Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
58 Orthopedic Chair
Alex Shen
Emre Ulusoy
Pablo Corral Vila
Kexin Hui design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
other0.pdf
photo0.jpg
photo0.jpg
presentation0.pptx
proposal0.pdf
video0.mp4
video0.mp4
video0.mp4
video0.mov
Background:
Bad posture is a serious issue that is prevalent in society. It feels natural to hunch over when doing work, studying, or even playing games. Along with this, bad posture is exhibited while sitting. