T & C Learning Center

The Teams in Engineering Services (TIES) Town and Country team worked on the integration of 9 LCD monitors to produce one high definition multi-screen display that can run various applications ranging from learning tools to entertainment.  The current challenge is to design a structure to mount, house and keep the monitors secure.  Encompassed in the design process is structural integrity, heat flow and heat distribution.  This project is expected to conclude by the end of spring ‘09.

Updates as of Fall 2009:

With the completion of the 2009 Spring and Summer quarters, the TIES Town and Country team has successfully finished the integration of the 9 LCD monitors into the Learning Center. Our TIES group is currently installing new media programs that will utilize the high-resolution screens, and we aim to educate and placate the children in the Center. The director hopes the new applications will both educate and broaden the horizons of the children's minds, or at the very least quell the rambunctiousness of the children.

Project Background:

The Town & Country Village is a government-subsidized low-income housing project in southeast San Diego.  Two adjacent apartment units were converted into the Learning Center to provide a space for kids to play and study together after school (Warren).  Today some 30-40 kids come to the center each day.  Over twenty donated computers get plenty of use for internet browsing, studying, games, and projects.  Veverly Anderson, or “Miss Veverly,” runs the center and is extremely well-respected and loved by the community.

The Town & Country Learning Center also happens to be part of a special collaboration with UCSD’s Dr. Michael Cole.  Mike has been working since the early 80’s in UCSD’s Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC).  In collaboration with many others, he has studied social and technological factors that affect children’s learning and development in impoverished communities.  Mike pioneered an innovative model – “Fifth Dimensions” – for carrying out his studies.  Fifth Dimensions are partnerships between institutes of higher learning and underprivileged communities, where college students, or “buddies” as they are called at the center, spend time playing, teaching, and bonding with the kids and teens there.  In essence, the college students and the kids in the community are teaching each other: college students learn communication, observation, and reflection skills while the kids can learn about web design, dance, computer programming, visual arts, filmmaking, or whatever else it is that interests them (Cole). Meanwhile, after each visit the college students complete write-ups, called fieldnotes, and submit them online for use as qualitative data in LCHC research.  UCSD offers course credit for participation in the program.

The problem at the center we chose to tackle this year is how the parents at the Town & Country Village are disconnected from what goes on at the learning center.  For instance, at the center’s end-of-summer block party, only around a dozen parents showed up, even though the event was publicized with flyers and by kids encouraging their parents to come.  Parents should be able to feel happy and proud for what their kids are doing at the learning center.  With this in mind, Dr. Sukumar had an idea to build a large, high-resolution display for the center.  The display could be used for tons of activities, from movies to educational games, to digital art or to technology demonstrations, and all these activities - fun enough a normal computer screen - would become nothing short of breathtaking.  We believe such a display will generate excitement about the learning center and be a great asset to the people who use the center.

Updates as of Fall 2009:

Now with the completion of the 9 LCD monitor display, the Learning Center is excited to get content to display up on the screen. The children need activities and learning applications to utilize the high-resolution monitors that are configured and set up. With these applications and tools we hope and believe that it will spark eagerness for life long learning, and bring fun and education together.

Design Constraints:

The TIES Town and Country team had a few critical constraints that needed to be taken into account towards the design of the project. The constraints can be broken up into design and client (time) constraints.

The design constraints were as follows:

1. Monitors must be high definition screens to serve the purpose of providing high def images.

2. Have a structure to hold screens, allowing for a much easier and safer design.

3. Monitors must NOT to be mounted on wall, instead, a ground support must be applied to prevent unnecessary complexities.

4. Monitors should be held to the wall by L brackets to prevent the screens from falling in the case of an earthquake. 

5. Screen needs to be offset from wall in order to allow proper heat flow.

The client constraints are as follows:

1. The screens had to be donated resulting in time constraints.

2. The placement of the screens should be taken into account to allow everyone to the images.

3. The distance to the ceiling is dependent on fire codes.

4. Monitors have to be stationary, as in the screen is not to be moved from its location.

Structure Design:

