will be fabbed, using the standard fab inventory parts with a few exceptions, (the sensors used in the later stages).

The First Stage [capacitive sensing]

• Completed June 2nd - consists of using capacitive sensing as input data.

The Second Stage [ accelerometer input]

• Completion before Fab 6 in August, will include the addition of accelerometer on each finger to record control gestures.
• Simple gestures will be used for input controls.

Long Term Project Stages (Work in Progress - NOT for Fab 6)

• Additional stages (to follow in the in the Fall) will include one mode of control (IR) but other modes (radio, bluetooth) will be added as the project progresses. (See stages outlined in the table below.)
• Eventually, a dial or switching mechanism will be added to switch between the modes. Although the other modes of control mentioned above will be explored, the gestural input will be the primary focus.
• In the final version of this prototype, the user of PuppetMaster will be able to input information via gestures and remote control objects by using sensors embedded in the fingertips.
• These additional modes (combined with the necessary code) will allow the user to control almost any device with hand gestures. I also want to develop a complete gestural language (possibly based on sign language)in tandem with the addition of 6-axis sensors (3 axis gyro, 3 axis accelerometer) to the device.

I put 1.5g of salt in 1L of water and it went from 2 megaohms to 4 megaohms. Does that seem right to you?

I initially wanted to do reverse-osmosis water desalination, but then I discovered forward osmosis, which uses ammonia salt to pull the water through membrane, detailed in this page about Yale's evaporative draw-solution system, but then Shawn emailed me a link to Ion Concentration Polarization, which reduces filter clogging, and decided to switch to making an ICP water filtration device with shrinky-dinks In the mean time I noticed that water desalination isn't very fabby, so decided to tack on a PPM/Ph meter and use feedback to calibrate the device.

I then proceeded to accomplish nothing. I don't know how to attach electrodes to anything small, and DuPont doesn't provide samples of Nafion, so I'll have to order some, and right now I'm just concentrating on getting parts together for the salinity meter, but that's a well-documented project I haven't done any research of my own on.

I'm considering switching to building a long-range capacitative+inductive RFID meter with an SD card to do a generic survey of RFID at this point, I guess I didn't panic early enough.

-\n

Here's a picture of the piece of acrylic I cut some holes into for electrodialysis (which also functions as a rough model of a potential ion concentration polarization device.)
Note that I have lack knowledge of even basic electrohydrodynamics, so it's likely this implementation of both of these concepts is completely unsound.