As part of the Sensors and Actuators engineering elective I took in Spring of 2014, we were asked to build a product that utilizes various sensors and actuators. As such, we thought of creating a silent voting device that could be used in a range situations including conferences and sessions to capture the opinions of the attendees in rapid polls in an effecient and confidential way. Moreover, we wanted for the device to be a natural extension of the users movement to allow for a better user experience. 

Voting is an integral part of modern day societies that yearn for democracy and transparency. For voting to be acceptable and wanted, it needs to be secretive, anonymus, fast, and reliable. The main aim of this paper is to propose the Tactile Opinion Poll (TOP) system for silent feedback that enables users to cast their vote and opinion in a secure and private way that is both intuitive and easy. The TOP system captures user feedback using haptic modality in real-time by squeezing a smart tangible ball (called the squeezometer) that securely communicates the user feedback to a central software via Wi-Fi. The squeezometer display vibrotactile clues to confirm user selection via a vibrotactile motor embedded in the squeezometer device. A preliminary evaluation is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the system and investigate an optimal voting protocol that the system may use.

Before prototyping, we laid out the needed sensors and actuators in a black box mode. A stress ball was chosen as the base of the device as it provides the needed qualities of the device as it would not give any visual or audio indicators when used, and its use is intuitive.

The components of this voting device are extremely simple, widely available, and cheap. The device mainly uses:

To measure the overall 360° force applied by the user, the flex sensors were connected in a special configuration. In the prototype, the Flex sensors are connected to a variable resistor in a voltage divider configuration to help calibrate the measurement. 

The vibration motors were also connected in a special configuration to distribute the voltage equally. They were also connected to an N Channel MOSFET that acts as a switch that activates the motors in the presence of current, and ensures their deactivation in the absence of one.

Used to measure the movement and its intensity in order to gauge the emotions of the audience (if they're restless, etc...). It could also be programmed to turn on/off the WiFi or function of the stress ball when moved in a certain manner.

An integrated platform that allows users ease of connection to both the internet and other devices. 

In this project, I was mainly responsible for building the circuitry and prototype, while my teammate Katy handled the programing the device. 

Below are the WiFi module, processing chip, as well as the vibration motor. 

For the low-fidelety prototype, we used a basic stress-ball which we cut in half to place the components; the ball was put back together using velcro. 

In parallel, we had some experimentation with vibration motors assembled to create a haptic sleeve. This assembly was used to experiment with the motors and evaluate possible uses. 

* limited information could be shared given the rights of the project.