The Donnie Pack by The Buttercups:
Final Documentation

Introduction

What we built

Narrative Sketch  

While eating a hearty breakfast of eggs, Donnie notices that his Donnie Pack has chirped a little six-note melody, and the front of the pack has begun emitting green light. Having caught his attention, Donnie looks down at the screen of the Donnie Pack, tilting the bottom of the pack upwards so that he can more clearly read the words "Prompt 1" on the screen. He then takes out the spiral notebook and pen from the Donnie Pack, and checks the front of the notebook to see that "Prompt 1" corresponds to the question, "What did you have for breakfast?" Donnie opens the notebook to a blank page, sees that a plate of eggs is in front of him on the table, and writes "Eggs" on the page, before putting the notebook and pen back into the Donnie Pack and resuming his breakfast. 

Detail Images

Product Video  

A demonstration of our notification process. The screen resets and shows which prompt is up. The lights then turn on and our sound notification goes off to alert our client it is time to respond to a prompt. The notebook is then shown being removed from the pack, the correct prompt being observed and then responded to inside the notebook.

Prototype

Our prototype review session was highly successful. We demonstrated and thoroughly tested each prototype, incorporating valuable feedback from Donnie on every aspect. A couple of 'minor' yet insightful feedbacks were Donnie's preference for a top-bound 3 X 5 notebook and Donnie's preference for notifications, leading us to modify the LED and buzzer for lesser interference with daily use. The initial LED indicator was overly flashy, and the buzzer's beeping sound was found to be irksome. Responding to this, we developed a subtler LED flash and changed the buzzer sound to a less intrusive melody.

 A significant insight that led to a pivotal change in our product's functionality was the difficulty Donnie faced in reading the questions displayed on the screen. Originally, the screen would show questions for Donnie to answer in his notebook. While we were unable to determine how to operate the screen before the prototype critique, we composed questions and positioned them atop the screen to simulate its functionality for user testing. To address the readability issue, we collaborated closely with Donnie to develop a prompt system. In this new system, the screen displays a number that Donnie can refer to in a glossary on the cover of a notebook to find the corresponding question. This modification allowed for an effective and productive adjustment to Donnie's feedback, ensuring the new system was well-received.  Additionally, we discovered that rather than positioning the number to face forward, it would be more efficient to flip the text. This way, Donnie can simply lift the product to read the words without the need to remove it or awkwardly crane his neck. We developed the system collaboratively with him on the spot to ensure its effectiveness.

The team learned a valuable lesson in adaptation; rather than introducing a completely new system for Donnie to adjust to, we found success in integrating elements from a routine Donnie was already comfortable with, inspired by Donnie's nostalgic storytelling of his as a waiter in the 90s. We took two major inspirations from this: transforming the product into a fanny pack for easier note-taking, reminiscent of Donnie's apron that held his notebook, and adopting the prompt system with a glossary on the notebook cover, similar to how Donnie used to refer to his notebook cover for the day's specials. The prototype review session was incredibly beneficial. We were able to refine our product to not only align with our envisioned solution but also to fully embrace Donnie's feedback fully, ensuring a design that was both functional and user-centric.

Process

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

Overall, final critique was very successful. It was super cool to see Donnie wearing the Donnie Pack after weeks of working on the project! We recieved a lot of really helpful and insightful feedback on our project. One piece of feedback that we got was that "the box’s edge [should be] more round, especially for the corners that is attached to the body, so that user won’t get hurt if the box hits something." This makes total sense to us. We decided to 3D print the box in order to make a rounded edge for where the fanny pack sits on the lap, but due to the way the box was constructed, not all of the edges could have been rounded. Another piece of feedback we received had to do with the way that the notebook and pen were attached to the Donnie Pack, with one critic saying that "the strings for the notebook seemed cumbersome," suggesting that we could "maybe have them on a zip cable." We also definitely agreed with this--we didn't fully consider the implications of simply tying the notebook and pen to the fanny pack with string, and because it was such a simple task to do, we didn't implement it until the night before (after all the electronics and fabrication was done). The day of the critique, we quickly realized how tangled this system could become. In terms of the final integration of the product, one person wrote that the Donnie Pack would "really [need] a reliable real-time clock" and "with more integration it could be a lot smaller." Though we had the Donnie Pack on "demo mode" to change the prompt screen once every 3 minutes (the minimum time for the E-Ink screen to update), this would definitely be a consideration we'd need to have for a final product. Finally, one critic suggested that the Donnie Pack's notification system could have the volume "regulated by atmospheric level of sound".  This was a really cool comment during the live discussion. That critic noted that if Donnie was in a movie theater or another quiet place, the audible notification sound could be quite disruptive, with no real way to anticipate the notification occurring or to (at the moment) decrease the volume. Since the Donnie Pack is supposed to be a memory aid, the volume of the notification would ideally be something that could self-adjust, rather than needing to be something that Donnie has to be aware of. 

We believe we learned a lot from not just working with our client Donnie, but the whole process of going to CLASS and seeing their facilities and getting to learn about how people with disabilities. It was interesting listening to Donnie and hearing the input he had to give us that was catered towards his needs. Getting feedback from him was a very useful and insightful process in creating ideas to try and create something that would help Donnie. The whole process taught us a lot about the needs of people with brain injuries and how, despite the injury, they are the same as people without disabilities and should be treated as such. They shouldn't be looked down upon just because of a disability.

In terms of our process, there are some things we would do differently if we were to do it all over again. I think we would try some different notification methods, like vibration being a clear front-runner. Also potentially having a cloth part to the bag to make it softer and easier to wear, or putting the screen on top of the box to maybe make it easier to use. The process overall was very enjoyable and we feel very proud of our final product. We learned a lot about creating something specifically for someone's needs, a lot about a whole new coding language, Circuit Python, and also about designing our bag.

