Study Space Finder Proposal
Team TAG
Tierney Daniels, Siyuan Qi, Andrew Ren
September 13, 2016
MEMORANDUM
To: Professor Wheeler
From: Team TAG (Tierney Daniels, Siyuan Qi, Andrew Ren)
Date: September 13, 2016
Subject: Project 1 Proposal: Study Space Finder
Abstract
As the number of students studying at Penn State University increases, open study spaces in the
library are becoming difficult to find. Monitoring and updating the status of study spaces in the
Pattee/Paterno library would provide students the ability to check the availability of study spaces. By
implementing a camera in each library, the statuses of study space occupancy can be tracked. The
information can be transmitted to a database and students can obtain the availability of the study spaces in
real time via a phone app.
Introduction
When Penn State students need a quiet place to study and to focus on their work most head to the
Pattee/Paterno library, which offers numerous study spaces for students to use. Since the library is a
popular choice, it is sometimes difficult to find an open study space. A student can spend more time
walking around the library looking for a study space than actually studying.
This system has hardware and software components, which will interact in order to monitor study
spaces around the Pattee/Paterno library and then notify students on their occupancy. The hardware
component will contain cameras that will be placed on the ceiling of a study space, and will be able to
monitor which spaces are occupied. The software component contains a database and an app. The
database will contain all of the study spaces available in the library, and the app will be able to access this
database for the user to determine what study spaces are open.
Rationale/Theory
As mentioned previously, the system will be composed of both hardware and software
components. A camera is the best option for the hardware, because infrared cameras would be too costly,
and motion sensors might mistake a student sitting still for an extended period for an open work space.
The software will apply computer vision techniques to differentiate between an open and occupied work
space. This information will be displayed on the app for the user to see. The app will be able to reach a
vast market since it will be available on both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, for use with
iPhones and Android phones.
Implementation
Based on the skillset of our team, we will divide tasks to implement this solution:
● Siyuan has experience with software development, so he will be the primary developer for the
app on iOS and Android.
●
●
Andrew will manage the hardware aspect of the system, and build the system for the camera, the
wireless router within the camera, and power supply for the camera.
Tierney has experience in Computer Vision, so she will program the cameras to run image
processing on the study spaces to determine which spaces are open.
Figure 1: Functional Decomposition
Engineering Requirements
1. Camera system must be able to detect if a person is occupying a study space.
a. The monitoring system should be able to take a picture of a room, and then compare the
empty room to an occupied room and determine which spaces are occupied, then relate
those spaces to the database.
b. The system should be able to determine the number of people in the room with an
accuracy of +/- 2 people.
c. The camera should be able to monitor a room of at most 30ft x 30ft.
2. Camera system should have a power supply that runs off of standard 120VAC power and can stay
powered indefinitely.
a. Camera and embedded controller should be able to reliably run without updates or
touching for at least 2 years before maintenance is needed.
i.
Power supply should be designed around the same timeframe.
ii.
Software on embedded controller should be able to function without update for
the same timeframe.
3. The Android and iOS app must be able to access monitoring system 24/7.
a. The app should be able to collect data from the database to update the on screen list of
available study spaces.
b. As the database changes, the app should update within 30 seconds of the database
updating.
4. The database of available study spaces must be able to update every 5 minutes for people to see
if space is available.
a. The database must large be able to contain all study spaces the Paterno Library at Penn
State University Park.
i.
1 GB of storage will be allocated to the database to contain the names of the
study spaces in the library, the maximum number of people each space can
contain, and the number of people in the study space.
Conclusion
The Study Space Finder can save time for students who are looking for study spaces in
Pattee/Paterno Library. It will contain a monitoring system that can detect the occupancy of study spaces
and can keep updating the database. The Study Space Finder includes a user-friendly iPhone/Android
phone app which will enable the Penn State students to view the database, so that they can find an open
study space quickly.