Update: I kept working on this and I have released it as a package for Windows, Linux and macOS. Check it out: https://github.com/zenineasa/joystick/releases/tag/v1.0.0 -- During the days when I was pursying my master's programme, my friends and I used to occasionally go to a classroom in the university, turn on a projector, connect devices like Nintento Switch or Gaming computers and loads of joysticks, and play different simple multiplayer games; MarioKart was my favourite. From time-to-time, when I get together with people, I ponder that it would be a good idea if I bought such devices. Indeed, I do have a laptop, which could easily run such games; SuperTuxKart is similar enough to MarioKart and it can run on Linux, Windows and Mac. However, I do not have joysticks with me at the moment. Therefore, I think it would be a good idea if I simply worked on a project that would enable using our phones as joysticks. From a high-level, the plan is to host APIs on a NodeJS server that wo...
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Smart Containers - An old project during my college days that could make Amazon better
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A few months ago, my friend Dhawal shared a page from Amazon Business introducing their product named Dash Smart Shelf. The system enables businesses to manager their inventories by keeping a track of stuffs in the shelves over time and automatically doing the reordering. The principle behind the product is to have a weight-sensing Wi-Fi-enabled smart scale that is placed on a shelf to track the inventory.
The method involved is reasonably simple. A shop owner can have as many of these devices as the different products he/she wishes to store. That would be a lot of sensors.
Dhawal and I had worked on a project that would enable reducing the number of sensors involved in order to do the same. In our setup, there would be just two weight sensors placed at a distance and a platform on top of the sensors. We divide the platform into any number and we can determine where each product is placed and if anything is taken away from it, it would automatically change the values. This could theoretically work for any number of slots there are; just two weight sensors.
That would be a huge reduction in cost, wouldn't it?
We developed this system back in 2017. We had recorded a video talking about this in detail to take part in a compoetition. The following was recorded for that. In the video we explain in detail on how the setup was created, the working principle and gives a quick demo. (I know that the app crashed when we were shooting the video).
The video was recorded from the Hardware Lab in IIT Patna. We had to rush the creation of the video as the deadline for submission was right around the clock.
The app was created in React Native. The assembly has four load cells in a Wheatstone Bridge arrangement for more accurate detection, two such arrangements are made at either ends. The voltage variations from the load cells are picked up by Arduino and the information is interpreted there to know which slot has what weight. The final information is sent to Raspberry Pi, which acts as the server and provides the data to the React Native App through Rest API based calls.
Such simple concepts in physics and engineering could help in cutting down a lot of expenditure. I hope this inspires a lot of people.
I started off from Zurich at around 7.30 in the morning. There was a direct train to Lugano from Zurich HB. I vaguely remember my internet searches on the cost to travel from Zurich to Lugano via train to be about 30 CHF, but in reality, taking the ticket from the station, it costed me double of that. I don't know if the tickets have surge prices or something. Anyway, the journey was nice as I was able to see some beautiful places along the way and I think I had a chance to go through Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is the longest tunnel in the world. Getting down at Lugano station and looking out, I saw one of the most beatiful scene that I have ever seen. I am not sure if I could describe that properly in words, nor do I think the following photograph that I took justifies how it looked to me in person. I had to walk down a lot of stairs from here with the heavy bags that I had, only to realize that I made a wrong turn at some point. I was informed that instead of going back up, it w...
It has been a while since I made a blog post. I have been occupied by my academic work and I found using my past time on non-blogging related activities more rewarding. However, since it is summer break now, and I have mostly run out of things to do, I decided to get back to being creative and work on some project. Recently, I have been floating an idea about creating a social network that practically eliminates the requirement to have servers and databses. From a high-level, the idea is that users can host their profile on their phones and their connections can query data about the profile, send messages, form groups, and make wall post which can be viewed by anyone who is connected to the profile. I have seen a research paper summarising quite a few projects that has attempted to create something similar. However, I observed that these would at least have a server for authenticate a user; to tell confirm if the user is who he says he is. I believe this can be eliminated by allowing u...
A few days ago, I decided to make version release for HexHoot on GitHub, as I think it is important to differentiate something that is more stable and something that is under development. Having versions that people can download seem to be the best move to do the same. Following the same, I shared it with people over LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. One of the feedbacks I received over private messages was asking me to provide more information on what it exactly is and how to use it. Although all these information are written in the documentation and the website, it appears to be that people like to watch videos explaining the same. Therefore, in the past couple of days, I have been performing screen recording and doing voice overs. Interestingly, during this process, I found a couple of issues with the software, and I fixed those. The following is the video. Please do provide your feedback on this project. It would be lovely if any of you are interested in contributing to the same. Y...
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