Learning Module 7:

Lie Detector

Rachel Fitz and Joe Carey

Initial Proposal

        For our learning module, we are going to make smart glasses. These are glasses that will display information onto the lens of your glasses. Through bluetooth and a phone app, you will be able to connect your phone to the smart glasses. This information can include the time and if you are getting a notification, such as a call or text message. To make these glasses, we will have to use an LED display, arduino nano, and a bluetooth module.

        We will use a multitude of resources. For starters, we will search the classroom supplies and see if we can gather materials we need from there. Next, we will use Amazon and order any other needed materials for the project. Soldering will also be needed to attach wiring to the OLED display and Arduino Nano. We will also need to use glue and adhesive to attack the system to a pair of glasses. Each team member will do their fair share of work, as well as split the cost of ordering supplies evenly.

Timeline

Day 1: We will both be absent

Day 2: Watch the tutorial and find all of the components of the project

Day 3-6: We will assemble the glasses and code the arduino.

Day 7-10: We will connect the bluetooth module to one of our cell phones, and figure out how to display a phone call on the glasses.

Day 11-12: We will fix any issues and complete the project.

Daily Log:

Day 1: 2/19/20: We were both absent.

Day 2: 2/20/20: We completed the initial report and found the components of the glasses.

Day 3: 2/21/20: We made the 3D printing file using an instructables tutorial.

Day 4: 2/25/20: We tried to fix the 3d printer and looked for code.

Day 5: 2/26/20: We had issues with our code not uploading, and looked for new code that would upload.

Day 6: 3/3/20: We decided to start a new project, a lie detector.

Day 7: 3/4/20: Joe was absent.  Rachel worked on building the circuit and modifying code.

Day 8: 3/6/20: We got a circuit board, and we arranged the circuit and got ready to solder.

Day 9: 3/9/20: We soldered the components of the lie detector together.

Day A: 3/10/20: We fixed some of our soldering issues from the day before, like a wire that we burnt through.

Day B: 3/11/20: We got a new Arduino, and soldered the led lights to the lie detector.

Day C: 3/13/20: We found the dimensions of the case for the lie detector, but did not have the supplies to build it.

At Home Log:

        Joe:

        3/2/20 (5 pm - 6 pm): Did research while at work to try to understand the project more as well as figure out what Electrodermal Activity is.

        3/10/20 (11 pm - 1 am): Stayed up late at home to solder and troubleshoot the system.

        Rachel:

        3/1/20 (8 pm - 9 pm): Performed more research on the project. Read through code, and watched videos of a working project.

        3/12/20(10 pm - 12 am): Took home the project. Touched up with some soldering and made the system look more clean.

Resources:

        Guide for this entire project, contains very valuable information:

        https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/BuildItDR/arduino-lie-detector-a0b914

        Video of the project working, good base to work off of when designing:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ogMm94AH80

        Helpful guide for the Nano, for those who haven’t worked with it before, think of it like a regular arduino, just super small:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoNano

Diagram for hooking up the entire circuit, when soldering, just solder wires directly to the Nano, your fingers attach to each wire shown on the bottom-most part of the diagram:

Final Report:

        Our original goal for this project was to create a set of Arduino Smart-glasses. Due to the extreme scope and physics-heaviness of this project, as well as a lot going on in school and out of school, we decided to opt for making an Arduino lie detector. Our goals were to become better acquainted with the Arduino nano and hone our circuit-building and soldering skills.

        There was much accomplished during this project. Supplies were all able to be found in Mr. Detrick’s classroom supply, including two Nanos, an endless supply of wires, solder gear, resistors, and breadboards. A functioning soldered-circuit was made, as well as code being successfully uploaded to the Arduino. The circuit was able to detect changes in electrodermal activity on human skin, albeit being a little faulty, but that is expected. Some problems were, of course, encountered throughout the scope of this project. Many of these problems were in soldering, such as soldering a wire to the wrong pin on the Arduino. This was fixed by just unsoldering it and using a solder suction tool to revert the error and attach the wire to the correct pin. Another error included attaching the 2 kilo ohm resistor to the incorrect wirror. Again, unsoldering was a useful tactic in this simple error. A hardware problem that was encountered was a green LED that simply would not turn on, despite constant troubleshooting and deducing that the entire circuit was hooked up correctly. This problem was countered by taking the mysterious green light out of the circuit and replacing it with another one. Upon further inspection, the old LED was simply burnt out, so that ruled out any circuit problems. The new LED worked as expected.

        There was much knowledge to be had from this project. Perhaps the biggest was that there are many possibilities in putting humans into an electrical circuit, one of those being a lie detector. We were able to get a brief idea of how real-world lie detectors work, such as those used by the CIA, FBI, or other law enforcement agencies. The skin’s electrodermal activity, or changes in the resistance to an electrical current. We are also more knowledgeable on how to program and integrate an Arduino Nano into circuits. If we were to do this project again, we would probably have spent more time designing a better compartment for the electronics, just to be more aesthetically pleasing. As for the digital aspect itself, we would probably have made the detector less sensitive, so as to show the stark changes in a person’s reaction to lying.

        For the future, we would suggest people build upon this project by perhaps adding a real time display of changes in a person’s EDA (electrodermal activity). This can be done by showing the console in the Arduino, or creating a whole new interface to display these changes, like a digital screen with a graph. Look at how law agencies’ lie detectors are set up and try to create something of that caliber. This project overall is not only super cool, but super informative, and provides a good insight into the tools of law enforcement and human nature. Humans instinctively just do not like to lie, especially under pressure.