Portfolio Highlight: Snack Tracker
Overview
In this post I will be discussing the SnackTracker project that was worked on in 2017 (my third summer at PointSource). At a high-level, SnackTracker was a fullstack IoT system that incorporated software and hardware into a seamless experience. NOTE this is a very high level look at the project as a whole and I won’t be going into too much detail (I would hate to bore you…). If you love details feel free to email me any questions or requests at timcreasmanwebsite@gmail.com!
What is IoT?
IoT stands for “The Internet of Things” and as described by Trend Micro “can be described as an extension of the internet and other network connections to different sensors and devices — or “things” — affording even simple objects, such as lightbulbs, locks, and vents, a higher degree of computing and analytical capabilities.” For example, many smart homes are considered to use an IoT structure as they utilize an array of different types of sensors that give the user realtime feedback with the ability to manipulate their environment.
The Problem
In the cafeteria of our office we had a small side table with an array of six snack bins. Employees could come here and grab whatever they wish throughout the work day, however, theres was no way of quantifying which snacks were popular and which were hated (other than listening to the banter around the office). Our team of four interns was tasked with designing, and implementing an IoT solution to not only track the inventory of snacks, but display the current amount, history of snack consumption, and the snack of the day.
The Solution
While I could attempt to describe our whole solution in words I figured it would better to just show it off with a diagram.
Snack consumption display
Technologies Used
Below is a comprehensive list of all of the technologies used in this project.
Hardware used:
Software Used:
- Javascript and Angular JS for the frontend display.
- NodeJS Server for getting the data from the Pi to NodeRed.
- Arduino C/C++ libraries
- IBM BlueMix Cloud for storing the data.
- NodeRed for pipelining the data into the cloud.
Going Places
Once us interns finished the project over the Summer, it was converted into a mobile version of the system and shipped to a tech conference in L.A. Here it was put on display and showcased as an example of the power and usefulness of IoT systems. The image at the top of this post is actually the mobile version with just four snack bins installed.
Information about the SnackTracker starts at 28 seconds.