§ Introduce members of the
team
§ Name – Noah X. Deutsch
§ Major and any special
interests – I am a freshman at Gallatin, studying computer science and philosophy.
§ What background in
electronics or programming you each have – My programming background is just the introductory courses in python and java. I had no
electronics background before this class besides what I learned in high school physics.
§ Project Summary
§ Title – Cryptech
§ Short pitch – for my
project, I designed a small safe that required multiple inputs to open. The
safe reads these various inputs, determines if these inputs meet the required conditions,
and then unlocks the safe if they do (technical details in Hardware).
§ Does this fill a need? - Designing a safe that is fun and secure may not fill a need, but it certainly fills a desire. Many everyday
items that we interact with have long strangers to inovation, and this often leads to a boring interaction between the user and the object. I
wanted to redefine the safe because it is something that has for too long remained the same, and a fun yet secure safe is a product that I would buy.
§ Does this mediate or add
to an existing behavior? - Cryptech adds to the behavior of opening a safe, but makes it more interesting and fun.
§ Is this a project you
intended to be more than just a class project?
- While my project is intended for class, I also made it for myself so
that I would be building something that I would want to keep. The next step for me is making it secure and adding more fun components!
§ The target audience
§ Who are you making this
for? - The safe is designed for anybody who would want a secure, yet fun way to
interact with an everyday object like a safe. In particular, this product could be marketed to any homeowner.
§ What tendencies and/or
limitations does this audience have that you took into consideration when
designing your project? - The limitations to this audience are small, for it is
applicable to must adults. Any homeowner could desire a product like this.
§ Did you do any user
observation on your target audience when designing this project? - Since I am technically part of my target audience, you could say I observed myself when designing this product. Otherwise, not really.
§ Did you test your project
with your intended audience? - I tested the safe with my friends, just to make
sure that they couldn’t open it (without using force). Even with the key, they failed every time.
§ If yes, what did you
learn - I learned that it was pretty hard for an outsider to open Cryptech without using force, which was good news!
§ The technical system
§ What hardware did you
use? - For the input used to unlock the solenoid motor, a number of things
were used. A potentiometer was hooked up to an analog input pin, and this
potentiometer acted as the dial for the safe. Two buttons were used for the
final act of opening the safe, one of them being a retro arcade button. A key and lock attachment that I purchased from Sparkfun was also used as a
final way to ensure the security of the safe. The output was far simpler, and consisted only of
a solenoid and a green led. When all the conditions were met for the input, a transistor would "open", the solenoid would “unlock”, and the green led would turn on, symbolizing that the
safe was ready to be opened.
For the actual safe, I
used a small box which I purchased from home depot. The locking hook I built my
self out of a hanger and electrical tape, and this was the hardest part of the hardware for me to create. It was surprisingly
challenging to build a hook that was rigid enough that it would lock every time you closed the box, yet flexible enough that I could manually open it if I needed to.
§ What software did you
use? The only software used was the Arduino software. The code essentially consisted of a series of nested if-statements: If this input is on, and this input is on, and the dial is turned to this value.....then unlock the safe and turn on the light.
§ Did you use any Arduino
or Processing libraries? I did not.
§ Any new types of circuits
or electronic components you had to learn to use? I had to brush up on my
transistor knowhow, but otherwise no.
§ What aspect of developing
the project took the most time? – Building hook for the locking mechanism definitely took the most time. I did not anticipate this to be a problem at the beginning, and had to go through 5 prototypes until I made a hook that locked every time I closed the safe but that I could still manually override.
§ Problems
§ What difficulties did you
expect to have when you first started, and did they occur? I expected my most
difficulties to be building the actual safe. These difficulties occurred but almost exclusively in the hook/locking mechanism.
§ What did you struggle the
most in this project? I had a lot of problems with breaking equipment. I originally bought a hall effect sensor, that would create a new condition required to open the safe. You would have to use a magnet as a key to unlock the safe. However, this sensor broke during the final stages of testing and it was too late to order a new one. I also fried my super-bright red led and broke a transistor in the late stages of building the safe.
§ How did you overcome
these problems?Or why didn’t you, if you
didn’t? - These problems were not completely essential to the project as a whole. However, I think losing them (particularly the broken hall effect sensor) did detract from the "magic" and appeal of the safe. In the near future, I am going to repurchase these items and implement them, taking special care not to damage them!
§ Lessons learned
§ Was this project more or
less work than you imagined at the beginning? It was about the same amount of work as I imagined it would be.
§ Did you have to learn any
new software or hardware techniques to make this? I didn’t have to learn any
new software techniques, but I had to be very resourceful when building the actual
locking mechanism.
§ Did you learn anything
interesting from working on this project? I learned a lot from this project. Mainly, I learned that you have to allocate a lot of time for unexpected problems when working on large projects. I also learned that I need to take very good care of my components or they will break. In addition, I learned that I absolutely need to learn how to solder!
§ The future
§ Do you think this project
has a use outside of class? This project has a use outside of class (for me at least). I intend to work on the project until it is secure, and then use it as my personal safe!
§ Do you intend to continue
working on this? As I said above, I do intend to continue working on the safe, making it more fun with interesting sensors (including the hall effect sensor, which I initially intended to use). Sparkfun sells a biometric fingerprint scanner that I think would make an excellent addition to this project. I would also like to add a couple more lights and maybe some sound to Cryptech.
