FOSSASIA PSLab, GSoC-16 : Mid Term Report

I feel lucky and proud to be one among very few who get this rare opportunity of GSoC intern-ship for the third time. Thanks a billion to my source of inspiration and mentors Mario Behling and Hong Phuc Dang from FOSSASIA.

FOSSASIA has undertaken and is supporting many projects which have a potential of bringing a positive social change. ‘ExpEYES : Open Source Science Lab’ is one such project FOSSASIA is supporting since 2014. As a part of GSoC-14 and GSoC-15 we started actively developing Pocket Science Lab as  FOSSASIA’s  important project in the field of science education. The objective of this development was to make available the  most affordable, open source pocket  lab which can help  millions of students all over the world to  learn science by exploring and experimenting.

After FOSSASIA-2016 at Singapore, my mentor Mario gave  many new ideas/plans for making Fossasia Science Lab project more effective and to reach out to students in Asian region.  We started exploring possibilities of adding new tools/sensors and also  developing a new lab interface with higher capabilities to be added to FOSSASIA Science Lab.

On 23rd April 2016 the student projects were announced. I was extremely happy to see my name in the list. I was also excited to see Lorenz Gerber, with amazing profile in science research and Gi Soong Chi along with Mario Behling as my mentors.

Here is the link to details  my GSoC-16 project …….

[wmd-toggle tab_background=”#75a5ce” tab_color=”#fff” content_background=”#93e9ea” content_color=”#725d53″ border_radius=”8″ ls-id=”5768018f684ba”][wmd-toggle-tab title=”Open Source Science Experiments & Data Acquisition System for Physics Education and Research with ExpEYES – Pocket Science Lab”]Pocket Science Lab at FOSSASIA aims to develop open source hardware %26 software technology to improve science education in the developing world. The main component of PSL is ExpEYES%2C an open source hardware and software framework for developing science experiments. %28http%3A%2F%2Fexpeyes.in%29%0D%0A%0D%0AThis proposal aims to develop open science experiments for various branches of Physics. It also aims to continue improvements in the work done during my GSoC-2015 project %E2%80%9CSensor Plug-ins%2C Add-on devices and GUI Improvements for ExpEYES%E2%80%9D %28https%3A%2F%2Fgoo.gl%2F2B2CNO%29. The sensor plug-ins developed during GSoC-2015 project will be used for designing new low-cost experimental set-ups.%0D%0A%0D%0AThe new development that will be undertaken is adding wireless node module for accessing sensors with PSL. This will enable PSL to fetch data from various sensors wirelessly and it will be useful in many experiments involving oscillatory and rotatory motions. Development of low cost modules for characterization in Physics research for example – study of sound and light absorption%2C measurement of thermal conductivity etc%2C is yet another important feature of this project.%0D%0A[/wmd-toggle-tab][/wmd-toggle]

Immediately after the student project announcement I started working on the project and exploring the experiments that can be added to ExpEYES. My goal for this year’s project was to continue the work I had done during previous GSoC and to add new experiments to the ExpEYES library. I also started working on new lab interface.  Here is my work space, my GSoC Lab  🙂

kitchenlab1

Kitchen converted to GSoC-16 Lab 🙂 Linear Air track for mechanics experiments, super-critical dryer which uses PSLab for temperature control and monitoring with other instruments.

In the month of May-16, I spent few days at IUAC – Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, to work with Dr. Ajith Kumar ( Inventor of Expeyes). The time spent at IUAC was most useful as we got help and inputs from many people at IUAC and also the participant teachers of ExpEYES training programme. We designed some new experiments to be done with ExpEYES. Planned improvements in Mechanics experiments especially the experiments on linear air track. We also started working on the new lab interface . Thanks to Jithin B.P.   for helping us out with the hardware part. With the continuous collective efforts now we have a new lab interface  “PSLab : Pocket Science Lab from FOSSASIA

It was little too hectic time as I had to work for my PhD project and had to present my work before Research Review committee meetings in the last week of May and then got excessively busy with college admissions process. As a result I could not communicate much about the work I have been doing.

