Question: Team Members Full Names:
Answer: Biao Mao, Hao Peng, Xuan Zhang, Xiudong Tang

Question: Mentor:
Answer: Shi Yin

Question: Title of Project:
Answer: iSee----Networked Learning System for the Blind People

Question: Project Overview:
Answer: A low-cost embedded solution is proposed to help over 3.7 million blind people all over the world with their accessibility to Internet information and education, which enables them to reach large amount of digital reading materials, read online RSS news, and even chat with online friends using Braille directly. Nowadays, the blind people, especially those in developing countries, are facing serious problems in their education. The scarcity of Braille printings as reading materials, limited source of information, and lack of affordable and effective accessibility technologies, has isolated their life from the world, and hampered their development of not only knowledge, but also psyche. The whole system is developed based on the special reading and writing habits of the visual impaired people. A novel Human Computer Interface (HCI) device is originally designed, including refreshable Braille display, assistant keyboard, and speech synthesizer and innovative handwritten Braille recognition module, which enables the blind users to “read” displayed Braille texts like reading Braille printings, “listen” to synthesized speech like listening to people, and “write” Braille directly like writing on paper daily.

Question: Technology/Software Used:
Answer: Technologies Used: Text to Speech, Electro-magnetic Lever Actuator based, Braille display, Touch Screen, Data Access Object Designing Mode, ASP.Net, Web Service, Object-Oriented Programming, C/S Architecture, UDP Communication, Code Refactoring, Factory Pattern. Software Used: Solidworks 2007, Autocad 2006, Protel DXP, Keil uVision3, SSTEasyIAP11F, Platform Builder, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2005, SQL server 2005, Serial-Port Test Tool, IIS 5.1.

Question: Inspiration: What inspired your team to enter the Microsoft Imagine Cup and why did you choose the Embedded Development competition?
Answer: After visiting the Wuhan school for the blind, we found lives in the dark world are really hard. More advanced technology is supposed to be here helping these people. However, what we saw in that the relevant market only provides products of low performance cost ratio, and all existing instruments are PC peripherals, which calls for extra investment of computers. As engineers, we though it is our responsibility to help them with this, developing a low-cost embedded auxiliary instrument for them. Later, we thought out novel ideas and fulfilled two patents, and we found that the Imagine Cup provide us a great opportunity not only in realizing our system with low-cost embedded solution, but also attracting more attention of the world to the blind people. Imagine Cup is a very attractive challenge for us, which also give us opportunity to show our novel idea and imagination. We have learnt a lot on the development of embedded system, and embedded system can provide a low-cost solution in our project, that’s why we signed for the Embedded Competition. Moreover, in fact, for our teammates Xuan Zhang and Xiudong Tang, this is the second rather than the first time, to participate Imagine Cup Embedded Development competition. The pity of having never advanced to the finals served as a driving force to get a good rank this time in the final, with their experience in the past competition and better readiness and preparedness.

Question: Team History: How did your team meet?
Answer: All of us are members of the Electrical and Electronics Innovation Center of Science & Technology (EEICST) of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, which is built for students to spontaneously engage extracurricular practices. We have been studying there for three years together. Four of us have different specialties, such as hardware design, software design and project management. Besides, we all have enthusiasm in realizing the system, which was just an idea before.

Question: Team Experience: What experience did your team have with Embedded Development before competing in the Imagine Cup?
Answer: Before Imagine Cup, each team member has experienced many embedded projects and competitions. Biao Mao have developed a Distribute Temperature Detection System with embedded solution and has successfully applied National College Student Innovation Project Funds. Hao peng have developed an Intelligent Home Cleaning Assistant, an Intelligent Temperature Control and Water-saving Water Heater System and won the Best Technology Award in Actions Semiconductor Embedded Development Contest. Xuan Zhang have participated in the project of ‘Middle-Size Autonomous Soccer Robot’, and the project of ‘Autonomous Swine Raising System’, and have won Best Innovation Award in Actions Semiconductor Embedded Development Contest. Xiudong Tang was also a team member of the research group on ‘Middle-Size Autonomous Soccer Robot’. Besides, he built an Intelligent AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicle) Model based micro-computer and won the first prize in the National Undergraduate Electronics Design Contest of Hubei Province.

Question: Highlights: What has been the best part of the Imagine Cup competition to date?
Answer: Imagine Cup is really cool. It not only provides us chances to visit the most beautiful cities in the world, and meet friends from different cultures and nations, but also enables us to learn from the most brilliant minds from all over the world, then get ourselves improved in abilities and confidence, and ultimately turn our imagination into useful solutions for practical problems.

Question: Inspiration: How did your team come up with your submission? Include which Millennium Development Goal inspired your solution.
Answer: Millennium Development Goal emphasizes the importance of Universal Primary Education (UPE) for everyone. However, according to our survey, we found the primary education is not well performed for a social vulnerable group -- the blind. As engineers, we think we can help the vulnerable groups with technologies. The visiting to school for the blind increased our responsibility and determination to develop some technology to help them. Later, we came up two novel strategies for the Human Computer Intercommunication for the blind with considering their daily reading and writing habits. Imagine Cup provides us a platform to realize the system and finalize our concept. Moreover, we hope more attention could be attracted to these blind people by this competition.

Question: Challenges: What personal or technological challenges did your team face while developing your submission?
Answer: Since our team consists of 3 members in China, and 1 member in USA, the division of labor and task, daily communication and team management requires special effort. So far, in spite of the location distance and time difference, we have a great team work. Everyone is doing the owe job well. Since, we had formal meetings every week, we are actually learning from each other. Technically, the main problem is the bi-directional coding for the transformation between the Braille and normal characteristics. Because words may have the same pronunciation while having different meanings, which makes errors when coding and decoding, translation should be done in context. This problem has been solved using special algorithm. Secondly, we also had some problems in the development of the Braille Display, including how to save the space and power consumption, how to improve the robustness of the display. We had been making improvement during the development. After fail and try and making four generations of this display, we finally made the display meet our requirement well.

Question: Future Plans: What does your team plan on doing after the Worldwide Finals in Cairo, Egypt? Do you plan to use your project to launch a new business?
Answer: Yes, several senior schoolmates who have also participated Imagine Cup and us are planning to set up a company, to produce and sell educational robots and other auxiliary devices. We are planning to turn this project into products in future.