Background

The possibility to measure with your smartphone the amount of food you are eating or the amount of liquids you have drank, while being outside is one of the unsolved problems in today’s smartphone technology. For people in the fitness world, who want to have an accurate calorie counting or for a person who wants to know his hydration levels, an integrated solution would be of great interest.

In the state-of-the-art there are some approaches like using the 3D touchscreen from Apple, which measures up to 500 grams. Another solution measures the inclination difference when the phone lays over a rolled piece of paper or a bag filled with air. However, these approaches are not accurate enough and cannot measure more than a kilogram.

For these Bachelor/Masterthesis the goal is to develop a proof-of-concept as a solution to this problem. The idea is to design a flexible cover for the smartphone, with a spring-like part over the display, which will be made of a capacitive material. Depending on the area covered on the display, the weight over the phone is calculated.

A first approach of the design is shown in the image on the left.

What we expect from you

• Your tasks would cover from the CAD design of the system, up to App programming.
• We expect motivation and a lot of creativity.
• Students of mechatronics, mechanical, electrical engineering, informatics or similar.

If you enjoy 3D printing, you are welcome to have some fun developing this idea with us.