Here I am trying to give all the details of the equipment and the development done so far and the things planned for next couple of months…

[wmd-toggle tab_background=”#75a5ce” tab_color=”#fff” content_background=”#93e9ea” content_color=”#725d53″ border_radius=”8″ ls-id=”5768026681211″][wmd-toggle-tab title=”PSLab : Pocket Science Lab from Fossasia”]Brand new open source lab interface for science and engineering experiments from FOSSASIA.[/wmd-toggle-tab][/wmd-toggle]

with fossasia logo stickerpslabopen psl2
Size of PSLab is 62mmx78mmx13mm. The front panel will be slightly different than the one in the picture. It will have little extra portion in the top right corner to accommodative 90 degree connector pins. something like this….
pslab
We will finalize the front panel design in a week and get the panels screen printed. The sample kits will be sent to my mentors for testing and suggestions 🙂

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PSLab can function like an oscilloscope, data logger, waveform generator, frequency counter, programmable voltage source etc. It can be plugged in to USB port of PC or SBC’s like Raspberry Pi.

It has

  • 2 variable sine waves
  • 4 programmable  square wave generators
  • 3 programmable voltage sources
  • Programmable constant current source
  • 4 channels for fetching data
  • Sensor input
  • Berg Strip sockets

We are also working on to add wireless sensor interface. This will enable PSLab in accessing various sensors using wireless module.

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All the programs are written in Python. PyQt is used for GUI designing and Pyqtgraph is used for plotting library.

I have created two repositories  for PSLab

: This repo hosts the python library for PSLab (Communication Library depends on python, python-serial, python-numpy)

: GUI programs and templates for various experiments. (Depends on python-pyqtgraph (>=0.9.10), python-qt4 (>=4.10), ipython(>=1.2), ipython-qtconsole(>=1.2)

To Install PSLab in Gnu/Linux

Clone both the repositories fossasia-pslab-apps and fossasia-pslab

Now, cd into the directories , and run

sudo make clean
sudo make install

Now you can run Experiments.py from terminal

Without the device connected to the pc you will first get the following flash screen.

SplashNotConnected

After clicking OK you will get the control panel with menus for Experiments, Controls, Advanced Controls and Help… ( Help files are yet to be written)

controlPanelNotConnected

Once the device is connected to the PC and program Experiments.py is run from the terminal…. one will be able to get the following….

SplashScreen

PSLab Splash Screen

#TO Do … Design new splash screen with PSLab Logo/relevant image.

 

controlpanel

From this control panel one can access various experiments through independent GUI’s written for each experiment.

After installing the library, you may test it using simple Python programs. If you have python-matplotlib installed, run the code listed below

# connect sine1 to CH1
 
 from pylab import *
 from PSL import sciencelab
 p = sciencelab.connect(verbose = False)  
 p.set_gain('CH1', 3)           # set input CH1 to +/-4V range
 p.set_sine1(1000)              # generate 1kHz sine wave on output W1
 t,v1 = p.capture1('CH1', 1000, 10)    # digitize CH1 1000 times, with 10 usec interval
 plot(t, v1)
 show()
 

The output of this program is here ......
 sine-plot

sine plot

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Controls available with PSLab…. and various other GUI’s

sinewaveonoscilloscope

Sine wave generated using control Wave 1 and displayed using CH1

pslaboscilloscope

FOSSASIA PSLab Oscilloscope

 

advanced controls

Advanced Controls

 

logicanalyzer

FOSSASIA PSLab Logic Analyser

One of my favourite experiment Lissajous Figures has become so easy with PSLab…. 🙂

lissajous2

Lissa1

 

lissajous1

Lissa2

 

datastreaming

Data streaming

sensordataloger

Data Logger

squarewave

wirelesssensordataloger

GUI for wireless sensors …. TO DO

In addition to the above development work we also conducted  a few demonstration sessions in science and engineering colleges at Belgaum, India. The feedback from teachers and students in improving the kit  is really helpful in modifying the GUI’s for better user experience.

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  • Add new experiments to PSLab
  • Complete Voltammetry module for ExpEYES
  • Complete Unified GUI for all  Mechanics Experiments using ExpEYES
  • Documentation for PSLab

We are  getting about 25 PSLab  kits ready in the first batch by the end of this month. Thanks to funding from GSoC-15 🙂 Need to work on the PSL@Fossasia website.

