Process:

Once our team aligned on the problem that we wanted to talked, we developed a list of to-dos (e.g., API source, creation of code, development of physical prototype). We then brainstormed different ways to display the information of the ovulation and period cycle.The pictures below highlight the different options that we considered for our design. For the ambient output, we considered multiple forms and ways of conveying the information from lights that display where women are in the cycle to a servo that rotates to a particular place to show similar information.    

Challenges:

• One of the first challenges that we encountered was how to find ovulation and period data that we could connect to our device. We tried to find an app with an open API source data but were not successful. Our second idea was to find a web inter-phase that would add our period and ovulation data to our calendar. Our particle photon would then read this data and update our ambient object 
  
• As we developed our physical prototype we encountered a number of design and mechanical challenges. We had to determine the right length of the cord for our motor as well as the weight of our indicator so it would balance
• Calibrating the motor was also challenging because we found it to be consistent in only one direction. As we understood the motor we were able to develop code to support our gradient progression 

Lesson Learned:

• Simplicity is better to display key information. When brainstorming we wanted our ambient object to display a lot of information (e.g., when a woman has her period, when she is ovulating, the length of the luteal phase) 
  
• Using servos can be tricky. We looked at different motors and their properties before selecting the continuous rotation servo since we wanted it to be able to go through a continuous loop. Looking at the different servos let us make the best design decision for our project