Were developing a shoe removal detector which identifies and notifies a person entering the premises with shoes. Were developing it in a way to work as an intruder alarm as well. Though there are many intruder alarms in market this one includes shoe

Executive summary

This project development proposal is for “Shoes removal detector”.

In many cultures, it is considered unclean to wear shoes in the home. Sometimes visitors from different backgrounds sometimes forget to remove their shoes when they enter such cultured homes. To counter this problem Shoe removal detector will help to notify person who forget to remove their shoes.

The focus market of this shoe removal detector is every house owner who want keep their house hygienic and keep dirt away from visitors’ shoes. Especially asian(Indian+Chinese) backgrounded people are the market focus. Also the Hindu and Buddhist temples insist people to remove shoes before entering. Such kind of places could also be a good market place.

According to some research over billions of people around the world, they have custom removing shoes outside the house. Most of east Asian and south east asian people have culture removing their shoes outside the house.

In the western culture people have been preferring to wear shoes or some kind of protection on their feet. But nowadays western people are becoming more concerned about hygiene issues and started to prefer removing shoes. During our research we found that western people are also likely to buy the shoe removal detector because they are aware of the fact that shoes with dirt, pesticides and toxins may seriously affect human health especially the house with kids.

Though more people are aware of advantages of removing shoes outside the house, they wouldn't want to embarrass a visitor having robotic stuffs on the doorstep. This is a great risk for our product market and we need to insist the hygienic issues more firmly to market this product.

This device would help people to practice removing shoes when they enter house and also would be help to establish more hygienic life in the house.

Table of contents

Introduction

We’re developing a shoe removal detector which identifies and notifies a person entering the premises with shoes. We’re developing it in a way to work as an intruder alarm as well. Though there are many intruder alarms in market this one includes shoe removal detector as well. Our main market focus is the people who are very concerned about hygiene and the people who have the custom of removing shoes outside the house such as chinese and indian people. There are some places like Hindu/Buddhist temples they insist to remove the shoes before entering. In such places this product can help a lot.

But we still face a potential risk because though people are concerned about hygiene they wouldn't want to embarrass a visitor. It could look insane. We have to overcome this risk by insisting the risks we face by an unclean shoe.

We will face many design problems while working on this.

Circuit should sense the foot with socks as a shoe-less foot.
Water on the sensing pad could create false triggering
Environmental factors can ruin the circuit if people are going to keep it outdoor.
Making everything work with less power.

On the rest of the proposal we discuss about following things

Vivid explanation of product
Design concepts
This includes what technologies we consider to develop the product and pros and cons of each and basic science behind each technology.
Product development
how we divide the circuit to achieve the goal.
Market analysis
Cost estimates

2. Explanation of the product and design concepts

2.1 Product explanation

This product detects whether the visitor is wearing shoes or not and notifies him to remove the shoes if he’s wearing one. So here we’re going to use a sensing pad which is big enough not to miss visitors foot. Once the visitor set the foot on, it has to notify newcomer to remove his shoes if he’s wearing one. This product can also be used as an intruder alarm, which notifies the owner of the premises about the newcomer.

2.2 Design Requirements

To be competitive in the market, it has to fulfil more than it’s core requirement.

It has to precisely detect when the newcomer is wearing the shoes. In brief, It has to have following qualities to compete with other similar products in the market.

Precision, economical power usage, user- friendly, reliable, mobile.

The product should precisely detect the newcomer with shoes to avoid embarrassment. That means we try our best to build a product which is not vulnerable to other environmental facts. For example moisture of air, wet shoes, leather base shoes ...

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2.2 Design Requirements

To be competitive in the market, it has to fulfil more than it’s core requirement.

It has to precisely detect when the newcomer is wearing the shoes. In brief, It has to have following qualities to compete with other similar products in the market.

Precision, economical power usage, user- friendly, reliable, mobile.

The product should precisely detect the newcomer with shoes to avoid embarrassment. That means we try our best to build a product which is not vulnerable to other environmental facts. For example moisture of air, wet shoes, leather base shoes etc…
The product should be economical to build and affordable for the households.
It’s not worth to spend hundreds of dollars to build the product because the necessity of the product for users is not that high. Also users won’t like to spend much on running the product. So this also has to consume less power.
No user would prefer a product that is not user friendly. So we have to make it a plug and play device
It absolutely has to be a reliable product to gain trust.
This should be mobile to make sure that user can move the product anywhere he wants.

2.3 Design concepts

We divide our whole circuit in to 3.

Human skin detecting part.

This part sends signal (true) to the rest if a human skin touches the pad designed.
Newcomer detecting part

Human skin detecting part can only send true signal when a human skin touches it. It can’t detect the shoes on it. So we need another part which detects the presence of human on the pad.
Notifying part

this part comprises the above signals and notifies the newcomer about removing shoes if he’s wearing one. It welcomes the visitor and notifies the owner about the new comer.

We have different ideas to execute each part.

