About The hot potato Project
This is an MIT-built-from-scratch-system, created by undergraduate students taking 6.900 (Engineering for Impact). We are testing against the MITOS Onset/Hobo System and Dashboard. Its purpose is to help students learn-by-doing, test new technologies against off the shelf technologies, etc. It works in tandem with MITOS’ Heat Dashboard project which includes stationary sensors at campus locations where people spend time outdoors
To be more direct, the purpose of this system is to understand the local heat experience on various parts of the MIT campus.
To do this, we designed a portable temperature and humidity sensor (which we have dubbed the "Hot Potato") which is intended to be transported around campus. The Hot Potato is a small device intended to be clipped to a backpack
Nodes
Nodes are areas which we expect to have high traffic, places such as the Infinite, the Stata, the Stud, etc. These nodes display an aggregate of device readings around these areas, so users can quickly get a sense of the heat experience there while still preserving privacy.
Requirements
*** Accurately measure exterior air temperature and humidity as a person walks around, with dynamics appropriate for the use case.
* Measure sun exposure as a person walks around, with dynamics appropriate for the use case.
*** Very small, portable, easily affixed to a backpack or similar so a person can walk around with it without too much trouble.
** Report faults (battery failure, mechanical destruction, etc.).
*** As inexpensive as possible, COGS of no more than 20 USD.
*** Electronics fabricatable and assemblable by JLCPCB.
*** Environmental data from each sensor node connected to the location at which the data is obtained as the person walks around.
*** Maintain privacy.
*** Battery lifetime of 3 months or at least 24+ hours between recharging.
*** Rugged, able to withstand summertime Boston-area environment (heat, rain) and typical jostling during transit.
** Transit environmental data connectable to spot measurements of the person's body temperature.
*** Multiple systems usable simultaneously.
*** Information presented on a dashboard in real-time or near real-time, with ability to download raw data.
* → *** indicates level of importance.