Final stages of eVote

Our team is already completing the 3rd phase of eVote. The hardware is complete and fully functional.

The remaining items to be completed are elements from the administrator application. Currently we are trying to find out how to acquire printing results from the printer once eVote has printed a receipt.

The scalability is also almost complete.

At this pace, we will have everything done in time for the third happy hour December 1, 2008.

Write-in Module

The writing module code has been written and today I met with Javier to test the data on the evote prototype device. While testing we found errors with pointers , but this was fixed by reviewing how to work with pointers in C.
The write in screen currently supports keypad navigation and selection of letters.
Errors have been seen when typing letter and backspaces and when moving through the alphabet (the selected action happens twice).
The write in module successfully returns the array of the write in information.

Database Dummy Data

JSAL has recently completed populating our database with dummy data, to simulate the scenario in a real life situation. The following tables were affected: Kiosk, Voter, and Official. We estimated how much data were to be put in the tables, based on real statistics:

Real Data:

• Kiosks: 35,200 [1]
• Registered Voters: 2,458,036 [2]

Dummy Data:

• Kiosks: 35,360
• Voters: 2,400,006
• Officials: 20,800

[1] http://www.ceepur.org/sobreCee/presidencia/juntaSubasta/PDF/CONVOCATORIA%20A%20LICITAR%2009-02%20MALETINES%20CASETAS.pdf
[2] http://www.ceepur.org/elecciones2008/index.html

Schedule Changes & Evote device program size limit

Due to an unforeseen Academic Recess (from Thursday, October 31 to Thursday, November 5) several Capstone course activities have been re-scheduled. There will not be a status report on Friday, November 6 since there has not been enough work days since the last presentation. Also, the Oral Test scheduled for next Monday, November 10 has been rescheduled for Monday, November 17.

In addition, several changes have been added to the Change Control document as the debugging program Javier is using for all programming related to the evote machine is beggining to signal that the program is reaching the 4kb limit.

Progress Report and Design Changes document

JSAL prepared a design change document and provided a copy to the client (the capstone professors). The document provided the changes desired by the client to include a write-in feature within the firmware of eVote. The document also pointed out that additional funds may be necessary due to the added feature, but due to time constraints, the feature will be completed by clocking in additional hours and this will be reflected in future progress reports.

The keyboard was successfully integrated with the microprocessor and was able to navigate between two different screens. The security of the database data has also progressed to finding a 128 bit encryption method that uses a password that will be used to decrypt the database parameters when being called upon in the administrator program.

The screen for the write-in has been designed and implemented, but the navigational code has yet to be implemented and will be worked on after the progress report presentation.

The screens of eVote have been implemented except for the ballots for the governor and resident commisioner which will be worked on after the progress report due to the fact that these screens have images on them that require additional work to calculate their pixel positions.

LCD Screens, Navigation keypad and Database security

The team is working with the tasks for the second phase of the project. Laura is working with the write-in screen. In order to design the screen, a table is being used to establish the coordinates in which a letter will appear. Javier is working with the screens for voting. These screens include language selection, integral or mixed voting selection as well as write in option selection. Angel is working with the encryption and decryption of the information stored in the database. Sylvia is working with the keypad for navigation. Yesterday Sylvia and Javier tested the keypad to look at the output voltage from each of the pressed keys. The keypad regulates the input voltage to have an output voltage of 3V. Therefore, there is no need to have a voltage regulator. Sylvia, Javier and Laura are working with dependent modules from one another; therefore before start working the design was discussed.

Below a picture of the keypad testing

Lcd screens and navigation

During the day the team discussed feedback from friday's happy hour sessions. The day's work revolved around:

1. "Write-In" in-depth design : Write in screen has been designed and code is currently being made for displaying it on the LCD

2. Language selection in-depth design: Design began for the way in which the program handles language selection on the code level

3. Overview of Keyboard navigation

4. LCD matrix table (Excel): This table is being used to design the different screens (see image below)

Happy Hour delayed

Happy hour was delayed to friday due to heavy rain caused by Hurricane Omar.

