|
|
|
|
|
When Tracy came around to our office to pick up her prize, she brought and demonstrated her "Electronic Poodle". Here is her own description of her project (nothing to do with SPLats but interesting) ...
Hi, my name is Tracy Saliba and I am currently completing a double degree of computer science/electronic engineering at La Trobe University. I have just finished my third year project which was to build a voice activated motor design called the Electronic Poodle.
The electronic poodle is a system that takes input from the user via a microphone. The electronic poodle has been trained to recognize two voice commands. The commands are "STOP" and "GO". When the poodle hears the command "GO" it will activate a stepper motor causing it to rotate. When the command "STOP" is heard, the stepper motor will be turned off.
When a voice command is spoken into the microphone, the signal is amplified to produce a signal with a maximum of 5 volts. This amplified signal is then sent through a precision rectifier. This is where the negative part of the signal is discarded. An envelope detector circuit is then used to finally prepare the signal before it is sent through to an analog to digital converter. The ADC presents a digital representation of the signal and it is sent into the microchip PIC. With the aid of a PIC program written in assembly language, the digital signal is analysed and it will determine if the signal received was a "STOP" or a "GO". The stepper motor is then turned on or off via the stepper motor controller chip.
The design also incorporates four indication LED's so the user is aware of what is going on. One LED indicates when a signal is being sent, (i.e. the user is speaking loud enough into the microphone), another LED will indicate whether the sound was a valid length, another LED will indicate if the sound is being tested for a "STOP" signal, and the final LED will indicate whether the signal is being tested for a "GO" signal.
|
|
|