Next immediate plan is to get about 100kits ready  and update the website with all the information and user manuals before FOSSASIA-17. It will be a good idea to officially launch this tool during next FOSSASIA 🙂

I am also working on a plan to reach-out to  maximum number of science and engineering students who will definitely get benefit from PSLab 🙂

ExpEYES GSoC-15 Update

Sensor Plug-ins, Add-on devices and GUI Improvements for ExpEYES: Project Update

Things done so far….

Accelerometer/Acceleration sensor:

  • GUI in python  for interfacing ADXL 335 analog acceleration sensor module with ExpEYES.                                                                       ADXL 335-GY-61 is a small, thin, low power, complete three-axis accelerometer voltage output through theGY-61-228x228 signal conditioning at a minimum of full scale ± 3 g measurement range acceleration. It can measure the  acceleration of gravity, and movement, shock or vibration due to dynamic acceleration.Started creating documents for experimental setups and procedures for mechanics experiments and a few sound experiments.
  • Wrote python code and conducted trials to obtain Lissajous Figures using accelerometer ADXL 335. This module is useful for pendulum and other mechanics experiments.

Humidity Measurements:DHT-11

  • Carried  out several tests with Humidity Sensors HS1101, DHT 11 and HS220. DHT11 is a digital sensor and found to give better accuracy. It also measures temperature.
  • Working on DHT11 and DHT22  as they are  most suitable for portable weather-station. GUI in python is almost ready.

Temperature Measurements:

  • Tested  LM35  temperature sensor, whose output voltage is linearly proportional to the Celsius (Centigrade) temperature. LM35 does not require any external calibration or trimming to provide typical accuracies of ±1⁄4̊ C  at room temperature and ±3⁄4̊C over a full −55 to +150 ̊C temperature range.
  • GUI to interface LM35 with ExpEYES and measure temperature in Celsius is ready.
  •  Another temperature sensor PT100 tested. It offers excellent accuracy over a wide temperature range (from –200 to +850 °C). Wrote GUI program for using PT100.

Pressure Sensor:pt100url

  • Tested BMP180 Digital Barometric Pressure Sensor Board Module :This precision sensor from Bosch is tbmp180he best low-cost sensing solution for measuring barometric pressure and temperature.  ( Need to re-write the program to read data accurately)

Magnetic Field Sensor:

  • Working on 3144 Magnetic Hall Effect Sensor. ( Not able to fetch data, but this will be useful for our home-made wind speed device)

Modifications in Existing GUI’s:hallsensor

  • GUI for using Motion sensor SRF-05, (ultrasonic position sensor) is modified  for plotting real-time position.
  • Made necessary changes in GUI for Lissajous Figures using ATTINY85.

Immediate Goals:

  1. Assembling all components of Weather Station. Almost all tools are ready except wind direction tool.
  2. Completing Single GUI for fetching Data for temperature, Humidity, Pressure, wind Velocity and Direction.
  3. Complete documentation for Sensor Plug-ins and Weather-station with images/videos
  4. Using DHT11/22 for measurement of both temperature and relative humidity. Facing difficulties in reading the output of DHT11. I could do it with aurdino but need to do it with ExpEYES.
  5. Auto tweet weather data fetched from sensors.

 

GSoC Weekly Report 13

(From Monday 11th August to 17th August 2014)

This week I conducted experimental trials for all the experiments using python code written for Real-Time plotting and also code for Off-Line mode. Did modifications in the programs wherever necessary and finalized the code for experiments. Wrote python code for Mechanics and Sound GUI. Worked on documents.

I am also working on packaging everything so that the plug-ins can be separately installed on a machine where ExpEYES is pre-installed. Need few days for this work. I will continue this after the final evaluation report is submitted.

To Do Next Week……

  • Submission of Final Evaluation
  • Complete and upload Experiments documents to the blog site.
  • Take trials with experimental set-up and upload photographs and videos.
  • Create a package that can be installed on a machine where ExpEYES is pre-installed.

Since most of the apparatus for all experiments is home-made, I will be uploading the procedure with photographs for creating these devices. I will also add documents with relevant theory for each of the experiment  to the blog site.

