Re: ENSC 440 Project Proposal for a RYB Paint Mixerwhitmore/courses/ensc305/projects/2011/17prop.pdf · portable and efficient RYB Mixer. Aimed at painters of any level of expertise,

School of Engineering Science • Burnaby, BC • V5A 1S6

September 22nd

, 2011

Dr. Andrew Rawicz

School of Engineering Science

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, BC

V5A 1S6

Re: ENSC 440 Project Proposal for a RYB Paint Mixer

Dear Dr. Rawicz,

Our team will be designing and building a portable paint mixer that utilizes the RYB color model. The

product is aimed to assist painters in optimizing their use of accurate color mixtures in home as well as

professional projects. The mixer will also come with a wireless color picker in the form of a pen, which

can be used by painters to give RYB color ratios by simply pointing it to a perceived color.

The enclosed proposal will provide an overview of our product design, details on funding, budget, and

work schedule created to reach our goal of demonstrating a prototype in December. For the design

purpose, this document will deal strictly with use of acrylic paints for mixing. However, the technology

has equal potential to deliver with water-based paints as well.

FASM Solutions consists of four 4th year engineering students, Milad Maleksabet, Faiz Parkar, Ajaypal

Khakh, and Sasan Hezarkhani; each with distinct set of skills that allow for an innovative collaboration.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me via email if you have any inquiries.

Sincerely,

Sasan Hezarkhani

Chief Executive Officer

FASM Solutions

Enclosure: Proposal for a RYB Paint Mixer


Project Team: Sasan Hezarkhani, Milad Maleksabet, Faiz Parkar, Ajaypal Khakh

22 September 2011

Team Contact: Sasan Hezarkhani ([email protected])

Submitted to: Dr. Andrew Rawicz, Mike Sjoerdsma


Copyright © FASM Solutions Page 3

Painting, whether done professionally at work or as a household hobby requires experience in

color combinations and contrast ratios for those combinations. Most of the processes used in

color mixing are either costly, highly time consuming or both. In addition, it is noted by the

Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia that most commercially available paints

contain Isocyanates [1]

. These chemicals can cause health concerns through skin contact or

breathing when mixing. Our goal is to eliminate the traditional methods of mixing, allowing the

painters to save time and achieve greater accuracy while minimizing exposure to the toxins.

At the moment, there are three general methods of paint mixing. Manufacturers use advanced big

scale devices that mix color to base materials and form the liquid paints. However, these

machines require advanced training and expertise. To counter this, most amateur painters resort

to manual mixing by hand on a palette of their choice. This requires quite some time and fair bit

of knowledge to get the right tone. Lastly, some decide to prepare orders of color(s) of their

choice and send the specifications to the manufacturer. This can be more accurate and safer for

the customer, but at a high cost for paint production and shipping.

The following proposal will provide an overview of our design solution. The product will be a

portable and efficient RYB Mixer. Aimed at painters of any level of expertise, this device will

allow users to set RYB bit ratios and dispense the resulting color sequentially on their choice of

palette or container. One method of input is a touch screen panel mounted on the device. The

second, a wireless color-sensing camera pen that processes the image of the color it is pointed to

and sends the data to the mixer, which matches the color and dispenses accordingly. This

provides great mixing accuracy, ease and safety to every painter.

FASM Solutions is made of 4 team members currently pursuing a degree in Engineering Science

at Simon Fraser University. Their areas of study are in computer and electronics engineering.

Each member has also achieved experience in the world of programming, software and

hardware, embedded systems and integrated circuits; giving a great advantage towards creating a

beneficial product.

Included in this proposal is a time schedule and budget outline. Total cost is projected to be

$1,330 with amends to be made that could bring it down to $1000 for the final product.



$500 of funding, based on this estimation, will come from the Engineering Science Student

Endowment Fund (ESSEF). However, by using economical and efficient materials &

components, mass production value can be around $500 or less. As the schedule shows in this

document, the first prototype of our product will be completed by December 6th

, 2011.



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 3

1.INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 6

2.SYSTEM OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................ 7

3.POSSIBLE DESIGN SOLUTIONS .............................................................................................................. 8

3.1. BIG SCALE COLOR MIXING DEVICES ................................................................................................ 8

3.2. MANUAL HAND COLOR MIXING ..................................................................................................... 8

3.3. ORDER THE SPECIFIED COLOR FROM THE MANUFACTURE ................................................................... 8

4.PROPOSED DESIGN SOLUTION .............................................................................................................. 9

5.BUDGETING AND FUNDING ................................................................................................................ 10

5.1 BUDGET .................................................................................................................................. 10

5.2FUNDING ................................................................................................................................. 10

6.SCHEDULE ...................................................................................................................................... 11

6.1. GANTT CHART ......................................................................................................................... 11

6.2. MILESTONES ........................................................................................................................... 11

7.COMPANY PROFILE .......................................................................................................................... 13

8.CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 14

9.REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 15



“There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in

combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen” [2]

– This proverb is going to

be proved true by FASM solutions’ upcoming RYB mixer. This product is going to be a

work partner for professional painters and household users.

