How make a GUI using App designer to visualize pressure sensor data

Hi, I have a pressure sensor matrix with 16 columns and 10 rows. And I am using the circuit with multiplexer and Arduino to get the data. The example code and circuit diagram is exactly the same as shown in this link: https://www.sensitronics.com/tutorials/fsr-matrix-array/ When I am using Arduino I am able to see the individual elements of the array changing with increasing and decreasing pressure at multiple points. This is good. However, now I want to make a pressure map of this sensor in MATLAB GUI or App designer. Does anyone have any idea how to go about it? Or any code to visualize the pressure map in real time? Thanks in advance.

[gdz]

Did you solve it eventually? I am working on the same problem as well.

Answer 1

[Amish]

Hi Anoop,

I understand that you want to plot the data that is getting generated from the Arduino’s pressure sensor. Creating a pressure map in MATLAB App Designer for your pressure sensor matrix would be a way to visualize the data in real-time.

The following workflow define the generic steps for doing the same:

1. Having a proper hardware setup to read sensor data into MATLAB. (Since you state that you already can acquire the data, I assume you already have this done)
2. Create your GUI using App Designer in MATLAB. Open MATLAB and type appdesigner in the command window to start designing your interface.
3. Design a suitable layout that includes a visualization area for the pressure map. You can use axes or a heatmap to display the map.
4. Create a timer in the App designer or use a loop to continuously acquire the data from the sensor.
5. Convert the data into a heatmap and update in real-time as new data is acquired.

Here is a boiler-plate code that might help you further:

classdef PressureMapApp < matlab.apps.AppBase

    properties (Access = private)
        % Properties for storing sensor data and handle to heatmap
        pressureData
        heatmapHandle
    end

    methods (Access = private)

        % Function to update the pressure map
        function updatePressureMap(app)
            % Read sensor data from Arduino (you should replace this with your data acquisition code)
            sensorData = readSensorData();

            % Update the pressureData array with the new sensor data
            app.pressureData = sensorData;

            % Update the heatmap
            updateHeatmap(app.heatmapHandle, app.pressureData);
        end

        % Function to initialize the app
        function createComponents(app)
            % Create UI components here (axes, heatmap, buttons, etc.)
            app.heatmapHandle = heatmap(app.UIAxes, app.pressureData);
        end

        % Function to set up the timer for real-time updates
        function setupTimer(app)
            timerObj = timer('ExecutionMode', 'fixedRate', 'Period', 1); % Update every 1 second
            timerObj.TimerFcn = @(~, ~) updatePressureMap(app);
            start(timerObj);
        end

    end

    methods (Access = public)

        % Constructor
        function app = PressureMapApp
            % Create and configure the app
            createComponents(app);
            setupTimer(app);
        end

    end

    % App creation and deletion
    methods (Access = public)

        % Code that executes after component creation
        function startupFcn(app)
            % Initialize pressureData with zeros or any initial values
            app.pressureData = zeros(10, 16);
        end

    end
end

Hope this helps!

[Image Analyst]

OK but you're supposed to give attribution to the chatbot that you used to create that answer.