Published March 25, 2017 © Apache-2.0

Handstand Master

Help to train and improve your handstand!

BeginnerFull instructions provided3 hours1,900

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino 101

Software apps and online services

Google chrome

Story

Handstand Master

The project were built with arduino/genuino 101.

This board contains a device, called Intel Curie that contains a processor, bluetooth low energy, accelerometer and gyroscope.

The project was built for hackster.io contest on arduino/genuino 101 for the category healthcare.

It's all started as a way to develop a wearable for parkour capable of track and improve parkour movement.. than it become a wearable for improving handstand.

Handstand for preventive Healthcare

The device has been created to engage people on training every day with handstand!

It is a complicated and intense movement and a good exercise to get fit and be healthy: http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/many-benefits-handstands-health-8911.html

It is another fun way to stay fit.

The simple application I built, can track on each session:

number of handstands

how long the last handstand was

how long was the best handstand

how long was the medium of the hanstands

handstand total time position

a demo of the device

How does it work?

The application running on the 101, reads the position of the accelerometers and it creates a bluetooth LE device, with a specific characteristic code and type of value notify. The code on the 101 continually checks the accelerometer data: if something is changed between the previous reading and if the algorithm finds a new position: it sends an update through the bluetooth characteristic.

On the computer side, the application, connects to the arduino. Once connected if something is sent from the 101, an event is raised from the bluetooth stack and a callback in javascript called.

The callback reads the new information and with a simple algorithm establishes if the position received rappresent:

the start of the handstand: it save the start time of the movement and emits a sound

the end of the handstand: it updates the statistics and emits a different sound

something to ignore

Thanks to the "notify" configuration, there is no need from the html5 side, continually polls the device in order to receive updates: the bluetooth stacks do everything by themselves!

Build your own

Download the last Arduino ide.

Open the application , go on board manager and install the support for arduino/genuino 101.

Download the arduino code attached to this page and open it with arduino ide: compile and run!

Once deployed on the device...

unzip the archive attached

open the file main.html on Chrome (drag&drop inside the window the file)

in the page click on "connect", it should show a device called "handstan", it is the arduino

once connected click start notification

rotate the arduino you should see the data on the page updating and the message on the bottom change.

See the following images to understand how the html5 page interact with the device

1 / 6 • once the application is opened, you will have 3 buttons on the bottom

Future improvements

I'm interested in this kind of tracking device. I do parkour and an help to improve my handstands is interesting.

The code on the arduino side is ok, the problem are in the dimensions of the device and the battery pack.

too big, not so wearable :D

The device should stay in a strap around the ankle or put inside a pair of shoes, something like these:

found online here http://hackaday.com/2016/06/10/does-intel-measure-up-at-the-austin-x-games/

The client app right now runs inside the browser of my mac, but with very few effort I can build a native android/ios app with same functionalities and add new functions like:

remember you to do handstands

challenge other players

make results online

Other tests

At the beginning, before put all the efforts on the handstands, I was searching a way to track the quality of my parkour's jumps and so I've also created code to read accelerometer data in order to find jumps patterns..

The code is not working right now (maybe next months) but I did some video that sincronize the movement with accelerometer data:

It's interesting!

#include <CurieBLE.h>
#include "CurieIMU.h"

int lastOrientation = - 1; // previous orientation (for comparison)

BLEPeripheral blePeripheral;  // BLE Peripheral Device (the board you're programming)
BLEService handstandService("19B10000-E8F2-537E-4F6C-D104768A1214"); // B

// BLE LED Switch Characteristic - custom 128-bit UUID, read and writable by central
BLEIntCharacteristic handstandChar("19B10001-E8F2-537E-4F6C-D104768A1214", BLENotify);


void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); // initialize Serial communication
  //while (!Serial);    // wait for the serial port to open

  // initialize device
  Serial.println("Initializing IMU device...");
  CurieIMU.begin();

  blePeripheral.setLocalName("Handstan");
  blePeripheral.setAdvertisedServiceUuid(handstandService.uuid());

  // add service and characteristic:
  blePeripheral.addAttribute(handstandService);
  blePeripheral.addAttribute(handstandChar);

  blePeripheral.begin();

  // Set the accelerometer range to 2G
  CurieIMU.setAccelerometerRange(2);
}

void loop() {
int orientation = -1;   // the board's orientation
  String orientationString; // string for printing description of orientation
  /*
    The orientations of the board:
    0: flat, processor facing up
    1: flat, processor facing down
    2: landscape, analog pins down
    3: landscape, analog pins up
    4: portrait, USB connector up
    5: portrait, USB connector down
  */
  // read accelerometer:
  int x = CurieIMU.readAccelerometer(X_AXIS);
  int y = CurieIMU.readAccelerometer(Y_AXIS);
  int z = CurieIMU.readAccelerometer(Z_AXIS);

  // calculate the absolute values, to determine the largest
  int absX = abs(x);
  int absY = abs(y);
  int absZ = abs(z);

  if ( (absZ > absX) && (absZ > absY)) {
    // base orientation on Z
    if (z > 0) {
      orientationString = "up";
      orientation = 0;  
    } else {
      orientationString = "down";
      orientation = 1;
    }
  } else if ( (absY > absX) && (absY > absZ)) {
    // base orientation on Y
    if (y > 0) {
      orientationString = "digital pins up";
      orientation = 2;
    } else {
      orientationString = "analog pins up";
      orientation = 3;
    }
  } else {
    // base orientation on X
    if (x < 0) {
      orientationString = "connector up";
      orientation = 4;
    } else {
      orientationString = "connector down";
      orientation = 5;
    }
  }

  // if the orientation has changed, print out a description:
  if (orientation != lastOrientation) {
    Serial.println(orientationString);
    lastOrientation = orientation;
    notifyUpdate(lastOrientation);
  }
}

/*updating bluetooth listeners*/
void notifyUpdate(int newOrientation) {
  handstandChar.setValue(newOrientation);
}

Credits

Andrea De Gaetano

10 projects • 25 followers

Interested in iot, mobile and security Love hackathons This is my blog http://pestohacks.blogspot.com

Handstand Master

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Handstand Master

Handstand for preventive Healthcare

How does it work?

Build your own

Future improvements

Other tests

Code

Code for Genuino 101

Html5 Code

Credits

Andrea De Gaetano

Comments

Embed the widget on your own site

Handstand Master

Handstand Master

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Handstand Master

Handstand for preventive Healthcare

How does it work?

Build your own

Future improvements

Other tests

Code

Code for Genuino 101

Html5 Code

Credits

Andrea De Gaetano

Comments

Related channels and tags