This board that I developed fits inside of each of the three fingers of Intel Labs Seattle’s mobile robot. It includes two resonant transmitters for generating high voltage AC signals, two analog front-ends for amplifying the received current to be fed into the microcontroller’s ADC, and enough processing in the microcontroller to perform synchronous demodulation on the received signal.

Each transmit-receive pair has unique geometry and constitutes a unique measurement. Within a single finger, four different transmit/receive channel pairs are possible: with the current antenna configuration in the fingers, there are split left and right receive electrodes and mid- and short-range transmit electrodes. Each finger can also be linked to a third transmit electrode in the palm of the hand, which provides additional left and right long-range channels.

I designed this board to monitor the power system in Intel Labs Seattle’s mobile robotics platform. It provides four current and four voltage measurements, and interfaces with a PC via USB. Readings for all of the channels can be read at over 100 Hz.

In the autumn of 2004, I moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. I began taking photos to share some of the neat places I discovered while exploring the areas around campus with my family and friends back at home. I started with a pocket-sized point-and-shoot digital camera, back when they were starting to become popular. As I learned more about the art and science of photography, I’ve moved on to cameras and lenses that afford better manual control.

I still enjoy taking walks around the beautiful University of Washington campus on weekends and capturing some of the scenery.