2014-10-18 (Sa) IoTHackDay

Today is a double post! On Saturday I attended IoTHackDay (Internet of Things Hack Day on FB). Most teams there consisted of two kinds of people, programmers and programmers who knew how to operate a bandsaw. Our team was a designer, an entrepreneur, a mechanically inclined person (also the tallest person in the room), the collaborator, and myself. In a sea of nerds we were the oddballs.

3/5 of the team

Our goal was to build a VR headset in 12 hours. A smart phone, my smartphone, was the core. The hard part was making a device which could hold the phone the correct distance from the user and lenses AND be small enough to fit in a pocket. Since my phone was one of the components the pictures are all courtesy of other team members. Thank you. I had a little experience making VR equipment because of the LEGO Virtual Reality Visor. While that is hardly high tech a stereoscopic viewer doesn't have to be.

 Front view of our creation

 Rear view

Side view and a photobomb by my right hand

We went through several iterations and ideas about how to finish this device ranging from a tapered sleeve idea based on collapsible drinking cups, to arrays of hinges, and an idea based on book binding techniques. In the end we arrived at a solution so simple we couldn't ignore it and used sheer nylon stretched over a frame and then the phone was pressed back into it to hold it snugly while giving it shape. Without the previous iterations we never could have arrived at the final design.

Nylon webbing stretched over a metal frame 

 3D Printed leg used to hold the phone in place. 1 of 4 legs

We got an experience unlike any other by the sheer diversity of our teammates. Our presentation was also among the most professional sounding and led by the entrepreneur who has an MBA.


The rest of the posts for this project have been arranged by date.

A list showing of all the final posts of COMPLETED projects.

No disclaimer today!

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