lumin8it

Light up your world with lumin8it! Make your own light-up, Internet-connected shoes. We created a way for kids to click-to-code to promote a positive first-time hardware engineering experience.

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Inspiration

Hardware doesn't need to be hard. We wanted to create a way to promote a positive first-time hardware engineering experience for kids. We chose to create a kit to make light-up shoes because they are a daily wear item that sparks joy when they glow! A light-up shoe build also translates well to adults because of the shared appreciation for their whimsy. We created a website where the shoes can be coded via clicking configuration options, a much easier way to scaffold the experience of get started than writing C++ code. We added a button to run through multiple programs and a variety of sensors so the shoes can react to the world around them. Our instructions are presented in 3D so users can understand the various perspectives of assembling the hardware. We have a high interest in bringing our product to market and foresee it being sold at a cost of $50 per kit. Light up your world with lumin8it!

In 24 hours, we created the hardware kit, 3D instructions, a web app to click-to-code the hardware, an API to store the programs created from the web app, program interpreter code running on the hardware, and a commercial with an original jingle!

There is not a current offering for click-to-code capability for beginners working with Arduino hardware. There is a business opportunity to provide this functionality and scaffold the experience of working with hardware for the first time to wanting to write your own hardware programs. The target market is children age 6 to adult. We have experience teaching hardware in the community, through which we've found a great need for this project. Plus, several folks who have heard of our build kit want to buy one. During Technica, we received an invitation to conduct product validation with a group of students to obtain customer feedback and refine it to go to market.

What it does

Kit

  • includes all hardware components to make one pair of sneakers
  • components are pre-soldered so all they require is assembling
  • contains a QR code link to 3D assembly instructions
  • priced at $50; could potentially reduce in bulk
  • hardware: Adafruit Feather, Neopixel light strands, button, accelerometer, force sensor, sound sensor, UV sensor, air quality sensor

Hardware

  • connects to Wi-Fi, calls API, interprets the programs and runs their functionality

Web App

  • enables children to click-to-configure their hardware and see the code as a result
  • contains 3D hardware setup instructions to ease their hardware experience
  • React, React Bootstrap, Fyuse; hosted on AWS S3 fronted by CloudFront for performance and scalability

API

  • stores and retrieves programs created through the web app
  • AWS API Gateway, Node.js hosted on AWS Lambda, AWS DynamoDB

How we built it

Kit

Hardware

Web App

API

Challenges we ran into

  • Managing teaching, learning, and applying skills in a time-constrained environment
  • MVP had lots of functionality options, with different light and sensor combinations. Likely could have simplified it for the scope of 24 hours.
  • Because of number of pieces that compose the project, each individual piece was not as robust as we would have liked
  • Though website writing to API and hardware interpreting work individually, we were not able to complete debugging end-to-end

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Brainstormed a big idea together and counted on each other to make it happen
  • First React App that one of our teammates had ever created
  • First hardware experience for most of our team
  • Encouraged each others' creative interests (product packaging, commercial, jingle, LED patterns, etc.)
  • Creating a project dedicated to Tech for Social Good

What we learned

  • When rapid prototyping an idea, leveraging interoperable Cloud platforms can help significantly
  • How to work with hardware
  • How to build a React App
  • Breaking down complex concepts into beginner-friendly information
  • Teamwork makes the dream work!

What's next for lumin8it

  • Complete the full prototype
  • Market test with students (at Technica, a teacher expressed great interest in facilitating this)
  • Identify suppliers of bulk hardware components

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