PBL Project

| DigiDometer |

Mansour Elziyadi, Daanyal Jeewa, Deven Villegas

STEMSOS MIT App Inventor

Driving Question

Our driving question is: How can we lower insurance prices for those who deserve it while simultaneously making it more desirable to drive safer for those who speed?

Introduction

A speedometer or speed meter is a gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a vehicle. Now universally fitted to motor vehicles, they started to be available as options in the early 20th century, and as standard equipment from about 1910 onwards.

Collectively, our team has come together to decide on making a project utilizing the speedometer tool inside of your mobile device to make an app that transmits your speed and stopping data inside of your mobile device to insurance companies so that they can evaluate the risk of you crashing or how good you are of a driver and adjust your insurance price according to your telemetries.

At the beginning of the application, you are hit with a welcome screen with the ability to choose the date and time, after doing so, you are transferred to the next screen which contains the major part of the application. You are able to hit a button which will start tracking and monitoring your speed, and another button to allow you to start a timer. The timer repeats itself every .75 seconds so that it can track if you stopped suddenly or not, by using a mechanism to check what the speed was during every timer reset.

Once done tracking, you will be able to press a button to stop your tracking, pause the timer, and exit the app and enter your destination.

<-----------Procedures and Materials----------->

Procedure:

Launch the MIT App Inventor to design our app.
Connect MIT App Inventor Companion to check for bugs and check if the application works along our coding process.
Began creating the design view, before that we created 2 screens.
We dragged out a sprite to display the logo we made for the made. We then dragged out a label that is the welcome label. After that, there is a button for picking a date that will then lead you to the actual app.
Adding the different screens for the different purposes, like the date selection, measuring screen that comes with the timer function, the timer function comes deactivated, or false, and when you press the button called start tracking, the clock is set to true
On the ActualAppScreen screen, we drag out 2 labels, a label for displying your coordinates, and one for your current MPH. These labels are automatically set to off when the screen initializes. It will turn on when the StartTracking button is pressed.
While we were developing our app we decided to implement a feature that pauses all activities the app performs, the timer and tracking portion. We added the appropriate button, stop tracking altogether, which as stated in the title stops the timer and tracking. We of course used a clock to accomplish the timer aspect.
Next, we added the feature in which an internal clock within the app starts an interval of .75 seconds, and in these .75 seconds, if you make an abrupt/hard stop or turn, the app flags it, and its taken into account. A label called HarshStopsAndTurnsCounter displays the count for the user's convenience
We also implemented a notifier that displays when the app first boots up the actual speedometer screen, it states that it will take a minute for the GPS to calibrate and get the app straight for it to be functional.
Afterwards, we decided to overhaul the code, bringing it what we have now, due to non-functional code earlier due to a lack of testing on the coder's part (coder is writing this).

Materials

Phone/Tablet- Used as a testing device
Vehicle- This is also needed for the testing of proper function
School Provided Laptops and Home PC- For completion of work and background research
Source for foundation of app- community.appinventor.mit.edu/t/a-basic-locationsensor-speedometer/49348
MIT App Inventor- Place where app was developed

Essential Understanding

First, to understand the app we must understand each view for the app and lay out the code.

Welcome Screen

Welcome Screen Code

Speedometer Screen

Speedometer Code

How to understand: To understand the code and such, we must first talk about the location sensor, the vital piece to this entire project. The location sensor is a sensor, much like an accelerometer, but utilizes previous locations and the distance traveled in-between each pings of location to calculate the speed. This explains the locationchanged part as we now know how it functions, due to it using a GPS, we can also use it pinpoint the latitude and longitude of your current location, a feature of the app as well.

Now, its time we talk about the Accuracy part, the accuracy is a numerical value of how accurate your GPS is, higher the more accurate; The app will display the accuracy on a specifed accuracy label so the user can see the accuracy value to get an idea of how accurate their GPS is with tracking their latitude and longtitude.

Next, time to talk about the speed and MPH segment ,or the meat of the app. This part of code translates the tracked and recorded speed, which also utilizes a global variable into miles per hour from the default meter per second data. It then funnels this data onto a label to display the current MPH.

The control block for the when ActualAppSection initialize screen, is the section that controls what happens when you first boot up the screen, it notifies that the app is functional, and the current MPH label is set to off. The latitude longitude label is also off, the location sensor's interval is set to .75, it is turned on.

When the user is ready to start tracking their driving, they can press the button to start tracking, which then enables all the labels that were disabled when the app screen first initialized. Since the app uses timer intervals to measure harsh stops or turns, every time the internal timer reaches 0, it is then reset to .75 seconds.

But, for this to first work, the user must first press the StartTimer button to enable the timer.

When the user is done using the app, they can press the StopTracking button, which will end all tracking data usage, the location sensor and the internal clock.

Real Life Implementation-

1) How and where is it being used?

This kind of tracking tech is being used by mainly car insurance agencies. Its used a program where people can ask to use a piece of hardware that tracks their harsh turns and stops, and it is used to either lower or heighten their insurance cost. That's where this project comes in, this is a digital version that insurance companies can use without having to develop specific hardware for it.

2) How does it benefit our society?

This project makes it more convenient to access this technology, it can also be incorperated into operating systems for devices to help with law enforcement investigations to have the data at which an entity was traveling, such as a car. It of course can also benefit society by using it for its original purpose, the logging of driving data for insurance companies , which has the possibility to help people financially by lowering car insurance costs.

3) What are some future benefits and applications of this project?

As stated above, this technology can used to help authorities in investigations, as the tech improves it can become more precise, leading to more precise readings. It can also benefit driving schools, giving this technology to driving schools can help in the decision of who should get their driver's license as it can tell who is a safe driver.

----Action Video----

Investigation Questions

How does this benefit people in daily life?

This benefits people in their daily lives by allowing them to dispute their current insurance price with this app.

How does this benefit insurance companies?

This benefits insurance companies as they do not have to pay to manufacture the hardware needed for the original insurance driving speedometer, allowing less e-waste to be produced and more streamlined improvements.

How does this make roads safer when used?

This app punishes reckless driving, which if the reckless driver is financially competent, then they will be incentivized to drive safer.

What are the limitations of this app?

Despite the capabilities of this app, there are some limitations. For example, the harsh turns and stops may not be 100 percent accurate as there is a .1-.2 second window that the app doesn't track as it measures how much you've stopped from the in a .1- .2 second timeframe.

Safety

Ensuring that all team members are trained in safe driving practices and are licensed drivers.
Conducting all testing in a safe and controlled environment, such as on a closed course or in a driving simulator.
Using a mobile device mount or hands-free device to ensure that the driver's attention is focused on the road at all times during testing.
Making sure that the mobile app does not distract the driver or interfere with the normal operation of the vehicle in any way.
Adhering to all local traffic laws and regulations during testing, including speed limits and traffic signals.
If testing involves collecting data from multiple drivers, ensuring that all participants are fully informed of the nature of the study and have given their informed consent to participate.
Regularly monitoring the accuracy and effectiveness of the mobile app during testing to ensure that it is not causing any safety concerns.

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