Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
48 Development of a better low-frequency microphone setup to measure complex acoustic impedance
Area Award: Acoustics
 Anna Czerepak
Kevin Looby
 Ryan Corey design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
presentation0.pdf
proposal0.pdf
Our project is concerned with developing a method and related hardware to measure acoustic impedances of various surfaces. The set up must meet the following specifications:
- Give accurate, consistent measurements of impedance at low frequencies: at least under 200 Hz, ideally under 100 Hz.
- Small profile, light weight
- Orientation that allows can be placed very close to the surface being measured to give more accurate values for acoustic impedance.
- Either a monopole or (true) dipole microphone setup. Which one we pick would have very drastic effects on what sort of processing is necessary on the software end and what information
- Capability to measure pressure gradient and/or particle velocity as a means of obtaining impedance.

Depending on what is found after more research and consulting, it may also be necessary to modify the source signal or possibly see if ambient noise alone would be feasible to extract acoustic information.

Possible tasks: use of an anechoic chamber (either in Everitt or in CERL) to calibrate and test the behavior of any prototype in the laboratory. Simulation of the microphone geometry and its effect on sound pressure level profiles (in COMSOL or a similar E&M finite element analysis program).

Assistive Chessboard

Robert Kaufman, Rushi Patel, William Sun

Assistive Chessboard

Featured Project

Problem: It can be difficult for a new player to learn chess, especially if they have no one to play with. They would have to resort to online guides which can be distracting when playing with a real board. If they have no one to play with, they would again have to resort to online games which just don't have the same feel as real boards.

Proposal: We plan to create an assistive chess board. The board will have the following features:

-The board will be able to suggest a move by lighting up the square of the move-to space and square under the piece to move.

-The board will light up valid moves when a piece is picked up and flash the placed square if it is invalid.

-We will include a chess clock for timed play with stop buttons for players to signal the end of their turn.

-The player(s) will be able to select different standard time set-ups and preferences for the help displayed by the board.

Implementation Details: The board lights will be an RGB LED under each square of the board. Each chess piece will have a magnetic base which can be detected by a magnetic field sensor under each square. Each piece will have a different strength magnet inside it to ID which piece is what (ie. 6 different magnet sizes for the 6 different types of pieces). Black and white pieces will be distinguished by the polarity of the magnets. The strength and polarity will be read by the same magnetic field sensor under each square. The lights will have different colors for the different piece that it is representing as well as for different signals (ie. An invalid move will flash red).

The chess clock will consist of a 7-segment display in the form of (h:mm:ss) and there will be 2 stop buttons, one for each side, to signal when a player’s turn is over. A third button will be featured near the clock to act as a reset button. The combination of the two stop switches and reset button will be used to select the time mode for the clock. Each side of the board will also have a two toggle-able buttons or switches to control whether move help or suggested moves should be enabled on that side of the board. The state of the decision will be shown by a lit or unlit LED light near the relevant switch.

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