LCD Updates

The LCD is now working!

After various days, it was observed that the initialization code was affected by the reset process. After the reset process was removed the LCD started working, but still had problems due to the voltage supply. The cables were not making the correct contact with the circuit and the power supply. After resolving the issue with the cables, the LCD worked.

Below some pictures of the LCD working.

Risk: Possible Change in Computers

We have been informed that the computers in room S-123 might be changed on friday or early next week.

We have made backups of our code and database in order to prevent any loss of information.
Also, we have informed the Help@ECE staff that the new computers will require the installation of: MySQL Server & Tools, MyODBC Driver 3.51, TortoiseSVN, Visual Studio 2008, and the BarCode font.

All the development plans have been made assuming Windows XP will be the OS used, so if these new computers have Windows Vista we might have to run our applications in a virtual machine with XP in order to avoid any issues.

Database Design Changes

Through out this phase there have been unplanned changes to the evote database. The Position table was removed since it wasn't vital and the information could be stored in a different table. This table might make coding efficient in the Raven version but for the Sparrow version it is not necessary.

Today, a column called "Barcode" was added to the candidate table . This field will store the text to be converted to the printed receipt.

A history table was added to associate a an official to a voter. This way, should there be any problems with a voter or an official, related people can be identified.

The kiosk table was given an additional identification number to make the voting experience better for voters and officials. The kID field is unique for every kiosk, so in a real life scenario every kiosk in the area using the system will have a different number. This number would only be useful when looking at the kiosks from an outside perspective. In the voting units, the officials and voters need local identification number that will make it easy for them to know where a voter has to go.

Hardware and Firmware

The hardware has been completely integrated, Javier decided it was better to use a breadboard for the project since it offers more stability in terms of movement compared to a wirewrapped pc board which was giving a challenge to integrate nicely with the LCD cables. So the wirewrapped circuit was undone and redone on the breadboard where we have completely connected all the LCD cables to their voltage, ground and data pins throughout the breadboard inverter and microprocessor circuits.

The programming of the firmware will be done on tuesday with the hopes of completing the initialization of the LCD and showing an onscreen test message as promised in the Gantt chart.

Database Connectivity Test Application

Angel recently completed a simple application, which tests the connectivity between the MySQL database and a C# application. It was implemented using ODBC with a simple GUI. With Laura's help, we managed to understand the implementation of queries and the ODBC Data Reader. All the testing done with the application has been successful and reviewed by all team members.

Inverter Updates

Javier has already completed the inverter circuit by wirewrapping. The connections were verified by Sylvia. Both, Javier and Sylvia tested the connection by applying a voltage to the circuit and verifying the output. The output was a valid voltage as an input into the VO pin (back plane voltage) of the LCD. Next week Javier will implement the connections for the LCD to the microprocessor and the inverter. After that is done, the first test screen will be implemented.

Below are the images of the wirewrapping and the voltage test.

Database updates

On monday, the staff installed Visual Studio 2008 in all four of our computers. The ODBC driver was also installed in the two remaining computers.

Laura is currently working in the Log In form for officials volunteering in the elections. The form is able to communicate with the database and drop down boxes with information on the db according to selections made in other fields. Laura is currently having issues with displaying some results that are included in three columns.

Angel is currently working with a test application that can prove votes are being inserted into the database. Sylvia has finished designing the UI for the administrator application and is now working with Laura to query information from the database

Functional Inverter and LCD

After receiving the components needed to implement an inverter that was designed for the LCD Screen which is copyrighted in 2006 by Snowleopard Labs and is used in this project by permission with an email for evidence backup.

The inverter has been connected as seen in the following pictures and each node was tested to make sure that the entry voltage did not fluctuate which could cause the LCD's max voltage to be passed causing the LCD to burn out.

