Kate Ringland, PhD

Tag: RFID

Clothing Tags for Individuals with Visual Impairments

January 17, 2014 /
Kate at UMBC SURF Poster Session

August 8, 2012. UMBC SURF Poster Session

Self expression through clothing is inherently visual and is not readily accessible to those with visual impairments. Presently, the best method for conveying information is with high-tech devices that identify fabric colors, but don’t give information about pattern, graphics, washing instructions, or style. Designing clothing tags for the visually impaired user requires that the tags be discreet, comfortable, easy to locate, and that it be reasonably simple to retrieve information from them. With this study we contribute a collection of tagging systems that can be used in future research for the development and testing of fully functional tagging systems that will empower visually impaired users when making clothing decisions.

Ringland, Kathryn. “Accessible Clothing Tags: Designing for Individuals with Visual Impairments”.CHI 2013. Paris, France. May 2013.*

Williams, M., Ringland, K., Hurst, A. “Designing an Accessible Clothing Tag System for People with Visual Impairments”. ASSETS 2013. Bellevue, WA. October 2013.*

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August 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

In a whirlwind of getting everything done, the summer is over!  This past week I created a video showcasing all of the tagging systems I put into clothes.  I also wrote a presentation, which I gave at the Summer Undergraduate Research Festival on Wednesday, August 8th.  This was the same festival that I  created and presented a poster at.

Here are the slides from my presentation.  The video I created followed these slides.

Tagging Systems to Assist Visually Impaired Users Identify Visual Data in Clothing.

And here is the video I created:

 

All in all, I’m really sad to be going home and leaving this project behind.  I had a lot of fun working on it and learned a LOT.  It was wonderful working with so many great people.  I’m super excited to be continuing on with school and working on graduate school applications this fall!

Week 9

August 6, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I can’t believe the summer is almost over!  I guess it’s a good sign that I wish I were in grad school now so that I could keep going with my project. The RFID Reader kit arrived, so I was able to put it together and actually get it to scan RFID tags.  The kit was a shield that just plugged into the top of the arduino.  I used the adafruit tutorial to complete the reader and upload the software required for reading the tags.

Reader Kit Unpacked

Reader Kit Unpacked

Breakaway Headers

Breakaway Headers

Soldering the Headers

Soldering the Headers

Soldering Set Up

Soldering Set Up

All Soldered

All Soldered

Reader Assembled

Reader Assembled

Antenna with RFID Tag

Antenna with RFID Tag

Working

And it works!

This week I also found out that I have been selected to present at the Summer Undergraduate Research Festival on campus next Wednesday.  This means I will be giving a 8 minute talk about the project I have been working on this summer.  So, I started working on my talk and a video that I will play during the presentation.

 

Week 6

July 16, 2012 / / 0 Comments

This week I worked with Amy and Michele to redevelop my project scope for the rest of the summer.  In addition to RFID tags and readers for clothing, I am going to help brainstorm other ways someone could tag their clothing.  I spent the first part of the week looking up how people are currently keeping track of their clothes.

I then decided on some different ways to tag clothes.  Some ideas were buttons, safety pins, QR codes inside the clothes, and RFID tags.  I then went on a shopping trip with Michele to stock our closet and get supplies for our prototype systems.  At the end of the week I started prototyping some tags.

Sample Tag

I also spent some time with Amy looking forward to see where this research is headed.  I’ve started thinking about what I will be doing after this summer is over and applying to graduate school.  This experience hasn’t gotten me excited about keeping the momentum I have here going.

Week 5

July 9, 2012 / / 0 Comments

This week was a short week because of the July 4th holiday.   I spent the week refining my project.  I put together a list of supplies I would need to build an NFC reader and the tags to put into clothing.  Sadly, a lot of the online stores did not have the components in stock.

In the meantime, I examined an already built RFID reader that was made by another graduate student last spring.

RFID Reader

RFID Reader Innards

It was great to be able to see how someone else put a system together with different components.  This system used a battery, an Arduino Pro Mini, a bluetooth controller, and a RFID antenna mounted on the outside of the box.

 

I also helped in the production of a tutorial video.  The video is for people who will be participating in a study using an iPhone app called VizWiz.  Learning how to make a video was a lot of fun.  My main role was narration, which was a new experience for me.

 

Week 4

July 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I cannot believe how quickly this internship is going by!  The first month is already over!  June ended with a severe thunderstorm that left my apartment building without power from 11pm to noon the next day.  The weather certainly is a lot bigger here than in the Pacific Northwest.

Last week, I endeavored to play with my Arduino Uno some more.  I followed through the tutorials first.  This mostly consisted of hooking up LEDs and getting them to do different things (blink and so forth).  It doesn’t sound very exciting, but trust me, it is.  Here are some pictures from the tutorials:

1 LED and Arduino

This was with one LED hooked up. 

 

3 LEDs

These LEDs were flashing at different rates thanks to the program I wrote.

LED and Push Button

The culmination of the tutorials was to have the LED be controlled by a push button.

After I was feeling fairly confident about working with the tutorial, I moved on to the LCD Screen Kit, kindly provided by Amy.  I was able to get it all soldered together.  And I had it working with the program at first, but then something went wrong and I’m still working on getting it fixed.  It’s taking the input from the computer and garbling it, as you will see in the pictures.

LCD Screen Kit Parts

All the parts to be soldered together in the LCD Screen Kit.

Soldered back of the LCD Screen Kit.

Soldered back of the LCD Screen Kit.

LCD Screen Back

LCD Screen Back

LCD Screen Kit Front

LCD Screen Kit Front

LCD Message Garbled

LCD Message Garbled

There is a bit more work to do figuring out how to ungarble the message.  This week I’ll be turning my attention to RFID and NFC scanners and tags.

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