Presently, people have to go through a long process of mixing different colors to get their

target color. For example, if the desired color is lavender, you have to start with light blue,

add red just a little at a time, stirring thoroughly as you go along. Depending on whether you

need a darker or lighter version of the paint, you also have to add a white or dark blue paint.

The purpose of mentioning this example is to stress the fact that how tedious it could get for

professional painters and household people to make a desired color.

Paints contain toxic pigments that could cause serious health complications. According to

Workers' Compensation Board of BC, Isocyanates used in paint systems can cause health

effects via skin contact or when breathed in during paint mixing. So, the only solution to this

problem is to have a device that can mix paints for people when they are at work or at home.

Our intention is to make a color mixer that is portable and easy to use. It will reduce the

mixing time to the minimum with accurate results. In addition, it will reduce the exposure

and inhalation of the dangerous chemicals present in paints. Our product will be available in

different sizes.

The RYB mixer will be a mater – piece where technology will come together with simplicity.

It will include a camera sensor fitted to a pen to pick the color of choice. The pen will, then,

send information to the mixer, where a microcontroller will run a mixing algorithm that will

enable the mixer to mix colors.

In this document, FASM solutions is providing an overview of the RYB mixer, budget

considerations, time management, and the company profile.



Our system gives the user two methods of input that provide data for the device to accurately

mix the three basic paints and provide the desired output. First, there will be an interactive

touch screen panel with color ratio selection methods that lets the user set values as needed.

Secondly, a wireless pen camera lets the user aim this device at any perceived color, which

automatically calculates the color ratio values. This method of input is designed to help users

who are not aware of what specific values to enter on the touch screen panel. This data is sent

to the microcontroller for the mixing algorithm to process, which then generates the output as

an accurate ratio of paint dispensed from the container valves to give the resulting color onto

the user’s paint palette. This process is shown in the figures below:

Figure 1 Flowcharts of RYB Mixer behavior



There are many solutions for color mixing in the market. Although current solutions and

devices are very handy and easy to use, these systems still have many disadvantages. Three

of main features in the color mixing device are high accuracy of color mixing, portability,

and reliability. Some of the methods currently used are listed below.

These devices are very advanced and paint manufactures are using these devices to mix

different base materials to produce liquid paints. Although, these devices are very

accurate to produce any range of color, the size and the price are very out of range for

non-professional users. Moreover, clients need advanced training to be able to use these

devices and the overall maintenance cost is very high due advanced components which

were used in their structure.

This is very old method which painters are using for decades to mix colors. In this

method, painters mix different amount of liquid paints by hand until they reach to the

specific color. Although, this method is very easy to use, it is really difficult to be

accurate in the color mixing procedure. In this method, painters cannot always reach to

their specific color range and it is not very efficient method to use in color mixing

industry.

Ordering the specified color from the manufacture is the best solution in the point of

color accuracy. Although, this method seems very reliable, in low volume order, it can be

very costly or inefficient for the manufacture to produce that color. Moreover, the

shipping cost and the waiting time to receive the color could be other issues.



In today’s market, there are many methods to mix colors; however, most of these methods

have disadvantages such as inaccuracy, lack portability, and high maintenance cost. All of

these drawbacks constrict the user’s ability to work. It wastes time and money.

Presently, professional painters or household users have only few options to get their colors

mixed. They could mix colors by hand, hoping that they will get the color of their choice. In

most of the cases, it is impossible to get the exact color tone. In addition to the inaccurate

color tone, the above technique has many health complications. Colors contain pigments.

Pigments used in paint can cause health effects via skin contact or when breathed in during

paint mixing. The other option is to go to a paint shop. Paint shops have mixers that can mix

colors accurately but going to a paint shop wastes time.

The goal of our project is to design a high accuracy color mixing device which is portable

and easy to use. This device will allow users to produce any range of color automatically

only by mixing the primary color of red, yellow, and blue. To balance the desired contrast we

can use white and black paints.

The RYB mixer works in a sequential order to mix primary colors. In the first step, user uses

wireless pen which is equipped with the multi-color detection camera to get a color code for

the pointed location’s color. Then the wireless pen will send a signal to microprocessor to do

the calculation for decoding and estimating the volume of each primary color which is

needed to produce the specified color. The process of color selection can also be done using

the installed touch screen on the device. Once all calculated volumes are ready, the

microprocessor will send separate signals to each valve at the end of gravity cups to release

the specified amount of primary colors to the mixer cup. At the end, user can mix all liquid

paints in the mixer cup until it reaches to the desire color.

RYB mixer is targeted for professional painters and household users. It will be made for

indoor and outdoor usage. Household users and professional painters will not have to run to a

paint shop to get their colors mixed. They can get the desired color on the spot. This will save

them time and money. The RYB mixer will be available in different sizes so that the users

can buy a size of their need.