The original design was modified to include voltage regulators to add an additional protective measure to avoid any components from receiving more voltage that desired. The voltage input for the inverter was set at 5 volts and the regulator prevents any voltage above this voltage from passing on into the inverter.

Javier was able to successfully complete the circuit and connect it to the LCD which turned on showing lines. At first it was assumed that the lines were not normal, but having done research before implementing the circuit, the lines that appear randomly are normal until the LCD is initialized with firmware.

It is being considered if we are to wire wrap the components and then proceed to the programming of the LCD using the IAR workbence program.

Inverter Connected to LCD

LCD with random lines - The contrast was adjusted using a potentiometer

Inverter Circuit that provides the Backplane voltage for the LCD (Vo)

ODBC driver and MySQL issues

After deciding to use C#/ODBC to communicate with the database (in mySQL). The team began to make arrangements to setup the computers with the necessary drivers. The ODBC driver was installed in Angel's and Laura's computers. However, after the installation we realized that Angel's computer is missing Visual Studio 2005 for some reason. Angel and Laura emailed help@ece.uprm.edu again in order to have this installed.

Laura succesfully added the ODBC driver into her computer ( through control panel-->administrative options-->ODBC Data Source Adminstration). Eventhough Laura's computer has VS 2005 and the ODBC driver, there are still some issues with Visual Studio and the MySql library (MySQL.Data). Laura is testing different methods of adding this library to the project (adding it as a reference).

Today we expect to resolve the VS issue in angel's computer and also get the ODBC driver installed in the remaining two computers.

Hardware Testing

Today, tests were done to verify the functionality of every pin of each port found in the microprocessor, and every pin turned on successfully indicating that the soldering was not faulty.

The voltage regulators since never before used, were tested in a simple circuit to turn on a LED which would get damaged if given 5 volts. Tests were done with resistors and LED lights. A 3.3V regulator was used to intercept the voltage and output an acceptable amount of voltage that turns the led on as seen in the photos below.

Testing regulator with resistance

Testing regulator with LED

Testing the microprocessor pins with a multimeter and c language code.

Rain Storm, DB decision

Due to the severe weather classes were suspended on monday and we have not met this week. Today we will resume all capstone work.

Laura, Angel and Sylvia discussed last week the possibility of changing programming language due to the fact that it was considerably easier to make a graphical user interface with C# that with Java. After some research during the weekend and free days Laura learned that the C# interface with a database (ODBC) is similar to JDBC (the JAVA interface) and making this change would not pose any major obstacles. In fact, it was found that there is more support for ODBC than for JDBC.

Laura and Angel will begin to study how to use ODBC while Sylvia prepares to work with the user interface.

LCD additional hardware

Upon beginning the work for integrating the LCD which arrived just last friday with the microprocessor, it was discovered that an inverter would be needed to adjust the contrast to the LCD screen. Research has been done online to discover what kind of circuit exactly is needed and one was found with a potentiometer that allows adjustments to the contrast of the screen.

The parts were purchased and hopefully arrive by the end of the week to begin the implementation of the inverter design.

MySQL, First soldering, Faulty equipment

Today Laura arranged with the admins of ece.uprm.edu the installation of the MySQL service in all computer in our area. Now we can create our database and interact with it from the four computers we use.

Javier finished his first soldering experience and soldered 100 pins. While testing if the soldering had been done correctly, we found out that the multimeter assigned to us did not measure current and voltage correctly. Tomorrow we will purchase a multimeter for our team.

Phase I development

The team has begun work on the implementation phase of the Sparrow design. We are currently soldering the hardware components, finding a database space to begin implementation and also have begun to program the software interface which has been promised for the first phase.

Due to the hardware complexity, it has been decided to present an initial programmed screen before implementing all of the screens needed for eVote which will be done in the second phase.

The team also purchased the uniforms today with our logos and names on them for future presentations.

The hardware soldering has begun, below are images of the ports of the development kit being integrated with connectors.

