Grocery Guard. Western Washington University Electronics Engineering Technology Paul Santos

Transcription

1 Grocery Guard Western Washington University Electronics Engineering Technology Paul Santos

2 Table of Contents 1) Abstract Page 2 2) Description Page 2 3) User Benefits Page 4 4) Global and Social Impact Page 4 5) Development and Demonstration Page 5 Page 1

3 I. Abstract Grocery Guard is a spacious device that can be fitted to your fridge that comes fixed with a barcode scanner that will scan your incoming groceries and be able to store the name and expiration date in a list format. The ideal of this project is to be able to easily determine what food items you have and when they will expire. The user will first scan the barcode of the item and then the information will get sent to the MCU (microcontroller unit), store the information then prompt the user what they would like to do next. II. Description The Grocery Guard system will have a MCU for most of its core functions. Along with this main essential hardware, a serial barcode scanner, a dot matrix LCD display and a keyboard user input device will also be purchased. The MCU will prompt the user on the display whether they would like to take, add an item, remove an item, or view inventory. An example of the setup can be seen in figure 1 below. Figure 1: Grocery Guard Block Diagram Page 2

4 If the user decides to add an item, they will be prompted for a barcode and be able to scan or hand enter the number in case the barcode is ripped or damaged. Once the UPC is entered, it will prompt the user for an expiration date. This is so that when the item is listed in the inventory list, it will show the expiration date of the item and will also warn you on the main display when an item is getting close to expiration date. If no expiration date is available then the user will just input a 0. After this process the name, UPC, expiration date, and date entered will be logged into the inventory list. If in the event there is no UPC barcode and expiration date, i.e. vegetables, fruit or large bulk items, then the user will just select the No UPC option. This will then only prompt the user for the name of the item. Once entered, it will record the number of the item and the date it was entered. This will allow for users to estimate how good a unit of produce would stay unspoiled for. Once data entry is complete, the system will go back to the main menu screen. If the user decides to remove an item, a similar event will take place. The procedure will be the same as it would be for adding an item, but instead of the item being added to the inventory list, it will be deleted to make room for more items. If the user decides they want to view their inventory screen, they then select the inventory option from the main menu. This will display the full list of items in the user s inventory and dates to the dot matrix LCD screen. The user will then be able to scroll through the screen via a keyboard. Once the user is done inspecting the list, they can prompt to go back to the menu screen. Page 3

5 III. User Benefits and Social Impacts The Grocery Guard system will provide ample benefits for every household. With the entire inventory list of your groceries at your fingertips, users will have the ability to see what items they have and how close they are to expiring. By knowing this information, the household will be able to reduce the amount that they spend on their monthly food budget. This system will also reduce the amount of food waste a household produces. By being able to clearly see what items are expiring soon, users will be more likely to use the items before they go bad. Also this system will help with overbuying or re buying an item that the user already owns in their grocery inventory. An added benefit to this system is that with proper management, the user will no longer have to guess what item is causing an unpleasant smell in the fridge. This project s impact on society could allow the users to finally be able to feel more comfortable when buying at the stores and not worry about whether they have an item or whether it is going bad or has just already gone bad. In terms of global impacts, if the system is used correctly it could eventually lead to smaller numbers of food waste throughout the country and help disperse income for households more effectively. IV. Project Timeline This Project is split in to three main sections. The first stage is the planning stage to where the project will be planned out to what may be needed and when everything may get completed. The second stage is the Research phase which will take a slight more amount of time to concretely pin down what materials exactly are needed. The majority of the Project will Page 4

6 be spent during Hardware and Software Implementation. During this time the display, barcode scanner, keyboard and the software will all be worked on and combined together into a working prototype. A visual representation of the timeline can be seen below in figure 2. Figure 2: Visual Timeline for Project V. Development and Demonstration Development will start with purchasing a serial barcode scanner that will be able to scan the proper UPC barcodes. A microcontroller development board, a dot matrix LCD display board, and a keyboard user interface will also be purchased. This board will most likely be the Stellaris LaunchPad Evaluation board (EK LM4F120XL). All code development will be done in Texas Instruments Code Composer Studio v.5 (CCSv5). I will plan to start implementation by being able to get to write correctly to the LCD dot matrix screen. This is the first step mainly because it will be a new type of display that I am unfamiliar with. Next I will start implementing the input from the barcode scanner and send it to the Stellaris and display it on the LCD screen. Once this is done, I will plan to start compiling an inventory system within the microcontroller Page 5

7 that will be able to produce a main menu and store and display the inventory system while being able to be altered by keyboard input. This project will be demonstrated by using a closable container (Possibly a mini fridge), the actual product and a series of items (some with UPC s and some without any). The device will be mounted to the closable container (again probably a mini fridge), with the device powered on and be waiting for a user input. An observer will be able to interact with the system fully. They will be able to look at the main menu display and select an option of viewing the inventory, adding an item, or removing and item. After selecting the input the user will respond accordingly to the selection they have made. Page 6