Sugar Marker

Lego Chocolate Dispenser
Raspberry pie takes pictures of worksheets
The Sugar Marker website stores the marked images and the corresponding $ amount

Inspiration

The other day, I heard my mom, a math tutor, tell her students "I wish you were here so I could give you some chocolate prizes!" We wanted to bring this incentive program back, even among COVID, so that students can have a more engaging learning experience.

What it does

The student will complete a math worksheet and use the Raspberry Pi to take a picture of their completed work. The program then sends it to Google Cloud Vision API to extract equations. Our algorithms will then automatically mark the worksheet, annotate the jpg with Pure Image, and upload it to our website. The student then gains money based on the score that they received. For example, if they received a 80% on the worksheet, they will get 80 cents. Once the student has earned enough money, they can choose to buy a chocolate, where the program will check to ensure they have enough funds, and if so, will dispense it for them.

How we built it

We used a Raspberry Pi to take pictures of worksheets, Google Cloud Vision API to extract text, and Pure Image to annotate the worksheet. The dispenser uses the Raspberry Pi and Lego to dispense the Mars Bars.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into the problem that if the writing in the image was crooked, it would not detect the numbers on the same line. To fix this, we opted for line paper instead of blank paper which helped us to write straight.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of getting the Raspberry Pi and motor working as this was the first time using one. We are also proud of the gear ratio where we connected small gears to big gears ensuring high torque to enable us to move candy. We also had a lot of fun building the lego.

What we learned

We learned how to use the Raspberry Pi, the Pi camera, and the stepper motor. We also learned how to integrate backend functions with Google Cloud Vision API