Rendering of a Hover elevator panel. Created by Hubert Ka.
Hover is a hardware project I started as a revamp to interface technology. Specifically, interfaces we use in public everyday, such as an elevator panel.
The first prototype of the touchless button. Using the IR array to detect a person's hand in proximity to the "button", a ring of indicator LEDs would give feedback to the user for "pressing" the button.
The first prototype PCB of the touchless button. I made 9 of these to form a 3x3 matrix so that I could create and test any programs for the Arduino. Because elevator panels have many buttons in close proximity, I would need this set up to figure out if there are ways I could avoid accidental button "presses" using the grid of buttons themselves.
The back of the touchless button. Since this was a hand soldered PCB, I had to create the wiring myself using the severed ends of the LEDS.
I had an aluminum panel cut and drilled to fit the 3x3 matrix of buttons. Each button was individually wired to a port in an Arduino Mega in this version (I would end up with 94 connected wires, which prompted me to redesign how the buttons work the following week).
The completed panel from the front. You can see the hexigonally arranged indicator LEDs surrounding the clear IR emitter LEDs, with the black IR receiver LED in the centre, for each button. The way the LEDs were inserted into the aluminum panel also helped isolate the IR receiver from the IR emitting LEDs, preventing false positives.
Initial testing for the panel. This was before I had plugged in all 94 wires, just to test the code and that none of the buttons were malfunctioning.
All 94 wires plugged in. It was starting to become a mess at this point because I was using the Arduino to control each individual LED in the hexigonal indicator ring. After this, I redesigned the button to incorporate an 8-bit shift register (74HC595) to control the LEDs with a single wire. It also had the added benefit of letting me daisy-chain the buttons, so I only needed one wire (plus the usual read/write, source, and ground wires) from the Arduino to control the LED indicators on every button.
Fastforward to 1:12 to skip the explanation. Prototyping the addition of the 74HC595 8-bit shift register. This greatly reduced the direct wiring to the Arduino from the previous button design (i.e. for 3 buttons: from 30 to 11).
I learned how to use Altium Designer for this project, to create the final PCB prototype for the buttons. This is the layout of the button, with a ring of 8 LED indicators, the 74HC595 8-bit shift register, and the IR array in the centre.
3D rendering from Altium Designer of the button PCB. This is the backside, facing the internals of the elevator. The frontside only consists of the LEDs (indicators, IR emitters, IR receiver).
The Hover presentation at Techcrunch Disrupt SF '14 Hackathon. We scored high enough to win two tickets to Techcrunch Disrupt SF '14 itself! We were also honourably mentioned as runner-ups for the UX award for the hackathon.
