Project Braille

Project Braille focuses on developing a Braille glove for passive haptic learning of Braille. The project is divided into three repositories:

Repositories

• BrailleGlove
  Contains the code for the microcontroller responsible for controlling the Braille glove.

• BrailleGlovePaper
  Contains the research paper, including details about the user study and evaluation, written in LaTeX.

• BrailleGloveStatistics
  Contains the anonymized data and statistical analysis from the user study.

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Internals

Libraries

Appart from the standard arduino environemnt libraries, we need the WifiEspNow library for the wifi communication as well as LittleFS for the folder structure and loading files such as the website.

Environments

The project contains two environments, one for testing and one for running the software in general.

Environment    Status    Duration
-------------  --------  ------------
d1_mini        SUCCESS   00:00:00.145
d1_mini_test   SUCCESS   00:00:00.143

Documentation

The full GitHub Pages Documentation is also available on GitHub pages.

Project Structure

GloveTest/
│── html/
│   ├── index.html        # This is the generated HTML for the documentation which is used in the GitHub pages
│   ├── ...
│
│── latex/
│   ├── refman.pdf          # This is the generated latex PDF for the documentation
│   ├── ...
│
│── data/
│   ├── switch.html          # This is the mobile website for controlling the microcontrollers
│   ├── TestingSite.html     # This is the testing site used on the laptop
│
│── src/
│   │── ActuatorTypes/
│   │   ├── Actuator.h        # Abstract class for any kind of actuator
│   │   ├── ActuatorType.h    # Enum file for actuator names
│   │   ├── StrokingActuator.h  # Code for the stroking actuator
│   │   ├── TabbingActuator.h   # Code for the tabbing actuator
│   │   ├── VibrationActuator.h # Code for the vibration actuator
│   │
│   │── Controller/
│   │   ├── Controller.h      # Controls whether the microcontroller is a master or slave
│   │
│   │── Mapper/
│   │   ├── ActuatorProcessingOrderMapper.h # Defines processing order for actuator sensitivity
│   │   ├── BrailleMapper.h   # Maps characters to Braille encoded for controller pins
│   │
│   │── Master/
│   │   ├── WifiMaster.h      # Handles WiFi communication and website setup for master
│   │
│   │── Models/
│   │   │── EncodingScheme/
│   │   │   ├── ChordingScheme.h    # Enum for OST and Sequential encoding
│   │   │   ├── Encoding.h          # Controls encoding and switches encoding type
│   │   │   ├── OSTEncoding.h       # OST encoding implementation
│   │   │   ├── SequentialEncoding.h # Sequential encoding implementation
│   │   │
│   │   ├── GloveModel.h      # Defines glove functions, timings, and pin mapping
│   │   ├── HandEnum.h        # Enum for left or right hand
│   │
│   │── Settings/
│   │   ├── SingletonGloveSettings.h # Stores OST and Sequential timing settings
│   │   ├── SingletonWifiSettings.h  # Stores WiFi settings including slave MAC and network names
│   │
│   │── Slave/
│   │   ├── WifiSlave.h       # Handles data reception and glove model execution on the slave
│
│── test/
│   ├── ...                   # Tests files as defined below
│
│── main.ino                  # Main program file
│── platform.ini               # PlatformIO configuration file

Description

This project is designed for controlling a Passive Haptic Learning Braille Glove using an ESP8266 d1 mini microcontroller. It consists of a master-slave architecture where the master handles WiFi communication and the website interface, while the slave receives data and executes actuator commands.

Components

• data/: Contains web files for controlling the microcontrollers.
• src/ActuatorTypes/: Defines different actuator types (stroking, tabbing, vibration).
• src/Controller/: Determines master/slave functionality.
• src/Mapper/: Handles encoding mapping for Braille and actuator sensitivity.
• src/Master/: Implements the master controller handling WiFi and web setup.
• src/Models/: Includes encoding logic (OST and Sequential) and glove functions.
• src/Settings/: Stores configuration settings for the glove and WiFi.
• src/Slave/: Implements the slave microcontroller logic.
• main.ino: The primary entry point of the program.
• platform.ini: Configuration file for PlatformIO, which is used for the arduino code.

Tests

The tests are contained in the test files. Moreover, we are using a CI/CD pipeline to build the project in GitHub directly using GitHub actions.

GloveTest/
│── test/ 
│   ├── ActuatorTypesTest          # This is the testing site for the actuator types
│   ├── MapperTest    # This is the testing site for the mappers
│   ├── Mocks    # This is the testing site that creates the mocks in order to let it compile without the right controller on the github actions
│   ├── ModelsTest    # This is the testing site for the different encodings