Human skin detector

We have considered about many ideas to make this work.

PID (Passive Infrared Detector)

We can use short focus PIDs to this detectors. Long range PIDs are normally used for automatic doors, intruder alarm, some automation devices. In this technology the main concept is detecting the black body radiation emitted from our body.

Advantages
More precise since it uses human body radiation to detect.
will work even through socks

Disadvantages
Short range PID can only cover small area. That means visitor will have to set his foot on that small area.
Capacitive touch pad

this uses capacitive nature of human body to trigger on the circuit. Comparatively cheaper and reliable method.

Advantages
Cheaper option. Reliable. Many electronic components to use. Can use a bigger pad to step foot on. Will work even with reasonable thick socks

Disadvantages
complex circuit
Resistive touch pad

This works by lowering the resistance between 2 pieces of metal. Placing foot across the plates achieves the goal.

Advantages
Easier circuit than capacitive one. Can make a bigger pad. Reliable. Cheaper.

Disadvantages
wet shoes can switch on the circuit.

Newcomer detector

IR beam break concept

We use an IR beam across doorway so that person walking through will break the beam. So this circuit would send signal(true) if the beam breaks.

Using this method could make the product less mobile but can add an extra feature of detecting a newcomer more precisely because IR beam can’t be seen by naked eyes.
Pressure sensing concept

We use a pressure sensor so that when we step on the pad it detects the pressure difference and sends the true signal.

Pressure sensors in the market are comparatively expensive and adding this sensor on the product will require more mechanical modifications(springs and nuts) and thus will increase cost.

but this will make the product more mobile.

Notifier

We use either a digital message board or audio device which welcomes and notifies visitor about removing shoes.

There are 2 messages on this unit. Welcome message and shoe removal message.

If the newcomer detector detects the presence of a visitor (True) it triggers the welcome message

If the human skin detector detects the touch of feet (True) it triggers nothing.

Say if a person is coming with shoes the unit will say a welcome message and a removal message.

If he’s on his bare foot it only triggers the welcome message.

The 2nd case can’t happen. If this happens it means the alignment of IR beam or pressure sensing tech is broken.

2.4 Selection overview

We’ve decided to use capacitive touch plate because it’s more reliable and precise and cheaper than other options.

IR beam break option for detection of newcomer. Because it precisely detects the newcomer and is cheap to implement.

Audio device to notify the visitor coz it creates more attention than a message board.

2.5 Unique selling points

In summary our product not only meets the design requirement but also some unique selling points.

Will also welcome the visitor
Will notify the owner about the presence of newcomer
Will work on own voice recording
Can also be used as an intruder alarm

3. Market analysis

3.1 Market overview

Shoe removal detector could be a solution for the people who want to keep their house clean from dirty shoes of a visitor.

According to some research over millions of people around the world, we come to know that they have a custom leaving their shoes outside the houses. Most of east Asian people have custom leaving their shoes outside their house.

However, in the western culture, most of them wear shoes and some wear slippers at home. The main reason is to keep their feet protected all the time.

Also some people say they feel uncomfortable if they walk around with barefoot. Another reason is cold climate.

Most Asian countries have the culture leaving their shoes off in the home including South Korea, Japan,Indian continent and China.

Mainly they are concerned about hygiene and want to keep their home away from dirt, pesticides and toxins on shoes. Especially pesticides affect nervous system also may irritate skins or eyes. Some other pesticide may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body. Since kids are really vulnerable to such dirts, it's really vital to remove shoes.

After some research, some interesting things are found that many westerners are aware of this issue and it is likely that the westerners are also willing to purchase the our device since they are aware of the fact that shoes with dirt, pesticides and toxins may seriously affect human health. Therefore the markets of our product are not just limited in Asian countries, the markets of the product is every countries in the world who want to remove shoes so that they keep the house clean.

3.2 Market research

As every countries have their own customs and own cultures, we have interviewed some people from different countries I.e Asia, Western, mid-eastern and Indian people whether they would like to purchase our product and what would be a reasonable price.

Most of the Asian/Indian people are positive and likely to purchase the product, because they want to let their multi cultured visitors know about this shoe removing custom.

So rather than telling them to take off the shoes, which could be a embarrassment for the visitor, they would like to use a electronic product which notifies it.

From our survey to Westerners, we found that there are also many people who would like their visitors not to wear shoes in their houses.

The summary of the research:

From our research, 60% are likely to buy the shoe removal detector and 64% of people who likely to buy the device wanted to keep away dirt and pesticides away from home.

Everyone who are willing to buy the device will use the device only when visitors come only and most important features they said were cost(55%) and 40% said they willing to pay around $45-$55 for the device and 35% said $35-$45 are reasonable price for the device.

3.3 Estimated market size

With the epidemics spreading around, people are becoming more worried about infection by other people outside.

