System input and output

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To input: Input

To algorithm: Algorithm

To output: Output

The user must be able to adjust various settings of the Smart Bedroom to fit his own needs. In addition to that, the system must provide its user with information about how he slept and the user must be able to provide feedback, which the Smart Bedroom can take into account during the following nights. For this project, however, we won’t be able to implement all features the way we imagined it, if at all. We’re not so experienced yet with working with the Arduino, so the descriptions for that may be a bit vague.

System input

Input Dream Arduino prototype
Setting or keeping track of the time and date. The Smart Bedroom uses the time and date according to your smartphone. The time and date according to your laptop.
Temperature in the bedroom. A simple thermostat is placed in the Smart Bedroom. N/A

(The Arduino has no temperature control.)

Brightness in the bedroom. A sensor placed in the bedroom measures the brightness. N/A

(The Arduino won’t take the brightness into account.)

Brightness outside. A sensor placed on the outside wall measures the brightness. N/A

(The Arduino won’t take the brightness into account.)

Choose between no alarm, standard alarm and smart alarm. The choice is made with a drop-down menu on the mobile app for the Smart Bedroom. N/A

(Focus is on the smart alarm.)

Indication of when the user is going to sleep. The user presses a big ‘Start’ or ‘Sleep’ button on the app. Starting the program.
Choose when you want to wake up. With the standard alarm the user selects the exact time he wants to be woken up, with the smart alarm he chooses the start and end of the period in which he wants to be woken up. In the script there are two vectors containing numbers of years, month, days, hours, minutes and seconds. One of them indicates the end of the 'wake up period' and the other one the length. You'll have to adjust them manually.
Choose what the Smart Bedroom controls (lights, blinds, heater). Checkboxes on the app can be used to toggle the use of lights, the blinds, and the heater. The temperature in the room during the night must be adjustable, but default would be about 18 °C. N/A (There isn't much that the Arduino controls anyways)
Sound control (volume and type of sound). The volume can be adjusted with the volume control buttons of the phone itself. The type of sound can be chosen from a database from the app itself or from the personal folders on the phone. You could simply adjust the volume of the laptop. There's not much support for if you would desire another type of sound, but if you really want to, you can save an audio file of your choice in the folder containing the scripts and adjust the names of the alarms in 'runscript.m'.
Sleep cycle (how deep the user sleeps). There exists an app already that can translate the sounds the user makes when sleeping (breathing and moving) into a sleep cycle. The Smart Bedroom will do the same. The program uses a microphone to find the frequency of the user’s breathing and translates that into a sleep cycle.


System output

Output Dream Arduino prototype
Temperature control. The Smart Bedroom controls the heater and keeps the temperature constant at a pleasurable level for the user to sleep, default at about 18 °C. Just before the alarm goes up, the temperature needs to rise to a level set by the user. N/A

(The Arduino won’t be able to control the heater.)

Control of the blinds. From the start of the ‘wake up period’, the brightness in the bedroom needs to be gradually increased to help the user wake up. The system uses as much natural light as possible, so if the brightness outside is high enough, the blinds will slowly open up. If the user is fully awake or hasn’t woken up yet during the ‘wake up period’, the blinds will open up completely. N/A

(The Arduino won’t control the blinds.)

Control of the lights. If it’s still too dark outside, the Smart Bedroom will gradually turn on the lights instead. If the user is fully awake or hasn’t woken up yet during the ‘wake up period’, the lights will turn on completely. The Arduino will gradually turn on a LED, but won’t measure the brightness because it doesn’t add much to this project.
Alarm sound. In the case of the standard alarm, of if the user hasn’t woken up yet during the ‘wake up period’, the smartphone produces a generic repetitive alarm tone at the time set by the user. In the case of the smart alarm, the phone produces a more natural sound when it’s the right time to wake up the user like birds tweeting or waves crashing. The volume will increase over time to ensure the user wakes up. The Arduino plays a recording of birds singing in the morning for the smart alarm and an alarm sound similar to that of a digital alarm clock for the standard alarm.
A graph of the entire sleep cycle of that night. The graph is shown the moment the user turns off the alarm and is stored in a database for later use. It is possible to draw such a graph, but we won't do that for the prototype in order to increase processing time.


Feedback mechanism

Feedback Dream Arduino prototype
Temperature during sleep. The user can rate the temperature by choosing between "Too cold", "Chilly", "Alright", "Warm" and "Too hot". The Smart Bedroom uses this information to adjust the temperature during sleep in the following nights accordingly. N/A

(The Arduino won’t control the temperature.)

Brightness when waking up. The user can rate the brightness by choosing between "Too dark", "Dark", "Alright", "Bright" and "Too bright". The Smart Bedroom uses this information to adjust the blinds and lights accordingly. The program asks the user for a numerical input. 1 means "Too dim", 2 means "Dim", 3 means "OK", 4 means "Bright" and 5 means "Too bright". The Arduino adjusts the brightness of the light during the following experiments accordingly.
Sound volume. The user can rate the sound volume by choosing between ‘Too soft’, ‘Soft’, ‘Alright’, ‘Loud’ and ‘Too loud’. The Smart Bedroom uses this information to adjust the sound volume accordingly. Furthermore, the user can change what kind of sound the system makes if it didn’t please him. The program asks the user for a numerical input. 1 means "Too soft", 2 means "Soft", 3 means "OK", 4 means "Loud" and 5 means "Too loud". The Arduino adjusts the volume of the sound during the following experiments accordingly.