JSAL Proposal Presentation

Last wednesday the JSAL team presented their eVote proposal to Capstone students and professors. The topics covered were:

-Team Members -Background
-Problem Statement -Current Issues
-Project Overview -Objectives
-Deliverables -Raven Block Diagram
-Sparrow Block Diagram -Team Organization
-Budget for Raven -Budget for Sparrow
-Risks - Project Impact

JSAL team ready to present proposal

Raven and Sparrow, Proposal wrap up

The team met on Sunday to correct proposal errors that were pointed out on friday by Prof. Nayda Santiago. Also, the team added sections that the proposal was missing.

The team also decided on names for the different versions of the eVote system:

Raven --> Full Version

Sparrow -> Scaled Down Version

During today's meeting the team will conclude all proposal tasks and begin practicing the presentation.

eVote Proposal Marathon

The JSAL team have been working on the proposal nonstop all week. We created a rough draft which was presented to Professor Santiago for her early opinion before the final draft. After meeting with her in her office, a scaling down of the scope of our project was discussed and many aspects were removed due to potential high costs and time constraints.

The project will now focus only on the voting module of the project with a monochrome LCD screen where the JSAL team must implement one of the three existing ballots. The governer and comissioner ballots will be implemented.

Although our project has been scaled down, we must still design a full scale version with the mindset of it being completed in one year.

The team is currently completing the proposal document to then begin work on the 20 minute presentation.

"We got a long road ahead of us and none of us has a car..."

LCD challenge

After consulting Jose Javier Rodriguez ("Dices") regarding psp LCDs, Javier Torres (who is focusing on researching the hardware) quickly realized that using a color LCD was too time consuming , expensive and complicated for the scope of this project.
A specific monochrome LCD model is currently being considered, and eventhough it is affordable, the way in which it has been built makes soldering difficult.


After these findings, we are now considering using the MSP430 microprocessor, but we are still looking into other microprocessors that have more memory space that will allow more code.

Negotation Exercise

Last Night the CSI team (JSAL) met with representatives of Humongous (VST) in order to negotiate a contract regarding an inventory control system for large chain stores. The negotiation began at 7pm and ended around 8:30pm. It was agreed that Humongous would pay a grand total of $ 2,000,000.00 for a three year contract with the CSI product, with the option of testing the system for 3 months for $750,000. 00 and an the right to cancel the contract within that period if the system did not function correctly. Both parties were satisfied with the result, and all members of CSI and Humongous attended a celebrationg dinner at the luxurious Denny's restaurant in Mayaguez, PR.

Below, some images after the negotiations were done:

eSlate Demo

I found this interesting demo for an electronic voting system. Some of the things I liked were: the way they authenticate the voter (with an access code) and the fact that you can do a "write in" vote on the screen. What I didnt like at all about this was the "wheel" key. It became tedious after a while (specially when I had to spell the name of a "write in").


http://www.eslate.com/files/eSlate.swf

Software Design and Visit to the Electoral Commission in Mayaguez

Today our team went off to downtown mayaguez to visit the electoral commission and acquire more research. When we arrived we met with a representative who was very helpful and provided many brochures and documents to help us understand what is needed of voters to register. The team also acquired a poster fold-out of the voting process divided in steps.

-A Photo of the outside of the commission's office-

Our team began the software design research and divided the different sections of the project among the team members. We decided to set a progress report for Friday evening to see how everyone has progressed and if any additional research is required.

After Completing the Software design, we will move on to the Hardware design. In hardware design, the team already has in mind what is needed for the design but decided to focus on one area of the project at a time.

We are doing design separately for the 3 big areas of the project:

1. Registration
2. Voting
3. Counting

Each area has its own software and hardware involved to complete the voting experience.

Hardware brainstorming and Researching

Today the team got together to brainstorm the voting procedure and consider hardware available in the market for our project.

We have agreed to meet tomorrow at 10:30 am to go the downtown mayaguez to get more information about the "Comision estatal de Elecciones"

We also called Angel Perez from Rock Solid to coordinate a meeting with him about our project.

