Future Plans. | Plastic Scanner

Welcome to our future plans for the Plastic Scanner project. We are excited to continue our progress from last year and make even more advancements in our understanding and application of infrared spectroscopy!

Last year

At the beginning of last year, our understanding of infrared light was limited, and we had no open source development board or clear vision of how the device should look like. But with the help of our dedicated team and the support of many individuals and organizations, we were able to make significant progress on all fronts. We developed a better understanding of infrared light and its applications, created an open source development board, and started to envision the embodiment of the device.

this year

This year, we have some exciting plans that will take us even closer to our goal. We will continue to optimize the shape of the sensor cavity, use machine learning models, implement a continuous documentation system, and integrate all of the individual parts. With these plans in place, we are confident that we will be able to make a real step forward to the Plastic Scanner as a commodity and in the fight against plastic pollution. Here is a bit more detail about the different plans:

Open endeavors

Get involved in the development of the Plastic Scanner, created for and by makers. We’re searching for problem-solvers with diverse backgrounds and skill sets who are willing to contribute their skills to address societal issues. With a focus on improving spectroscopy, writing coding, and continuous integration, we aim to create a practical and effective solution. Be a part of the progress and join us in making a difference.

💻 Coding- Compare datasets

🙋Taken by: Hendrik 🎉
We have scanned quite different plastics with multiple spectrometers. what can we learn from comparing these different datapoints?

➡️Prerequisites: does not require any previous endeavor to be done
⏱️Duration: 5 afternoons
📃Expected outcome: A visualization of the good and bad of each dataset, and hopefully some interesting insights.

💻 Coding- Write Machine learning model

Based on the data we can get some 3D scatter plots, but the goal is to have a computer do the interpretation.

➡️Prerequisites: Does not require a specific endeavor to be ready
⏱️Duration: 2 weeks
📃Expected outcome: a pre-trained model with explanation, scikit learn or tensorflow

💻 coding- determine data flow/storage

The size of the measurement data is quite low, but ultimately we would like to function the device fully offline, with the possibility to update a pretrained model once in a while

➡️Prerequisites: Does not require a specific endeavor to be ready
⏱️Duration: 2 weeks
📃Expected outcome: a example program/setup with dummy data

💻 coding- Squeeze the bug

We sometime run in situations where we dont know whats happening. Help us what is wrong in our python programming

➡️Prerequisites: we need to have buggy code
⏱️Duration: ongoing
📃Expected outcome: code that works 😉

🎥 video- Capture the spirit

Throughout the year we are going to work on some cool projects, it would be cool to capture this by video or photo

➡️Prerequisites: can be done at any time
⏱️Duration: a couple of days
📃Expected outcome: Videos or photos of the project

🔧 Integration – build the measurement setup

To analyse if software improvements work, or if hardware modifications have a good outcome it is good to have a “standardized” platform to do a variety of tests.

➡️Prerequisites: some prior hardware prototyping skills
⏱️Duration: 3 weeks
📃Expected outcome: something like an optical breadboard to setup various experiments

🔧 integration- Build minimal viable product

Build a prototype to capture plastic scans in the work, so something that is battery-powered (with wifi connectivity?) to get more different readings.

➡️Prerequisites: Some prior hardware prototyping skills
⏱️Duration: 4 weeks
📃Expected outcome: A device with an interface for input and a screen for output, to capture data

⚡Analog Frontend – A system study

We base our design on the ReReMeter which is based on the Texas Instruments design recommendations for a spectrometer. We want to know if that still makes sense in this configuration and if it needs tweaking.

➡️Prerequisites: Some prior spectroscopy and signal amplification/processing.
⏱️Duration: 4 weeks
📃Expected outcome: A study to check if the current setup of trans impedance amplifier makes sense.

🔧Integration – Build the DB2.2

We are happy with the functioning of the DB2.1, but the ADC and LED driver have become unobtainium, so we are now looking for alternatives, like the ones used in Markus & Gustav design, but then in a know, tested formfactor.

➡️Prerequisites: Prior KiCAD skills.
⏱️Duration: 2 weeks
📃Expected outcome: A board that looks like DB2.1 but has available components on it!

Last year, in 2022 we already completed some quite cool endeavors, you can see them here:

Past achieved endeavors

Are you ready to join the Plastic Scanner team? and be the next to complete another endeavor? Drop us an email with some information about yourself and which of the previously mentioned endeavors you want to work on.

Milestones

In order to place the endeavors in the greater scheme of things, we have specific milestones we want to reach. We want to achieve these milestones sequentially, this makes it a plan, not a planning. We do not make any promises about when these milestones will be reached, it needs to stay fun for us to develop.

Type	Description	Form Factor	Certainty	Recommend replicating
Proof of concept	Can distinguish PET from other plastics	Computer connected	80% Sure	No
Minimal Viable Product	Can determine 4 types of plastic from each other	Computer connected	80% Sure	Yes
Decent Plastic Scanner	Can determine 4 types of plastic in a portable manner	Handheld	80% Sure	No
Great Plastic Scanner	Is easy to replicate and can determine more than 4 types of plastic	Handheld	90% Sure	Yes

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