Future Work

A Cleaner Look

My final prototype used hot glue and external wiring to hold everything together. Below are some changes I would make that lack the expertise to back it up (I'd love to play with this stuff to figure out the best ways of going about it): 

• Designing or finding a half-dome light diffuser to better diffuse the LEDs

• alternatively, keeping hot glue as the diffuser, but making the disks more clean (I'm looking at you, yellow light). 

• Keeping the components within the design: wires, LEDs, resistors, the microcontroller. It's all hot glued outside, which not only looks bad, but makes it easy to break with movement. 

• Fixing the 3D print finish: Sanding or heating up the model to make the edges more smooth and look more finished. 

• Change the color: I originally tried to print in black, but there weren't many 3D printers available and I had to print in the color they had. I would like it to be black or yellow to more resemble a real stoplight. 

• I need to figure out what to do with the antenna. Right now it's just sticking out and looking ugly.  

Better Soldering

I had to re-solder together pieces many times. Movement would separate the LED prongs from the grounding wire. I think finding a way to attach the wiring and cables to the inside of the model and finding another adhesive would be better. Right now, the solder is my only adhesive between components. Instead, I would use the solder as conductive connection, and find another way to maintain the pieces together. Either through fitting in a well-designed model with internal spacing, or straight-up hot glue. 

3D Modeling

Because I was learning so many new things from scratch, I wasnt able to explore 3D rendering or modifying pre-existing 3D designs. 

I would like to explore creating internal designs that take the schematic into consideration. i'd create paths for the wires and make more smug fits, so that movement doesn't break the final product. 

I thought of using acrylic or another material for a final product rather than PCA, but honestly the plastic is easy to modify and super lightweight, making it ideal for a final product. 

Earring Backing

I originally drilled into the stoplight and used a jump ring to create the hanging earring, but by the time the deadline was approaching, I couldn't do anything but hot glue an old earring to the stoplight and hope it holds. 

In a V2, I would find another way to get the earring backing/stick on. Possibly drilling a hole and hot gluing on the inside. I'd have to do more research on jewelry-making to figure it out. 

My current code makes it hard to organize, sort, and filter through the current website list. An easy fix would be to import a csv to the script and modify the csv website list. 

It also has some issues I'd like to fix, such as the fact that the color doesn't change when changing tabs, only when loading a new page. 

As well, the python script will change color based on anything that contains the website in quotations. So, for example, if I tell it that "google.com" is green, the following sites will also be green:
docs.google.com
sites.google.com
However, those sites would be a red for me, since I'm likely working.
This was helpful for "nyu.edu", since all websites ending in that, including Brightspace and Shibboleth log-in would turn the earring red, even thuogh I did not manually list them; but doesn't allow for too much flexibility. 
This should be an easy fix, but I am in exam-brain and haven't been able to change the code yet. 

The python script should be running in the background at all times, but for some reason my computer automatically shuts it after a period of inactivity. I'd have to figure out why that's happening and how to stop it from happening again.

There's other ways I can use the code and/or design and product idea that I think would work really well

Desk Top Stoplight

Same exact idea, except the design would be a standing stoplight, such as this one, that would connect to my computer whenever I sat down at the desk (aka whenever it was within bluetooth range). I could either have it plugged in, or have a small battery at the bottom. 

This is less versatile since I can't wear it when studying outside of the house, and is impractical to take everywhere, but it would be bigger and less mobile, making it easier to build.  

Computer-Mounted Light

I could create a mount through suction (or another method) to the back of my laptop screen. The idea would remain the same, but connected to my computer for power, and disaplying the Stoplight on the back of my computer. It could be useful for when I study with friends. 

Mounts and Versatility

I could also design a stoplight that can be used as an earring, mounted on the computer, or placed on the desk top. Basically, the same base design, but able to be used in different places based on different ways of standing it. 

Bluetooth (BT) Stoplight Moderator

Now that I can connect my phone and/or computer to any arduino microcontroller (MC), and have a script send information via BT to that MC, I can basically send any info that my phone or laptop has to the device to change colors. 

I have POTS, which means my heart rate increases significantly at innocuous activities if I forget to take my meds. I also like to ignore notifications on my phone and live with an anxious partner. 

I could create a standalone Desk Top Stoplight to display my heart rate to Lenny based on green, yellow, red. It could connect to my phone/apple watch, or alternatively, to a Polar BT-compatible heart rate monitor. It would be cool to explore.