BlueTape

Going the Distance

Our Goal

BlueTape is a bluetooth enabled smart measuring tape that pairs with a companion app which identifies the user’s correct clothing size in a desired brand to facilitate the online shopping experience.

See it in Action

Simply connect the device and take your measurements, then choose a brand and your preferred clothing fit and the app will display your perfect size. Watch the 15 second demo video below to see it in action [1].

The Design

BlueTape consists of a handheld electronic measuring tape device which connects to a mobile device using Bluetooth, and a companion app on the mobile device which intuitively supplies all of the features to the user.

The Case

Designed in TinkerCAD, the case was 3D printed which allows for a perfect fit for the internals at a very low cost [2].

The Hardware

Consisting of a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a sensor, a battery, a guide wheel, and a measuring tape; the internal hardware fits into the bordeline-handheld case. With small modifications such as a smaller chip and a more appropriately sized battery, the device could easily be cut down to about half of it's current size.

The App

Created using the Flutter framework, the BlueTape app allows a user to find their perfect size in any brand in the BlueTape database according to their measurements and preferred clothing fit [4].

In the future, we plan on improving the app's aesthetics and adding functionality which will further simplify the online shopping experience.

The Database

Currently containing the sizing for 51 brands, the database is implemented using SQLite which facilitates the addition of funtionality such as support for multiple users, more clothing types, and the ability to add user submitted brand data [5].

The Project

BlueTape was created as a project for the Design Project II course, which is a requirement for Engineering students at the University of Victoria [6]. In the course, students are required to form teams, decide on a project, and find a faculty member who will supervise their work. As a requirement for the course, this website was made to showcase the project. This website is based off of HTML5 UP's free website template, Paradigm Shift [7][8].

About The Team

A group of five engineering students at the University of Victoria who chose to work together because of their diverse set of skills:

- Jesse Bateman, Computer Engineering

- Yves Belliveau, Software Engineering

- Baraka Lwakila, Software Engineering

- Benjamin Stadnik, Electrical Engineering

- Erin Wikenheiser, Electrical Engineering

Acknowledgement

The BlueTape design team would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Dr. T. Ilamparithi, the course coordinator; Dr. Xiaodai Dong, the primary course instructor; Sai Prakash Reddy Konda, the course TA; and the chairman.

We would like to thank the engineering wing lab techs: Paul, Brent, and Rob for their help in acquiring parts as well as their input into potential sensor designs.

We would also like to say thank you to Priya Angara, and Felipe Rivera for acting as project co-supervisors. We would like to give additional thanks to Priya Angara for going above and beyond in finding time to proofread, give feedback, and point us towards tools and resources with no delay.

Finally, We would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Hausi Müller, who felt confident enough in our idea to act as our project supervisor and take on all of the responsibilities and time commitments that went along with it, no matter where he was in the world.

References

[1] "BlueTape Demo", youtube.com, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7XZQNR88EY. [Accessed: 1-Aug- 2019].

[2] "TinkerCAD", tinkercad.com, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.tinkercad.com/. [Accessed: 1-Aug- 2019].

[3] "Raspberry Pi Zero W", raspberrypi.org, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-zero-w/. [Accessed: 1-Aug-2019].

[4] "Flutter", flutter.dev, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://flutter.dev/. [Accessed: 1-Aug-2019].

[5] "SQLite", sqlite.org, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.sqlite.org/index.html. [Accessed: 1-Aug-2019].

[6] "SENG 499: Design Project II", uvic.ca, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://web.uvic.ca/calendar2019-09/CDs/SENG/499.html. [Accessed: 1-Aug-2019].

[7] "HTML5 UP makes spiffy site templates", html5up.net, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://html5up.net/. [Accessed: 21-Jun-2019].

[8] "Paradigm Shift", html5up.net, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://html5up.net/paradigm-shift. [Accessed: 21-Jun-2019].