It had been a great journey with new learning experiences. Thanks a million to my mentors Mario Behling, Hong Phuc Dang & Hau Dang at FOSSASIA  and Ajith Sir. Even though the coding season ends tomorrow, I am feeling like its a beginning for me.

There is a lot to be done…. and I will be continuing with the work to make this dream a reality.. a dream of providing every student with the most affordable pocket science laboratory.

I have thought of many new experiments on  which I will be working for next couple of days. Also thinking of having a separate website for this work…its possible now…thanks to funding from Google.

 

 

 

Tuesday, 12th August 2014

Today I could complete documentation of experiments with linear air track. Also gave finishing touch to python codes by adding gettext module for internationalization.

The gettext module provides internationalization (I18N) and localization (L10N) services for your Python modules and applications. It supports both the GNU gettext message catalog API and a higher level, class-based API that may be more appropriate for Python files. It allows you to write your module and application messages in one natural language, and provide a catalog of translated messages for running under different natural languages.

Thanks to Georges Khaznadar who helped us with internationalization. The following code is added to all the programs.

”’

import gettext
gettext.bindtextdomain(“expeyes”)
gettext.textdomain(‘expeyes’)
_ = gettext.gettext

”’

Now need to work on pages for individual experiments and also the Common GUI for sound and mechanics.

 

GSoC Weekly Report 12

(From Monday 4th August to 10th August 2014)

This week we could complete the planned work  of writing python programs for plotting real-time graphs and Experimental set-up and code for sound Experiments.

The days spent at  IUAC   (Inter University Accelerator Centre) , New Delhi, ( from 7th August to 10th August) were really fruitful in accelerating the project work.  Dr. Ajith Kumar (who is the man behind  Phoenix Project and inventor of  ExpEYES)  helped me to get permission to work in Teaching Lab and also arranged for my accommodation in IUAC Guest House. Ajit Sir helped me a lot with my project work in writing python programs to plot graphs in real-time.

He has also designed a tiny sine wave generator using ATTINY85 micro-controller which  is of great use in performing sound and waves experiments. We spent a lot of time in the laboratory to give finishing touch to all the programs developed so far.  Jithin B P , IISER Mohali, (jithinbp at gmail.com), who is working on developing android app for all ExpEYES programs was also there with us.

Things we could do ……

  • Completed Coupled Pendulum Experiment with all the theoretical details
  • Experiment to obtain Chladni figures is complete with the experimental set up and also the python code access the experiment.
  • We got the air-track set-up for doing the mechanics experiments. Repeated some of the motion related  experiments to study the changes required. We modified the program for using srf module to plot position time graph. Now we can fetch the position-time data and store it in a file and then plot the p-t, v-t and a-t graphs. We wrote another program to plot this graph in real -time. This program enables students to see the graph in real time as the glider moves on the air track.
  • We also set-up a pendulum experiment using a thick metal block and suspended it using  long strings to have a pendulum of large time period. The program is written to plot the position of pendulum using motion sensor. Committed the same to Git repository. The plot shows the smooth sine curve of oscillations.
  • Tried the experiment with motion sensor using toy cars. this can be an amazing demonstration experiment for highschool students.

Modified and finalized the following python programs…

  • pendulum-echo.py : Program to study oscillations of a pendulum using ultrasonic sensor sfr05 (position detector) by plotting real-time graph
  • coupled-pend-real-time.py : Program to plot oscillations of TWO coupled pendulums in real-time
  • motion-airtrack-echo.py : Programe to plot position time graph for vehicles moving on linear air-track
  • motion-compare-airtrack-echo.py : This program allows to plot position-time graph af motion of a vehicle on an air track.
    One can take multiple trials and view all the plots. this can be used to compare different aspects of motion
    like velocity, acceleration etc…
  • motion-two-srfecho.py : This program allows user to use TWO motion sensors (srf-05 modules) and plot both the graphs
    in real-time. This can be used for studying collisions, conservation of momentum etc…on air track or also frictionless track.
  • We did  necessary modifications in  ATTINY85 based board which can take square wave as input and generates sine wave.
  • Did the experiment to obtain Lissajous figures using two ATTINY boards and wrote the python code to plot the graphs.
  • Also wrote a code for GUI for sound and waves experiments.