Technical information

"""

The Donnie Pack

Brandt Li, Natalie Sarabosing, Peyton Moffatt

This is code that will give notifications for responding to prompts.

  Pin mapping:

    Feather pin | role  | details

    ------------------------------------------

    ~05           output  E-Ink Screen

    ~06           output  E-Ink Screen

    ~09           output  E-Ink Screen

    ~10           output  E-Ink Screen

    ~11           output  buzzer

    ~12           output  LED strip

Part of this code was taken from example code provided by adafruit. (The screen setup).

"""

import time

import rtc

import board

import displayio

import fourwire

import adafruit_il0373

import simpleio

import neopixel

"""################### LIGHTS SETUP ###################"""

pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.D12, 21, pixel_order=neopixel.RGB)

led_count = 21

def updateLEDColor(red, green, blue):

    for index in range(led_count):

        pixels[index] = (red, green, blue)

    pixels.show()

def runLights():

    updateLEDColor(240, 6, 10)

"""################### BUZZER SETUP ###################"""

# Define pin connected to piezo buzzer.

PIEZO_PIN = board.D11

# Define a list of tones/music notes to play.

TONE_FREQ = [2349,  # D7

             3136,  # G7

             3520,  # A7

             2349,  # D7

             3136,  # G7

             3520]  # A7

# Main loop will go through each tone in order up and down.

def playBuzzer():

    # Play tones going from start to end of list.

    for i in range(len(TONE_FREQ)):

        simpleio.tone(PIEZO_PIN, TONE_FREQ[i], duration=0.5)

"""################### SCREEN SETUP ###################"""

# Used to ensure the display is free in CircuitPython

displayio.release_displays()

# Define the pins needed for display use

# This pinout is for a Feather M4 and may be different for other boards

spi = board.SPI()  # Uses SCK and MOSI

epd_cs = board.D9

epd_dc = board.D10

epd_reset = board.D5

epd_busy = board.D6

# Create the displayio connection to the display pins

display_bus = fourwire.FourWire(

    spi, command=epd_dc, chip_select=epd_cs, reset=epd_reset, baudrate=1000000

)

time.sleep(1)  # Wait a bit

# Create the display object - the third color is red (0xff0000)

display = adafruit_il0373.IL0373(

    display_bus,

    width=296,

    height=128,

    rotation=270,

    busy_pin=epd_busy,

    highlight_color=0x000000,

)

# Create a display group for our screen objects

g = displayio.Group()

r = rtc.RTC()

r.datetime = time.struct_time((2024, 4, 24, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, -1))

def display_image(image):

    with open(image, "rb") as f:

        pic = displayio.OnDiskBitmap(f)

        # Create a Tilegrid with the bitmap and put in the displayio group

        # CircuitPython 6 & 7 compatible

        t = displayio.TileGrid(

            pic, pixel_shader=getattr(pic, "pixel_shader", displayio.ColorConverter())

        )

        # CircuitPython 7 compatible only

        # t = displayio.TileGrid(pic, pixel_shader=pic.pixel_shader)

        g.append(t)

        # Place the display group on the screen

        display.root_group = g

        # Refresh the display to have it actually show the image

        # NOTE: Do not refresh eInk displays sooner than 180 seconds

        display.refresh()

        print("refreshed")

t1 = 0

t2 = 0

t3 = 0

t4 = 0

screentimer = time.monotonic()

ledtimer = time.monotonic()

startup = 0

"""################### MAIN LOOP ###################"""

while True:

    now = r.datetime

    curmin = now.tm_min

    if curmin % 12 >= 0 and curmin % 12 <= 2:

        if t1 == 0:

            if screentimer + 180 < time.monotonic() or startup == 0:

                print("running 1")

                display_image("/prompt_1_flipped.bmp")

                time.sleep(8)

                runLights()

                playBuzzer()

                t1 = 1

                t2 = 0

                t3 = 0

                t4 = 0

                startup = 1

                screentimer = time.monotonic()

                ledtimer = time.monotonic()

    elif curmin % 12 >= 3 and curmin % 12 <= 5:

        if t2 == 0:

            if screentimer + 180 < time.monotonic() or startup == 0:

                print("running 2")

                display_image("/prompt_2_flipped.bmp")

                time.sleep(8)

                runLights()

                playBuzzer()

                t2 = 1

                t1 = 0

                t3 = 0

                t4 = 0

                startup = 1

                screentimer = time.monotonic()

                ledtimer = time.monotonic()

    elif curmin % 12 >= 6 and curmin % 12 <= 8:

        if t3 == 0:

            if screentimer + 180 < time.monotonic() or startup == 0:

                print("running 3")

                display_image("/prompt_3_flipped.bmp")

                time.sleep(8)

                runLights()

                playBuzzer()

                t3 = 1

                t1 = 0

                t2 = 0

                t4 = 0

                startup = 1

                screentimer = time.monotonic()

                ledtimer = time.monotonic()

    else:

        if t4 == 0:

            if screentimer + 180 < time.monotonic() or startup == 0:

                print("running bmo")

                display_image("/bmo.bmp")

                t4 = 1

                t1 = 0

                t2 = 0

                t3 = 0

                startup = 1

                screentimer = time.monotonic()

    if ledtimer + 15 < time.monotonic():

        if ledtimer + 25 < time.monotonic():

            updateLEDColor(0, 0, 0)

        else:

            updateLEDColor(15, 0, 0)

Conclusions and Lessons Learned