Our biggest conflict is the budget since the color lcds are quite expensive so we are searching for economic products.

We also brainstormed with Dani Santiago about our project and different things we should consider for our project, like scaling it down.

Link regarding Fingerprint Readers

I wanted to share some information I've found while researching Fingerprint Scanners/Readers. More information to come later on this same post.

Types of Fingerprint Scanners: http://www.tech-faq.com/fingerprint-scanners.shtml

Interfacing with Microsoft Fingerprint Reader: http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2007/03/06/1815291.aspx


Interesting Article about fooling fingerprint scanners with Play-Doh: http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/11/play-doh-fingers-can-fool-90-of-scanners-sez-clarkson-u/

Fingerprint Scanners available for purchase (prices range from $15 to ~$500)

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&resnum=0&q=Fingerprint%20scanners&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834995509

Touch Screen and Encryption Links with corresponding research descriptions

Research for LCD Touch Screens

• The touch screen panels go over the LCD screen so they are two different entities. We would need to program the images on the LCD and have the display change as the touch panel is touched. Consider adding a backlight to allow a better view of the screen
  
• Please note that touch screen panels are sold as components–a controller is required to provide the interface between the touchscreen and the computer (or device).

Links

• 1. Low power and cheap touch screen. Has data sheet on page as well which shows the microcontroller that it comes with to program the screen.
  
  http://www.elotouch.com/Technologies/AT4/default.asp
  
• 2. How to design the layers of an LCD touch screen and other factors that affect the view of the screen.
  
  http://www.fujitsu.com/us/news/inthenews/fcai_20030701.html
  
  
• 3. Describes how the touch panel converts a flat screen into a dynamic interface. Also discusses the different kinds of touch screen technologies and how they each work (has an extensive table comparing screends and their corresponding controllers!!!):
  
  **I think the resistive is the best way to go since it seems to be the cheapest and mostly used.
  
  http://svconline.com/mag/avinstall_lcd_touchpanel_controllers/
  
  
• 4. Touch panel product, large screen, comes with the kit.
  
  http://www.advantech.com/products/84-LCD-Kit-MTH-450-nites-TTL-SVGA/mod_1-2JKIPU.aspx
  
  http://www.advantech.com/products/Display-Solutions/sub_1-2JKFJN.aspx
  
• 5. Touch screens can also be bought separately and installed to work with just about any type of computer. Discusses parameters to consider when designing a touch screen.
  
  http://www.industrial101.com/equipment/touch-screens.aspx?ovraw=lcd+touch+screen&ovkey=lcd+touchscreens&ovmtc=advanced&ovadid=31308152011&ovkwid=231837151011
  
• 6. An additional site with more LCD screens
  http://www.densitron.com/Displays/
  

---------------------------Encryption Research-------------------------------

**We need to decide a programming language so that we can focus on a particular method the encryption is done in that language.

Links

• 1. A book that teachings encryption based on public key techniques and etc. Only the person who knows the public key can decrypt the information. This is used for emails as well. People who send and receive mail can encrypt an email and only a person with the public key can decrypt it, but they will not be able to encrypt a message using the sends technique. (More research will be done to learn the different ways to encrypt and decrypt information.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Cryptography-Demystified-John-Hershey/dp/0071406387/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219713914&sr=8-1
  
• 2. The standards used in data encryption:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard
  
  http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci213893,00.html
  
  

E-Voting System...

Here's are some useful links regarding the general overview of the e-voting system and biometrics.

