Assistive Tech to Aid Communication for Individuals Who Are Deaf and Blind

Creators: Kenyan Houck & Eric Zhou

This piece of assistive tech is designed to help individuals who are deaf and blind communicate. They will be given a button that vibrates at different frequencies to help differentiate various commands. For example, in our project we have the following:

• 1 buzz = yes
• 2 buzzes = no
• 3 buzzes = hungry
• 4 buzzes = thirsty
• 5 buzzes = bathroom

An individual can choose to select the current command that they are on by holding the button down for 2+ seconds or cycle to the next command by simply pressing and releasing the button. Once an individual chooses to send a command, it is sent over bluetooth from one Circuit Python Bluefruit to another before being passed into the Matrix Portal M4. Once the Matrix Portal receives the input, it will display the correct phrase on the RGB 64x32 matrix grid.

• 2 - Circuit Python Bluefruit: Link
• 1 - Matrix Portal M4: Link
• 1 - RGB 64x32 Matrix: Link
• 2 - Remote Battery Packs: Link
• 1 - Haptic Motor Controller: Link
• 1 - Vibrating Mini Motor Disk: Link

Follow this guide here: Link

Follow this guide here: Link

Follow this guide here: Link

Note: You will not connect to the "in" pin on the haptic controller.

Then match the following pins to your HOST circuit python bluefruit:

• Gnd to Gnd
• VIN to 3.3V
• SCL to SCL
• SDA to SDA

The Button:

• Strip the wire coming from the assistive touch button and form one set of exposed wire
• Use alligator clips to connect one of the branches of the wire to GND and the other branch to A1

Here is the code for the two devices where one will act as the host and the other will act as the client

Here is the code for the Matrix Portal M4

These are the BMP files that will be displayed on the RGB Matrix. If you want to create your own follow these steps:

• Open photoshop and create a new document with a height of 32 and width of 64 * (number of animations)
• Create what you want displayed on the screen in the first 64x32 space and then repeat if you wanted additional animations
• Then go to Image --> Mode --> Indexed Color and accept the default settings
• Then save the file using cmd+option+s for Mac users, and save the file as a .bmp file
• Lastly, add the bmp files to your root directory