The budget required to implement and design the RYB mixer is completely controlled by

the accuracy and response time of components; however, lack of good funding source

push the project to the minimum budget limit. Table 1 shows the list of components with

the overall cost of the project.

Table 1: Cost breakdown for components

Component Cost

Touch Screen Components $180

Injectors $150

Sensors $120

Long range Wireless device $100

Switches $80

Color Dispenser $150

Power supply $30

Microcontroller $130

Tube $20

Battery $20

Frame box $50

Miscellaneous $300

Total $1330

The cost which was estimated for this project is around $1330; however, we will try to

decrease the overall cost for the final product to an amount around $1000.We expect that

final price for the mass production can be less than $500 due using more economical and

efficient materials and components.

We have considered different funding sources for our project Such as Simon Fraser

Engineering Science Student Endowment fund (ESSEF), and Wighton fund. The

application for ESSEF funding has been submitted and we are waiting for their response.

Furthermore, in an attempt to decrease costs, we will use second hand components and

materials form past Ensc-440 students. If we were unable to cover the project cost with

the funding money, we will cover the rest cost ourselves.



Below is presented our projected time line of the project. While most people will be

working together on a single task, some of the tasks will be done concurrently by

different members. A larger version of this chart is available in Appendix A.

Figure 2: Time schedule for RYB Mixer

In the table on the next page we have listed our milestones and the description of each

milestone. We have divided the timeline of the project into 5 different stages. These

stages are: project definition, hardware and core function, software and calibrating,

wireless components, final testing.



Table 2: Project stages of RYB Mixer

Milestone Date Summary of accomplishments

I September 31 Project Functionality is finalized

Hardware list is completed

Hardware is ordered

II October 31 Valves are working accurately

Valves communicate with the

central processor

Color mixing algorithm is

completed

III November 31 Touch screen is implemented

Color sensor is picking colors

correctly

“pen” wireless functionality is

working

Color mixing is producing the

right colors

IV December 6 Final testing of the project is

completed

Figure 3 also presents a milestone chart for better understanding of our project timeline.

2011

September October November December

22nd

31st 8

th 13

th 22

nd 28

th 5

th 13

th 30

th 6

th

Project completion

Project Proposal

Hardware has

been ordered

Microcontroller programming sources are

found

Functional Specifications

Microcontroller and Valves are communicating

Color mixing algorithm is

finalized

Touch screen panel is installed

Touch panel is programmed to

input color choices

Wireless communication

is finalized

Figure 3: Milestone chart



I am a fifth year Computer Engineer. I enjoy anything that relates to computers, especially

software. I know how to program in C/C++, C#, Java, Action script, HTML/CSS, Java script,

PHP and ASP.net. My past work experience is in both web development and console game

development. As a hobby I like to play around with digital designing tools (e.g. Photoshop)

and I also play the guitar.

I am a fifth year Computer Engineering student at Simon Fraser University. Over the years

I’ve gained experience in various programming languages such as C/C++, Java, Assembly

and VHDL. These have helped me learn hardware and integrated circuit designs. In addition,

co-op placement as well continued part-time employment at Environment Canada allowed

me to develop technical skills necessary in the Information Technology industry which can

include departmental procurement, network security and data Centre maintenance.

I am a fourth year Electronics student doing majors in Electronics. I have taken

programming courses such as C++, java and VHDL. I have been an assistant to lab

technician at University of Alberta. I have made a heating insole from tungsten and silicon.

In addition, I am well versed in engineering science laboratories. I have competent

knowledge about transistors, diodes and capacitors. Presently, I am also taking digital

communication, embedded systems and computer architecture courses.

I am a fourth year Engineering student. I have a Coop experience with telecom companies

(Pishgaman, Impera Net). I am familiar with cisco routers and switches. I am proficient at

network designing and structure. I am also familiar with soft switch configuration and VoIP

networks.



FASM solutions’ goal is to deliver affordable and appealing products. RYB Mixer is

designed to comfort a wide range of users in the market and ease of use is our main goal.

Painters with different expertise can use this product to acquire their exact desired color. A

painter at home who would like to re-paint a part of the wall can use the external color

picker to mix a particular color.

RYB Mixer is economical, portable, and environmental friendly. With our product we wish

to revolutionize the way professionals and ordinary people mix paint.

In this document we have highlighted the main features of our product; in addition we have

provided our solution to each. Based on our timeline we promise to deliver a fully functional

product in December 2011 that meets our budget and includes the defined functionality

presented in this document.



[1] Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles, “The art of war” (2005), page 14

[2] “International Consensus Report on Isocyanates - Risk assessment and management”

(29/01/2004), http://www.arbeidstilsynet.no/binfil/download2.php?tid=77871

Documents

Re: ENSC 440 Project Proposal for a RYB Paint Mixerwhitmore/courses/ensc305/projects/2011/17prop.pdf · portable and efficient RYB Mixer. Aimed at painters of any level of expertise,