Articles

• Title: "Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting"
• Link: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2003/11/61045?currentPage=1
• Title: "How E-voting Works"
• Link: http://people.howstuffworks.com/e-voting.htm
• Title: "How Fingerprint Scanners Work"
• Link: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/fingerprint-scanner5.htm

Vendor/Products

• Vendor: Biometrics Direct
• Link: http://www.biometricsdirect.com/index.htm
• Product: BioCert® Authenticator Toolkit
• Link: http://www.biocert.us/BioCertFREE.htm

Capstone Project Approved

After giving our presentation on the "E.S.P.", the professor's Fernando and Nayda gave us feedback and suggestions on new project ideas. After all was discussed, everyone agreed that an "Electronic Voting System" would be an ideal project for our group. Now that our project approval is official, each team member is doing extensive research on the following topics:

- Previous/similar e-voting systems
- Voting process and trends in Puerto Rico
- Managing usability of the system for all age groups
- Understanding the funcionality of every device involved in the system and incorporating them as a whole.

Sunday Group Preparations

The team got together today to prepare for the 5 minute presentation tomorrow during the class hour. We also came up with a product logo design (to the right).

The team completed the power point presentation and assigned slides to each member. We also completed the brief document which contains a description of the project.

Updated Project Description

After days of research, our team has decided to return to an idea that we had before classes began. We updated the student planner (sort of a protable web ct) idea we had with more software aspects and hopefully the project will satisfy all hardware requirements as well. The planner will not be touch screen and will use buttons for navigation. It will include information that students may need on the spot when not near a computer.

This can be convenient in the case of when a student needs to find a professors office, or office hours, they can use the device to check this information out. The information will be acquired from an online source which will use additional software to synchronize the student's course information and other relevant data. The synchronization will be done via a usb cable.

We are currently brainstorming additional software and hardware features, but we feel that this project will allow us to show what we have learned and will also let us learn new things to apply to the project.

Surveillance System Project discarded, New Possible Projects

pWe have been evaluating the "doability" of the camera surveillance project and the wireless and motion detection features have proven to be too elaborate and time consuming for this semester. Currently, we are returning to an old idea we had during the summer: the student electronic agenda (name to be determined later on). We are doing some preliminary software and hardware design for this product to see what is required to build this device.

We are strongly investigating the marketing aspect of this product, since Professor Nayda Santiago advised us that it is important to demonstrate that this particular product is marketable.

Also, we are waiting on Alexandra Litchfield to provide us with more information regarding a radar project that is also a possibility for our Capstone Project.

Research is being done regarding different microprocessors since all four of our team members have a Software Engineering concentration and more expertise is required in the Hardware aspect.

All Day Research Session

The team met yesterday in the Capstone laboratory to do research on how to make our Parking surveillance system. We discovered that we need to use IP cameras to be able to receive video wirelessly by using the IP of the camera in the software.

We checked out prices of the cameras and solar cells to power them. The cameras were quite expensive (most were above $200) so we may have to limit our prototype to 3 cameras to save money in the project budget.

We also spent the entire day researching motion detectors but were unable to find out detailed information on how to create one for the project. We are thinking of designing an additional device that works in conjunction to the parking security system which we can design.

Research Tasks

Today the team met with the Professor Nayda Santiago about our idea discussed in the previous blog, the parking security. We were told that to research each idea more extensively, finding out how things could be done and how much it would cost, as well as other aspects of the project idea.

The idea was acceptable so we can finally now begin the more focused research for the idea without fear of being way off an acceptable project idea.

The team will begin investigating online information on prices and facts for motion sensors and cameras and compile them into a small detailed report to be provided to the professor this week. Hopefully this document will reconfirm the project idea as being a more viable project since during research we may modify some ideas.

As of the moment we are going to research:

• How to monitor battery life remotely
• How to implement solar cells
• How to make motion detectors and how they work (sensitivity - since we don't want birds activating the camera)
• How to stream live camera feed to anyone who is cleared to view security cameras as well as store recorded information.
• Find and compare prices of all items
• How to interface everything together

The team will be meeting tuesday at 11:30 am to discuss research results, and begin an additional session of brainstorming for things that need to be researched.

Sharing Project Definition with professors

Yesterday we sent the following email to Prof Nayda Santiago and we are currently waiting for her to approve this new definition of our project.


