The “Walk & Flip”: The Formation of an Innovative Approach to Reading & Exercise
Research paper submitted by Ryan Ting, Lab Intern and graduating senior at BASIS DC High School.
Introduction
I like to read as much as I can. Furthermore, as a high school student, I often have to read — reading textbooks to prepare for lessons, reading novels for literature classes, etc. I also like to exercise, which includes cardio exercises using a treadmill. When I walk on the treadmill, I often listen to audiobooks or watch videos. I rarely read. There lies the conflict. Reading physical books is difficult, especially when walking on a treadmill. Being at a different speed than the book means flipping pages often leads to ripping them out. Even worse, reaching out to carefully flip a page may lead to a lapse of focus on walking — subsequently falling and being injured.
Literature Review
In the United States, 80% of people aged 6 years and older fail to perform enough exercise (Piercy, 2018). To get more exercise, many use treadmills. However, many also choose to watch screens for entertainment as they use treadmills. Excessive screen time is linked to poor sleep quality, stress regulation, and mental health (Nakshine, 2022). Therefore, there is value in discovering options for screenless entertainment.
Reading is a means of screenless entertainment, but is inconvenient because the book may not be supported by the treadmill and the act of flipping pages may lead to page tears because the reader is in motion while the book is stationary. Even worse, trying to slow down one’s walking speed to carefully flip a page may lead to falls and injury.
The solution described below includes a shelf to hold the book in place, a system of servo motors to flip the pages automatically, and a hands-free trigger to flip the pages when the reader is done. The device is unlike
other approaches. Audiobooks may be listened to and digital books have specialized devices (Syukuyu, 2024), but such approaches don’t work for physical books. As for automatic page-turners for physical books, some (PageFlip Lite, 2024) are for sheet music and require inconveniently loading the pages into the device by hand in advance of reading them. Other automatic page-turners (Brady, A. 2004) flip a book that rests flat on a table, rather than standing upright against the face of a treadmill.The Engineering Design Process
I would create a 3-D printed device to flip the pages. The device would require three components: a shelf for holding the book and moving mechanisms, a mechanism to flip the pages of the book while keeping the rest of the book still, and a mechanism to recognize when a user wants the pages to be flipped. I will print several parts (quadrants of the base, top, etc.) that would be printed to fit together like puzzle pieces.
Caption: Pictured is a system of servos
A system of servos programmed by an Arduino, until a more cost-effective solution was found, would handle the mechanical flipping of the pages. Two would be responsible for keeping each side of the open book still. Two would be responsible for aligning a small tire next to the pages to be flipped — then spinning the tire slowly, using the traction of the tire to flip the page.
I had several ideas for the mechanism to recognize when page flipping should occur. The first was an eye-tracking app on a phone. The second was a watch app where users tap the screen — seemingly easier than flipping a stationary object — or otherwise signal the book to flip. The third was voice control — this would be less useful in a noisy gym, but may still work at short distances.
How did I go about this?
First, I worked on 3D-printing the shelf. Without a 3D model of the shelf, I couldn’t design the system of servos that would be attached to it. Therefore, 3D printing was my priority. While I had some experience with CAD software, I had never used a 3D printer before, having only modeled in Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD before asking a friend in my school’s Programming Club to print it at home.
I spent my first few weeks learning FreeCAD, a 3D-modeling software that was better suited for this project than the one I had learned, Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD, was. FreeCAD was better suited because it allowed for individuals to create projects that were not linked to a team; I had already “maxed out” the number of teams I was able to access. Essentially, I was paywalled by Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD but not by FreeCAD. I watched online video tutorials to assist me as I created the initial shelf for dimensions from a treadmill at my local gym, before figuring out how to break the shelf up into pieces and print each piece.
I eventually succeeded in not only drafting the 3D models but finalizing the first few pieces:
Figure 1: Model of the initial four pieces of my project’s base
Figure 2: The initial four pieces of my project’s base. They are different colors due to me printing on different machines using different materials.
Figure 3: Picture of one quadrant of the base. Includes extensions and holes to fit together with other pieces.