To Do Next Week……

Since tomorrow is the [GSoC 2014] Suggested ‘pencils down’ date, therefore coming week I will be working on scrubbing the   code, improving  documentation and completing integrated GUIs for mechanics and sound experiments.

The Firm ‘pencils down’ date is ob 18th August 2014. therefore before Sunday 17th August I will try and give finishing touch to everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GSoC Weekly Report 10

( From Monday 21st July 2014 to Sunday, 27th July 2014)

I am happy with the work that I could do this week. Planning and basic set-up of almost all planned experiments for my GSoC project is complete. Gathered the required apparatus and set-ups are ready. Still some work on python programs for these experiments and documentation is to be done. In another week I will be able do complete the work. Then I can focus on polishing the code and finalizing everything.

Things we could do this week…..

  • Completed python program for using photo-gates for time measurements in various experiments. ( Some issues like timeout error are to be solved)
  • Started working on an interesting experiment of Helmholtz Resonator.
  • Wrote a python program to  digitize sound resulted from different resonators. With this program it is possible to change the frequency of source and when it matches with the natural frequency of resonator, a loud sound is produced. Tested the code with a bottle ( which resonates at about 200 Hz) and  a test tube (which resonates at about 450 Hz).
  • Python program ( srf3.py) to fetch data from srf module  and plot graphs needed some modifications to plot velocity and acceleration graphs. Now the basic program is complete and plots position, velocity and acceleration. Velocity is calculated using numerical differentiation and acceleration is calculated as the second derivative of position with numerical methods. Wrote following code for velocity and acceleration. Committed the entire program to GIT Repo.
  • In most of the mechanics experiments we are trying to plot multiple graphs ( position, velocity and acceleration or kinetic energy and potential energy etc.)  in one figure. In the figure the axis labels of two graphs are overlapping. These labels should have some spacing between them. Studied different functions available in python. I found tight-layout() function from matplotlib to be very easy and useful. Sometimes it can happen that axis labels or titles (or sometimes even ticklabels) go outside the figure area, and are thus clipped. tight_layout() can prevent this and also adjust spacing between subplots to minimize the overlaps.
  • The experiments of resonator and resonance tube are generally performed with tuning forks. Since tuning fork produces very low intensity sound, it is not clearly audible and the frequency is fixed. therefore the length of the resonance pipe must be changed to adjust with the frequency of tuning fork. We used a speaker connected to SQR1 of ExpEYES. frequency of SQR1 can be varied till we get sound of resonance. a wide range of frequencies is available from ExpEYES therefore it is easy to do this experiment with various sizes of tubes and resonators. We used a mic to study the amplitude. Wrote a python program to change frequency of SQR1 and to plot the frequency v/s amplitude graph. The program for frequency response study of pizzo buzzer was already available. Just made few modifications required for this experiment. I did experimental trials with a measuring flask, plastic pipe, conical flask and a round bottom flask.  Resonant frequency is between 300Hz to 750 Hz which varies with length of tube and volume of resonator.

Difficulties faced and things TO DO next week….

  • I am working on smoothing the graphs using filtering techniques. Wrote a program using Savitzky-Golay filtering ( From this source). I could remove all the errors in the program but not getting the plots. Need to work on it.
  • Ultrasonic sensor giving time-out error when used with get-echo program with SQR2 and IN1. It is working fine with SQR1 and SEN. Need to solve this issue.
  • Need to write a separate GUI for time, Speed and acceleration measurements using Photo-gates.
  • Complete Coupled pendula experimental set-up and python program.
  • Continue working on documentation.

 

 

GSoC Weekly Report 5

The past week ( From Monday 16th to Sunday, 22nd June 2014) was really productive in terms of experimental setups and trials with python codes. My mentors offered all the help and guidance and were very  encouraging and helped me to speedup the things….

What We Could Do….

