Smartbells

Overview

Our Team was tasked with developing a SmartBell: a dumbbell capable of tracking the user’s movements and relaying this data to an application which interprets it. The application will then output performance metrics, over tips to the user for improvement, and track their exercise history over time. This device would need to be lightweight and attachable to any dumbbell while also powerful enough to wirelessly transmit data to an application.

Objectives

– Find a microcontroller capable of gathering and transmitting data.

– Create an application capable of receiving the data wirelessly.

– Create software so the application can interpret the data for the user to observe

Approach

– We found possible micro controllers to be used that were lightweight and compact

– We found compatible MPU and IMU attachments that were able to collect acceleration, rotation, and magnetic field data

– We found packages to aid our program in generating graphs and visuals for our users

– We were given recommendations by our sponsor on what technology we should utilize for our design

– We reviewed relevant products which could give us potential ideas for our solution

– We generated a prototype to attempt to achieve each of the objectives in turn

– We created a user interface capable of logging sessions and shoeing graphical data relevant to the work out

– We analysed our graphical output analytically to determine the accuracy of our sensor and corresponding data

Outcomes

– We created a graphical user interface which will allow the user to determine the quality of their lift and if they need to make any changes for improvement

– This device was meant to have similar operations to a personal trainer, without the use of Artificial intelligence which could be added if the project continued

– A 3D rendition of the users lift will be shown on the user interface to allow the user to interpret their lift and identify shortcomings in their lifting technique