Email excerpt:

"En el pasado han ocurrido muchos actos delictivos y robos porque hay una falta de vigilancia en el area de estacionamiento. Pensamos que esto se podra resolver creando una red de camaras wireless que se activan con "motion sensors" para solamente grabar cuando hay actividad. Las camaras y sensores podrian ser "solar powered" para poder bajar los gastos de luz. Se comunicarian con un mainframe computer con la cual se grabara el video de las camaras. Existira la opcion de ver el video online (video pasado o en vivo). Para evitar que los videos sean muy grandes se limitara el frame rate del video ya que no es necesario tener video fluido. La idea seria conveniente tambien para los JUEGOS CENTROAMERICANOS en mayaguez porque asi habra una forma de proteger la propiedad de los estudiantes y personas que visiten a la universidad. Tambien ayudara identificar los culpables de un robo o asalto (si alguien es atacado)."


In today's class we shared our project definition with Fernando and during this weekend we will begin looking at the different sections of the proposal and see what research needs to be done.

An Idea has surfaced

Today after the capstone's class entrepreneur dynamic and seminar. I approached the professor with a prospect for a capstone project which is the following:

We can use temperature sensors that detect discrepancies in temperatures in a room with predefined conditions. For example the system must be set up knowing the default temperature of the room the system is set up in. If someone attempts to break into a room through a window the temperature will be altered due to the discrepancy in temperatures of the outside environment with that of the inside environment, thus an alarm should sound. Motion Sensors can also be placed around a room to detect heat to prevent a human being from walking about undetected. The idea is to create a security system that detects temperature discrepancies and motion detectors that may indicate an intruder or perhaps a fire where the system is installed. This should protect against intruders and fires.
Also once triggered the cameras will activate and begin recording the events taking place and should store this online for evidence. A computer will be the mainframe for the complete system. An alarm will be connected as well and may require some additional hardware programming to have it sound an alarm as soon as the computer deems it necessary or not, due to current conditions.
Add a feature to allow the motion detectors to activate a camera that streams video onto the internet so from anywhere you can view your house’s condition. Also you can view a historial of sensor activity online given every hour. Set the frequency at which videos are recorded as well as quality.
There are systems that separately include heat detection and motion detection. Ours would combine the best of both worlds. The software would include a sandbox application that allows the person setting up the equipment to draw the layout of the house and place the locations of the sensors. So they appear in the application. Should be able to detect the amount of detectors connected to the device.


The idea will be polished up of course to write a proper proposal which is due in a few weeks, September 8, 2008 I think...maybe...

The professor commented that the idea was acceptable so the battle against the storming of brains is over and now we can focus on research, budgets, time frames for milestone completions of the project.

First Capstone Blog

Our team is comprised of 4 Computer engineering software students:

1-Javier Torres
2-Laura Cruz
3-Sylvia Rodriguez
4-Angel Vega

The team has meet online a few times this summer to brainstorm ideas for a possible capstone project. So far we have ideas for:

• A student pda which would use a device to synchronize a students college course agenda to that of an online database, keeping the student up to date with a professors updates.
• A roomba vacuum cleaner modification, to help minimize crashes with an accessory that prevents it from scratch furniture upon approaching one before it changes direction
• An instrument tuner that would use analog data and convert it to digital information to be evaluated using computer software
• A temperature based security system using temperature sensors
• A payment system that allows food delivery services to charge credit cards or atms from their cars.
• A voice to text system to help students in class have a text form of the professors lecture, which is sent to their computers or portable devices real time as the lecture is being given.
• Convert black board notes to a computer readable format that students can download. In case the professor missed some notes written on the board.

The team is currently individually investigating additional ideas and backing them up with facts to then brainstorm each individual idea and verify which is the most viable project. Tuesday August 12, 2008, the team will meet once again and discuss their research results and deduce the list of project ideas until one project idea remains to be selected for the capstone project.