Introduction: Assistive Tech to Aid Communication for Individuals Who Are Deaf and Blind
Creators: Kenyan Houck & Eric Zhou
This piece of assistive tech is designed to help individuals who are deaf and blind communicate. They will be given a button that vibrates at different frequencies to help differentiate various commands. For example, in our project we have the following:
- 1 buzz = yes
- 2 buzzes = no
- 3 buzzes = hungry
- 4 buzzes = thirsty
- 5 buzzes = bathroom
An individual can choose to select the current command that they are on by holding the button down for 2+ seconds or cycle to the next command by simply pressing and releasing the button. Once an individual chooses to send a command, it is sent over bluetooth from one Circuit Python Bluefruit to another before being passed into the Matrix Portal M4. Once the Matrix Portal receives the input, it will display the correct phrase on the RGB 64x32 matrix grid.
Supplies
Step 1: Getting Circuit Python Installed on Your Circuit Python Bluefruit Devices
Follow this guide here: Link
Step 2: Getting Circuit Python Installed + Hardware Setup for Matrix Portal M4
Follow this guide here: Link
Step 3: Set Up the Haptic Controller
Follow this guide here: Link
Note: You will not connect to the "in" pin on the haptic controller.
Then match the following pins to your HOST circuit python bluefruit:
- Gnd to Gnd
- VIN to 3.3V
- SCL to SCL
- SDA to SDA
Step 4: Making the Remaining Hardware Connections
The Button:
- Strip the wire coming from the assistive touch button and form one set of exposed wire
- Use alligator clips to connect one of the branches of the wire to GND and the other branch to A1
Step 5: Code for the Circuit Python Bluefruit Devices
Here is the code for the two devices where one will act as the host and the other will act as the client
Attachments
Step 6: Code for the Matrix Portal M4
Here is the code for the Matrix Portal M4
Attachments
Step 7: Optional - Laser Cut a Box to Hold Parts
Step 8: BMP Files
These are the BMP files that will be displayed on the RGB Matrix. If you want to create your own follow these steps:
- Open photoshop and create a new document with a height of 32 and width of 64 * (number of animations)
- Create what you want displayed on the screen in the first 64x32 space and then repeat if you wanted additional animations
- Then go to Image --> Mode --> Indexed Color and accept the default settings
- Then save the file using cmd+option+s for Mac users, and save the file as a .bmp file
- Lastly, add the bmp files to your root directory