After the initial pieces were finished, I began working on print. I read the manuals, asked other interns for assistance, and even took a small introductory class at a DC library so I could know as much about 3D printing as possible. I was surprised — I had no idea that 3D printing could take as long as it did. I had an expectation that I would be able to print two or more pieces a day — I didn’t expect that some of my pieces would take 13 hours. Having over a dozen pieces which would take so long meant that I faced a serious constraint in printing my project, especially because I often could only use one printer at a time due to other people using the printers or when one printer broke. Worse still, my prints would often fail due to the age of printers and a need to balance between speed, material use, and structural stability through tweaking printing settings.
After printing a few pieces of the shelf and confirming structural stability, I continued to print models. I also began to prioritize printing the components of my shelf necessary for attaching the servo system to it. The servos to hold pages together would use long, hollow rectangles attached to the “fan”-like components of the servos that spun. I printed these rectangles, which included features to wrap around the servos’ moving parts and otherwise hold the system in place. I began to program the servos using an Arduino, achieving success in having the clasping mechanism, which held the book stationary as the pages were being flipped, having its code drafted and actualized — watching the servos respond to my code was exhilarating.
I can smile knowing that I learned how to 3D-model, 3D print, and program servos using an Arduino from scratch. I am also excited to continue working on this project. Because the 3D printers are a bottleneck, I have not finished printing the prototype shelf, despite having finished the software modeling. Therefore, I have been unable to finalize and truly test my servo system. I am also aware that to have a fitness watch software application or eye-tracking application approved by the Apple Store would take considerable time.
Therefore, this blog post describes my substantial progress so far. I hope to eventually reach my goal of being able to Walk & Flip. The theme of this project is exploring how innovation can make peoples’ exercise lives more convenient. This project has demonstrated that it is feasible to print interlocking components and begin programming servo motors to begin to put this together. Readers at home may attempt to make their own versions of this for their own treadmills; such DIY projects, if widely known, may provide an option for many who are torn between walking and flipping.
Next Steps
Next steps to expand on this project include:
Finishing 3D printing all components of the shelf.
The four parts of the base were fully printed.
The four parts of the front-facing vertical side were printed with mistakes, meaning a reprint may be necessary.
Other miscellaneous printer parts, such as those attaching to servos, were printed.
The top four parts as well as the back four parts have not been printed.
Refining Arduino code through testing the servo system with the shelf.
Testing the design for several sizes of books and several sizes of treadmills, possibly creating several shelf versions to match each book or treadmill size.
This project may become open to collaboration for such customization.
Finalizing a trigger system, of which there are several candidate mechanisms:
An eye-tracking app on a phone that causes a page flip when a user looks at the end of the book for long enough.
A smartwatch app where users tap its screen — easier than flipping a delicate physical page, as a watch face cannot be torn — to signal for a physical page flip.
Voice control, which would be less useful in a noisy gym.
A timer that would flip pages at regular intervals depending on a user’s inputted reading speed.
About the Author
Ryan Ting is a senior at BASIS DC, a high school in DC. Ryan feels a strong sense of belonging to the city he’s called home his entire life. As the Youth Attorney General and now the Youth Mayor of the DC YMCA Youth and Government Program, Ryan has worked steadfastly to prepare high school students for civic engagement. Outside of political science, Ryan enjoys providing free tutoring to middle schoolers, leading the Programming and Math Clubs at his school, working with a nonprofit, and building his 3D modeling (FreeCAD) and other Engineering skills. Hoping to become an Engineer to invent physical solutions for humanity's biggest problems, Ryan acknowledges the enormous opportunities provided to him in this city and hopes to use them to give back.
Citations
Nakshine, et al. (2022). “Increased screen time as a cause of declining physical, psychological health, and sleep patterns: A literary review”. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.30051
PageFlip. Retrieved August 30, 2024, from https://www.pageflip.com/products/lite
Piercy, K. L., et al. (2018). “The physical activity guidelines for Americans”. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 320(19), 2020. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.14854
Syukuyu, S. K. (n.d.). SK SYUKUYU RF Remote Control Page Turner for Kindle Reading Ipad Surface Comics, iPhone Android Tablets Reading Novels Taking Photos(Black). Amazon.com. Retrieved August 30, 2024, from https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T8CZYF3/
