Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
37 GESTURE CONTROLLED AUDIO SHARING SYSTEM
Fred Chang
Ruofan Chen
Ruohua Li
 AJ Schroeder design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
other1.pdf
other2.pdf
presentation1.pptx
Problem


When a person is cooking or working, it’s hard to use his or her hands to control an audio system. Thus a Gesture Controlled Audio System would be handy especially when cooking or working noise makes voice control not too easy to be used. Also during social gatherings, it’s hard to find many smart speakers which could be paired and synchronized to play the same music, thus a plug-and-go sharing system requiring no smart speakers at all becomes incredibly convenient. Thus a combination of gesture control and plug-and-go audio sharing system solves the problem for both individual usages or social events. There hasn’t been an existing product in the market right now which would offer the convenience of both features.


Solution Overview


Gesture Controlled Audio Sharing System (GCASS) is an audio sharing and coordination system. This system is aiming for providing users with a handy way of controlling audio systems by enabling remote control using human gestures. Our proposed system consists of two subsystems: 1) human gesture capturing and recognizing system which employs a camera along with an embedded system to segment human gestures and convert them to control signals in real time, and 2) plug-and-go audio sharing and distribution system which contains one broadcaster and multiple receivers. The receivers can be plugged into any types of audio speakers (regular speakers or even a magnetic speaker). The setup requires no pairing procedure and music tracks are automatically synchronized. The whole audio system is controlled by human gestures from the master node.



Solution Components


Component#1 human gesture capturing and recognizing module

This module is used to segment human gestures and convert them into control signals. The module consists of a camera, a microcontroller and a RF module mounted on the microcontroller for signal transmission.

Component#2 plug-and-go audio sharing module

The plug-and-go audio sharing module utilizes a novel approach we designed to share the music across different kinds of speakers. It will have one single broadcaster chip which will be plugged into a master node and multiple receivers chips which could be plugged into any sorts of speakers even a cheap magnetic speaker will suffice. The data transmission relies on a PCB design which will incorporate atmega328 controllers, RF modules, and some power regulation and signal amplification components.

Software


[CV algorithm]
The software side utilizes camera module to capture real-time images and segment human gestures for control usage

[Audio Sharing System]
The audio sharing and distribution is realized by both hardware PCB chips and software protocols. The software protocols running on microcontrollers will handle memberships, leader election, and data integrity issues in a distributed fashion.

Criterion for Success

Our solution will be successful if the audio sharing system can handle multiple nodes simultaneously and synchronize music in an unnoticeable time. The gestures control will be successful if the software could successfully segment human gestures and convert them to appropriate control signals.

El Durazno Wind Turbine Project

Alexander Hardiek, Saanil Joshi, Ganpath Karl

El Durazno Wind Turbine Project

Featured Project

Partners: Alexander Hardiek (ahardi6), Saanil Joshi (stjoshi2), and Ganpath Karl (gkarl2)

Project Description: We have decided to innovate a low cost wind turbine to help the villagers of El Durazno in Guatemala access water from mountains, based on the pitch of Prof. Ann Witmer.

Problem: There is currently no water distribution system in place for the villagers to gain access to water. They have to travel my foot over larger distances on mountainous terrain to fetch water. For this reason, it would be better if water could be pumped to a containment tank closer to the village and hopefully distributed with the help of a gravity flow system.

There is an electrical grid system present, however, it is too expensive for the villagers to use. Therefore, we need a cheap renewable energy solution to the problem. Solar energy is not possible as the mountain does not receive enough solar energy to power a motor. Wind energy is a good alternative as the wind speeds and high and since it is a mountain, there is no hindrance to the wind flow.

Solution Overview: We are solving the power generation challenge created by a mismatch between the speed of the wind and the necessary rotational speed required to produce power by the turbine’s generator. We have access to several used car parts, allowing us to salvage or modify different induction motors and gears to make the system work.

We have two approaches we are taking. One method is converting the induction motor to a generator by removing the need of an initial battery input and using the magnetic field created by the magnets. The other method is to rewire the stator so the motor can spin at the necessary rpm.

Subsystems: Our system components are split into two categories: Mechanical and Electrical. All mechanical components came from a used Toyota car such as the wheel hub cap, serpentine belt, car body blade, wheel hub, torsion rod. These components help us covert wind energy into mechanical energy and are already built and ready. Meanwhile, the electrical components are available in the car such as the alternator (induction motor) and are designed by us such as the power electronics (AC/DC converters). We will use capacitors, diodes, relays, resistors and integrated circuits on our printed circuit boards to develop the power electronics. Our electrical components convert the mechanical energy in the turbine into electrical energy available to the residents.

Criterion for success: Our project will be successful when we can successfully convert the available wind energy from our meteorological data into electricity at a low cost from reusable parts available to the residents of El Durazno. In the future, their residents will prototype several versions of our turbine to pump water from the mountains.