Design Process
Brainstorm
To get started, we first brainstormed the possible devices that can facilitate remote communication. The ideas we came up with included:
- Touch screens that allow people share and edit concurrently
- Have visual displays that help co-workers or collaborators update their work progress with each other
- Devices that lower people's barriers to apologize in person
After discussing, we decided to pursue the second idea because it moves away from the traditional domain of long-distance relationship and can be applicable to a larger population.
Initial Design
In our initial design, we imagined that the device will consist two rings. Users will move the input ring on a bar to show their work progress. The output ring will be moved automatically when their collaborator moves his or her input ring remotely. To achieve this, we would need one stepper motor on each side to drag the ring to the proper place.
This idea turned out to be infeasible because the photon couldn't really run a motor. It didn't have the necessary power or setup for a motor shield. Even if we made our back current regulator, the photon's 3V would not be enough to spin a motor. We also thought about replacing the stepper motor with servo motor. However, the problem with that was that servo would not give us enough spin.