The structural portion of the project focused upon the design of the frame for the nine LCD monitors. The main design question rested upon the decision to mount the monitors on the wall or on a free standing frame. The first option to mount on the wall required a lot of information such as the wall’s condition, distance between wall studs, and choice of material. For the project, we assumed the townhouse was constructed with wood. This approach is tricky due to the fact that the wall’s composition is unknown. None the less, if the wall is constructed of wood, then the thickness of the wall must be determined to consider what length the screws need to be. If all these information was officially known, then the design option of three horizontal beams with three vertical beams attached with LCD monitors could be implemented. However, as examining the design, we ran into few other problems. First, the screw has three major responsibilities – to hold up the weight which consists of beams and monitors, hold up the fasteners, and keep the frame from tipping. The ultimate design failure will fall upon the amount of torque created on the screws. The second problem falls upon the construction. To attach the vertical beams to the horizontal beams the screws need to be fastened from behind. If the horizontal beams are already attached to the wall, then the question becomes how to attach the vertical beams to the horizontal beams. The same would rest upon the mounting of the monitors to the vertical beams. Due to the complications, we decided against the first option and resort to the second one. The second option is to have a free standing frame with brackets attached to the wall for safety measure. This design provides structural stability and integrity. In addition, the construction can easily manage. The only question becomes the design of the bracket which will be one of the next steps in completing the project.

Heat Flow:

The current progress of heat flow analysis aimed at answering one main question; will enough convection occur to prevent overheating behind the monitors and the tower enclosure, if there is to be a tower enclosure?

Given the maximum watt usage, dimensions of the screens, and temperatures taken with an infrared temperature gun we were able to determine the maximum possible heat flow coming from the back of the screens. We used the heat flow equation:

And found the heat flow coming from the back to be between 15.68 Watts and 58.5 Watts depending on the heat convection coefficient of air, ranging from 10 to 100. We are concerned primarily with the flow from the back and not the front and sides because the backside flow is confined. From the estimated heat flow we found that the spacing away from the wall should be at least 4 inches.

All written calculations can be found on the Town and Country Learning Center team’s google group web site. Further research is being done to determine the confinement allowable for the towers.

With the current design of the free standing structure to support all nine screens the base extends past the monitors more the 4 inches, so heat flow should not be a problem.

Our client, Town and Country Learning Center, expressed excitement towards working with TIES throughout the upcoming years.  During week 2 we had an opportunity to introduce the following ideas to the client:

•           Multi-panel High resolution monitors display

•           Moisture sensors for garden development

•           Music and dance interaction pad, light control, weight monitor

•           Telescope photos

•           Garden time-lapse photography

•           Eye morphology photography for health care diagnosis

The client welcomed the group’s ideas and gave us the limitations of each idea. After we discussed each project in detail we decided our efforts would be best rewarded if we all concentrated on one project. We decided that the multi-panel High resolution monitors display was the project that best suited are engineering expertise.

            In our initial interaction with the client we took a tour of the T&C Learning center were we observed that the multi-panel display would have to be in a specific living room within T&C learning center. The display would have to be secured and immovable. It would have to be safely secured for earthquakes. It would also have to be placed so that all heights of children and adults could view it comfortably. The towers which would be powering the monitors were to be placed in an adjacent room (across a withstanding wall). This tower room is currently a clothing outlet for residents but the client expressed that it was rarely used (<1 visit per month) and the design of the tower enclosure was not a high priority. The towers could even be visually exposed to the room. The client expressed no concern for aesthetic appeal of wires or depth of screens which lowers the cost and time for design.  We took all our constraints and worked together to come up with a design that would be presented to the client in our next meeting.

During week 8 we met with the client to update her on our design and obtain the feedback necessary to finalize the design. The heat analysis was also presented to her and the client is beginning to consider an A/C unit for the monitor room.  The client gave the team freedom to design any fixtures were deemed necessary. Modification to structural and electrical components has been allowed. But the group decided to be minimally invasive when designing the brackets and wiring.

Updates as of Fall 2009:

During week 3 of this quarter, we got a group of us together and ventured down to the Town and Country Learning Center. For most of us it was our first time down there, and actually seeing the project put a lot of issues in perspective. Our Client, Veverly Anderson, seemed very excited to hear our ideas, and she opened our minds to some interesting information. She explained that the carpet in front of the 3x3 is dispensable, which would allow us to potentially slit the carpet, and slide the DDR mat application under the carpet, so there would never be any clean up for it. We could paint the arrows and directions straight on to the carpet, and save on storage space. She was happy to hear all of the goals that we have, and let us inspect the Learning Center, for possible insertions of the different applications.