  • Started creating documents for experimental setups and procedures for mechanics experiments and a few sound experiments.
  • Made necessary changes in python programs for using SRF 05 sensor. Did the experiments on linear air track to obtain position -time plots.constant velocitypt graphconstantvelocitypt graphbounce
  • Ordered and received additional Ultrasonic sensors SRF 05. Did the testing work for all ten pieces of srf modules. They all are working good.
  • Wrote three programs for time measurement using photo-gates and explored the use of time measurement functions like r2rtime r2f time and multir2rtime and updated changes to Git repo.
  • On Wednesday, started giving finishing touch to the following experiments…. Frequency of Oscillations of Spiral Spring, Parallel and series combination helical springs and the resulting spring constant, Uniformly accelerated motion on an inclined plane, Conservation of momentum.
  • On Thursday, Continued working on giving finishing touch to the experiments..Had to spend a lot of time with photo-gates. The problem in accessing Light sensors (Photogates) is partially solved……… :) Now I am able to make time measurements using these light sensors.
  • Completed the setup and documentation for Spring oscillations experiments. Here are the screen shots of the experiment with spring oscillations..Screenshot from 2014-06-21 00:04:36Screenshot from 2014-06-20 23:55:05IMG_20140620_234908
  • One more positive development that has happened is…now we are able to access ExpEYES with android phone or tablets….Thanks to Jitin B.P. for this application.I could connect ExpEYES to my Micromax Canvas 4 Phone…the screen shots shows sine waves and square waves connected to different channels…. Now, our dream of providing an open source science pocket lab to every student has come closer to the reality.
  • Screenshot_2014-06-20-22-36-15Screenshot_2014-06-20-22-34-15
  • Wrote and commited some simple python programs required for time measurements and plots to git repo.
  • On Saturday, worked on an experiment to produce Lissajous figures using two square waves. Wrote Program in python and tested the same. Could obtain various Lissajous patterns.In the code we used Capture2 function from ExpEYES library to plot the figures. used two sine waves with a phase difference of 90 degrees.
  • lisawaveslissaellipse
  • On Sunday, continued to work on experiments to produce Lissajous Figures. Generated two square waves with a phase co relation between  them. Used Capture2 function to capture data and plot graphs. The figures are sensitive to phase difference and the ratio of frequencies.These are the patterns obtained……smooth curves can be obtained using sine waves…
  • lisa4lissa7lissa1lissa6lisa3lissa2
Difficulties Faced…
  • I was facing some difficulties in some experiments while using two photo-gates simultaneously for time measurements. The problem is partially solved. Need to fine a good and permanent solution. Ability to use two photo-sensors simultaneously can make many mechanics experiments easy.
  • For spring Oscillations experiment…difficulty in Fitting the curve to get frequency.
  • The smooth Lissajous Figures are expected if we use two sine waves instead of square waves. Working on the module to generate two sine  waves of variable frequency.

To Do………

  • Work on accessing Photo-sensors. Write necessary python code.
  • Write a code for fitting different curves.
  • Create a GUI where user can change the phase between the two waves and can obtain different Lissajous patterns.
  • My Next Step would be to produce these pattern in 3 Dimensions using Laser and Speakers. For this I need an amplifier to drive two speakers. Sine waves and the required phase difference can be obtained from ExpEYES with python code. Aiming at beautiful Laser Show with a lot of science in it…. 🙂
  • Documentation with experimental procedure for the experiments developed.
  • Taking Photos/Videos of set up and also upload screen shots.

Here is my git activity for this week   https://github.com/wavicles/Plugins-for-ExpEYES/commits/master

Plugins for ExpEYES – An Open Source Portable Science Lab

This is the official description of my GSoC Project

Project Title: Plugins for ExpEYES – An Open Source Portable Science Lab

Mentor Organization: FOSSASIA

Assigned mentors: Phuc Hau, Hong Phuc

Short description: ExpEYES ( Experiments for Young Engineers and Scientists) is an Open Hardware and Free Software framework for developing science experiments and classroom demonstrations. This project will work on developing a set of plug-ins for ExpEYES. These plug-ins with GUI’s will enhance the scope of ExpEYES for using it to perform several experiments in mechanics, sound and waves. Project will also focus on adding features for using acoustic and motion sensors for various science experiments.

