“This IMU-equipped pen is trained to recognize handwritten numbers
Overview
In this project, I build a pen device which can be used to recognize handwritten numerals. As its input, it takes multidimensional accelerometer and gyroscope sensor data. Its output will be a simple classification that notifies us if one of several classes of movements, in this case 0 to 9 digit, has recently occurred.
Data collection for training
The first and the most important step in a machine learning project is to collect the training data in such a way that it should cover most of the representative cases for a given classification task. To capture accelerometer and gyroscope data in a discrete real-time steps is a time consuming and error-prone task. I spent most of the time to collect data and look at it if it was captured correctly. To overcome this tedious and repetitive task I developed a user interface. I wanted to make the user interface portable and easy to use. I used Artemis ATP development board with a Gameduino 3 touchscreen (an Arduino shield) to present a user interface which allows to select numeral (0 to 9) and also the last readings can be deleted if there was some error while data capturing. A SparkFun 9DoF IMU Breakout - ICM-20948 (Qwiic) is used to capture the accelerometer and gyroscope data. The IMU Breakout is attached to a pen close to the tip and it is connected to the Artemis ATP using a long (50cm) Qwiic cable.
To capture time-series data from the IMU during the pen movement should be quick otherwise there can be unwanted noise at the beginning and the end. Using the touchscreen to start and stop the capturing was a bit slow since the screen needs right amount of pressure to response. To circumvent this issue I used a mechanical switch which is very sensitive to the clicks and did the right job. Since Gameduino 3 shield covers all the power pins of Artemis ATP, I had to use secondary rail of plated through-holes on the Artemis ATP to solder wires to connect to the mechanical switch. Thanks to the ATP (All the pins)!
The captured data is saved to the files on a micro SD card attached to the Gameduino 3. Each pen movement data was captured as a separate file. The file contains no header line, only the multiple lines of the comma separated accelerometer (3-axis) and gyroscope (3-axis) data in a format as accel_X, accel_Y, accel_Z, gyro_X, gyro_Y, gyroZ. An example is given below.”