Design of the project evolved through much iteration. The first design (figure 2) was to have the screens mounted to the wall and have the computers housed in box in the other side of the wall in another room (figure 3).  The screens with mounting brackets and rods were found to have too much torque on the wall and would not be safe to mount directly to the wall.  Also it was decided that it would not be a good idea to fully box in the computer towers in the other room.  Both because of heat issues and they are already self contained.  This would be discussed with Veverly later on.  The next design consisted of the screens being mounted in a free standing design and then bracketed to the wall for safety reasons (figure 4 & 5).  From here we had a base design and it had been refined on a weekly basis adding brackets and changing dimensions to match the materials we would use.

The following is an estimated material list for the multi screen system. A more detailed list should be made for the following quarter. 

              9 Dell monitors

              2 – 4 towers

              3 – 72 inches Metric T – slotted beams

              3 – 78 inches Metric T – slotted beams

              9 plates for Dell monitors

              2 – 3 brackets

              Screws

              Washers

              Base for the monitors

Costs

The following tables shows the estimated costs for the material and labor needed to create the monitor system.

For the structure portion, the decision to mount or use a free standing design is still being discussed. General design decisions will be finalized in the beginning of spring ’09. As far as short term goals it is projected that a detailed design of the monitors mounting system and in construction will by concluded by the end of spring ‘09.

The finished 3x3 monitor screen will open doors to many more projects for the Town and Country team. Features that are being considered are; linking the system at the Learning Center to a system placed at UCSD to gain access to large resolution images from the super computer center, using floor controllers in an educational and fitness emphasized way, such as, being able to walk through Google maps to explore the world.

Updates as of Fall 2009:

This quarter we have a giant list of goals that will happen through out this quarter and next year. The long-term vision for the future of the project has many different interesting things in store for the Learning Center. The first goal for the quarter is to implement a protective screen over the 9 LCD monitor display to prevent scratches and accidents. Also, as a safety issue, the team needs to place foam molding over the corners to ensure the safety of the kids as the new applications begin to launch. We would also like to begin creating a user manual for the LCD monitors. The 3x3 display will encompass a myriad of parts and assemblies. This calls for a technical manual that will convey technical material in a concise and effective manner. As a team who will be implementing the product, we also want to ensure that our users will have a clear understanding of how to operate this display. Use of jargon should be kept at a minimum so that non-SMEs (those who are not Subject Matter Experts) can troubleshoot, assemble, and manipulate as needed without being inundated. Ideally, the technical manual should be effective enough to allow a non-SME will be able to replicate the assembly of the 3x3 display.

Aside from finishing touches on the display and the user manuel this quarter, the group would like to install a moisture sensory network into their outdoor garden that will display certain images and captions when the plants need to be watered, and how much water to give each plant. We want to break the garden up into 9 particular quadrants, which will be mapped perfectly onto the display. We want to implement moisture sensors, which are connected to an Xbee chip and sent back to the computer database. We are planning on hiding all of the electronic components inside of a faux rock to keep the aesthetics of the garden. This quarter we would like to finish all of the lab testing for the sensory network, so we can begin installations early next Winter quarter. We are hoping that we can teach the children responsibilities for the care and up keep of plant life through a fun and interactive application.

Also this year we would like to reverse engineer a Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) Pad, so we can control some of the applications with this interface. The group has purchased 2 separate DDR pads, one to test with, and one to take a part. We have opened up the DDR pad to see what is going on inside, and we hope that by the end of the quarter we can characterize some of its functions.

For the up and coming quarters, we are beginning research on an interactive multi touch table, which we can display applications on the screen with. We would like to have applications such as paint, which will respond instantaneously to the touch, and be as if the children are painting on the display. We are in collaborations with a computer science team that is prototyping a system such as this, and we are hoping that we can help them with customer feedback by implementing it into the Learning Center.

The Town and Country team has made significant progress this quarter towards the design of the 9 LCD monitor screen. Many of us will continue onboard the T&C team to see to the conclusion of the project. With a rough design finished we look forward to creating a final detailed design, material list, and hands on construction of the screen system.