Ed1NR - Remote Special Education

although both ESP32 glove platforms could be connected directly via WiFi to the cloud via google cloud pub/sub services a decision was made to implement a raspberry pi 4 as a local standa alone app server and remote gateway so that a teacher could locally connect to the education platform from a device say cellphone or tablet in case no internet service is actually available and could be use as a stand alone face-to-face platform and if internet service is available then all local communications are replicated to the cloud. 

having a local stand alone gateway also gives the possibility of recording the transactions locally and then replicating them later to the cloud for remote supervision.  it also serves as a OTA update service repository. 

First Prototype: Gloves but we have 2 problems

1) one hand size does not fit all.

2) finger tip sensory reduction (important for other task)

solution Velcro Tape

Already one side with strong adhesive to hold in place cables and linear motors, also Velcro is comfortable and fingertips are left open.  they can be resized on the go. by simply tightening the Velcro belts around the fingers. 

Velcro is also cheap and abundant and commercially available. 

Design of project:

Basic Design of remote education solution was built around the understanding of a method to teach math to children with visual disabilities, witch is the teacher inputs censorial impulses via the hands of the student (making pressure) in different parts and patterns of the fingers to represent different operations and numbers, numbers 1 to 10 are counted making pressure to the fingers (Units, Tens, Hundreds, Hundreds thousands are signaled to left fingers in left had and different operation signal as plus (+) minus (-) multiplication (*) divition (/) and (=) are also signaled through the left hand variation of the pulse length and frequency of pressure over the left hand fingers. 

so a teacher would input the operation 1 + 1 = 2  as pressure in right had little finger, then single short pressure in little finger left had (+) and then again a pressure in right had  little finger the a pressure left hand thumb (=) and then annular finger pressure to indicate (#2) and so on he teacher would use his voice to further indicate each number and signal. then the student mus reply the hole operation and then gradually he would be asked only the question ans he would have to reply only the answer part.

Mayor draw back of this method is that it requires one teacher and one student as well as physical contact of each other to be able to input and read output of each operation and number.

to digitize this we made a sort of glove with 3M Velcro tape and use a set of coin linear buzzers positioned above the middle of each finger to vibrate to signal input, and some tactile buttons in the middle part of the fingers so students can reply the answer. 

We used Velcro Tape and not regular gloves as hands are not all one fit all and Velcro allows for rapid modification with out sacrificing commodity of wear.

each button and buzzer are connected to a ESP32 micro controller witch interprets the digital signals and outputs an PWM signal to the buzzer each hand has a micro controller and both of them are connected via wifi to a Raspberry ¨Py 4 witch acts as an internet gateway and also contains an angular app so it can function in offline mode. 

the math app allows the teacher to connect any mobile device or computer to the raspigateway via wifi lan and open the angular local app to enable teachers to send the impulses either to a single pair of gloves or to all the gloves connected via MQTT Messaging, since MQTT is an publish subscribe protocol, if connected to WiFi that has Internet Aveleble all messaging is cloned and sent via internet to a central web platform where a techer can later access and either review or command new operation instructions with out having to developed a separate system. so the solution can work online and offline either one (teacher) to one (student) or One (teacher) to many Students.