Additional info: http://expeyes.in/

Details of the Project:

ExpEYES ( Experiments for Young Engineers and Scientists) is an Open Hardware and Free Software framework for developing science experiments, classroom demonstrations and projects. It also functions as a test equipment for electronics hobbyists and engineering students.

ExpEYES is portable, expandable and affordable, supporting wide range of experiments from high school to post graduate level.  It combines the real-time measurement capability of micro-controllers with the ease and flexibility  of Python programming language for data analysis and visualization.

With the objectives of developing  affordable laboratory equipment and training science  teachers, ExpEYES  is from the PHOENIX ((Physics with Home-made Equipment and Innovative Experiments)  project of Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi.   It converts your PC into a portable science laboratory.

The GUI programs are available for various experiments. This project will work on developing a set of plug-ins  for  ExpEYES.  These plug-ins with GUI’s will enhance the scope of ExpEYES for using it to perform several experiments in mechanics, sound  and waves.   Project will also focus on adding features for using acoustic and motion sensors for various science experiments.

The main intention behind this project is to provide students  an affordable hands-on experience which will give them a deeper understanding of graphing and interpreting motion graphs.  The ability to capture real-time graphs offers the important benefit for students to better visualize the associated phenomena and develop a deeper understanding of it.

Python modules like Scipy, Matplotlib and Tkinter will be used.

Details of plugins to be developed

Plugins for Motion Graphs (Mechanics Experiments)

These plugins will focus on providing a graphing app, which can engage students with a hands-on experience that is centered on various aspects of motion. With the use of motion sensor and photo-gates,  ExpEYES can be used to accurately measure position, velocity, and acceleration of a target. The data can be collected in real time and various motion graphs can be plotted.

The mechanics plugins are intended to provide following applications/experiments…

  • App to build a basic understanding of position, velocity, acceleration and slope/rate of change
  • One dimensional motion experiments
  • Newton’s Laws of motion
  • Free fall and value of ‘g’
  • Experiments involving oscillatory motion
  • Conservation of mechanical energy
  • Momentum and collisions  etc…

Plugins for  Sound wave forms ( Sound experiments)

These plugins  are intended to add features for using acoustic sensors with ExpEYES, with the focus on engaging students by allowing them to generate, hear, see and manipulate sound waves. This will enable the use of ExpEYES for many experiments with sound and waves.

The sound and waves plugins are intended to provide following applications/experiments…

  • App to build a basic understanding of amplitude, frequency, tones, harmonics etc…..
  • Experiment to analyze various common sounds by plotting waveforms
  • Study phenomena of beats
  • Speed of sound in various materials
  • Doppler effect  etc…

After GSoC

I will be working on the development of new science experiments and will be involved  in providing training programs to science teachers and students. I will also be volunteering to promote use of ExpEYES and other open source hardware and software tools in education, so that affordable open source tools can  made available to the students of the developing world and help them learn better.

fossasia

project expeyes

It’s going to be a great summer

“Congratulations! You have been accepted into Google Summer of Code 2014″

Welcome to GSoC 2014! It’s going to be a great summer.

At 12:30 AM toady received mails from Google-melange with these subject lines………..  It was difficult to believe that I could make it to GSoC-2014…..feeling great……such a proud and  an awesome moment.

Thanks to Mario Behaling , Hong Phuc    & Phuc Hau   ( my amazing mentors for GSoC) for this great learning opportunity.

The best thing that has happened to me this year was my participation in FOSSASIA @ Phnom Penh , Cambodia. It was Mario who gave me that opportunity and all the support to make it to FOSSASIA 2014.

It was an  amazing learning experience to be with Mario, Hong Phuc, Gnokii, Kushal Das, Tuan and many other FOSS developers and Volunteers. During our interactions Mario  inspired and encouraged me to keep working on ExpEYES and develop new experiments.  He introduced me to GSoC and encouraged me to apply for it. I am very grateful to  Mario Behling for believing in me.

Today in the morning I wrote to Mario  seeking his guidance for my first steps with GSoC. This opportunity means a lot to me and I am determined to work hard to complete the project with positive and best possible results .

fossasia selected projectscom bonding

Happy to see eight other projects accepted in GSoC from FOSSASIA. Congratulations and all the best guys……..