This graph shows the number of people who are currently in hospital with Swine Flu in Australia

The numbers of people in hospital are still increasing, so people in Australia are becoming more aware of this issue of infection of the influenza. It is important wash hands immediately when get back to home to avoid the infection. Dirt on shoe may be also a problem. So this means as the numbers of people who worry about infection influenza and it may be a increase the market of our product shoe removal detector.

Our estimated market size is large enough covering Indian and Chinese origin people who live in multi cultured Australia.

4. COST ESTIMATION

Component $ (Aus) quant price

5. Development plan

There are a number of developments to be done before final functional prototype to be finish. Furthermore, the device can be developed under group discussion and meeting.

5.1 Future development plan

Making human skin detector

We make each of the circuits mentioned above except for PID and see practically the precision, complexity and cost of the circuit.

Resource

555 timer,BC549 transistor, 4148 diode, Schmitt trigger hex inverters(74C14), 10K potentiometer, IC sockets, 4011 CMOS nand gate IC, resistors, capacitors.

Risks

we couldn’t find some parts precise sensing parts like QT100 IC in the local stores.

Handling the practical difficulties

Vulnerability of circuit to water, other environmental factors.

Time

We have already tested all kinds of circuit in a rough manner. But haven’t tested them in real life. Harendharan is responsible for this part.

Complete building up the circuits for infrared transmitter and receiver

At this stage we built up the circuits for infrared transmitter and receiver. This is one of the most important parts for the device. This infrared device will sense the human passing that if the infrared breaks then it sends signal to the alarm that human has just passed.

As this step is very important, we should spend more time on this stage so the infrared send correct signal without any errors. We are also considering pressure sensor if infrared sensor does not work well.

Resource

4093 quad Schmitt trigger, BC338 npn transistors, IR LED, IR receiver, 4518 dual 4-bit counter, zener diode

Risk

More complex circuit practically aligning the IR beam in real life alignment could easily go wrong

Time

We have built the circuit in a prototype board but for some reason it’s not working. We’re working on that. Should finish it before week 8. Hyeon cha will concentrate on this.

(Estimated time: 40 hours)

Adjusting sensitivity of the sensors

In this stage we will adjust sensitivity of the sensors that appropriate to our purpose of the device. Both members.

(Estimated time: 20 hours)

Making notifier(Combining signals of touch pad and infrared sensor)
This stage is also very important stage. As mentioned before it has to collect the signal from above parts and work. We haven’t worked much on this topic yet. Here we are developing a audio device to record our own voice to notify people.(If possible).
It will play message according true false signals from detector parts.

The function of this is to determine whether human passing with wearing shoes or not.

Risks
recording our own voice could be harder
should play the appropriate messages.

Time
finish it before week 10. Need to put more effort on it.

(Estimated time: 25 hours)

Preparation of Final report and demonstration

The final report to be completed by 16th October 2009

Preparation for the Final Report will include collation of all relevant to the project and needed information into a presentable format.

(Estimated time: 48hours)

Preparation of Seminar and Demonstration

The preparation to be completed by 9th October 2009

The preparation includes preparation of speech and final test of the shoe removal detector before the demonstration and seminar.

(Estimated time: 10hours)

5.2 Potential development plan

Creativity design

From the survey of market research, about 26% were thinking design is most important feature of the product. So we should consider a creative design for our product. Also size is another thing we should think about.

This task would require some design research.

(Estimated time: 15hours)

Alarm

Sound of alarm was third most important feature of the product that people voted.

We could store some variety sounds in the alarm system so that amusing visitors to avoid embarrassment when alarm operate.

We also have to make sure that sound of alarm is controllable so it does not embarrass visitors with very loud sound.

(Estimated time: 4hours)

5.3 Evaluation of the product

To evaluate the outcome of the product is successful following measure is taken to ensure the device detect shoes correctly, performance of the shoe removal detector under various environment and safety.

The shoe removal detector will be tested to various people (ie. Adult, kids, think socks). This is done to ensure that sensors are work properly for everybody and also it test the appropriate sensitivity of the sensors for the detector.

To ensure the device and user safety, the device will be subject to different working load to prevent electric shock and damage to the device.

6. Conclusion

Through the market research, shoe removal detector is commercially and economically viable product in the real market.

With the market research and research survey, we know what is the most important feature people thinking, so we can focus on the problem and we can satisfy them.

Also through the research we know the main market is for people who do care about hygienic of their home. The exact specification of the product is obtained then the product will appeal and attract the people we targeting.

The main technical feature of the Shoe removal product is detecting shoes in any environment and any conditions.

The advantages of Shoe removal detector are

1. Hygienic problems:

Protect dirt, pesticides on shoes from outside so provide hygienic house life.

Carpets absorb dust and become breeding grounds for dust mites, causing the development of asthma and allergies

2. Protecting properties:

Shoes can scratch wood flooring, especially if they have high heels. Boots and high heeled shoes can cause wear and tear to carpets. Also in rain or snow, people don’t want guest wearing shoes to make floor wet. Another example is chewing gum stuck to the street.

3. Detect the intruder.

7. Bibliography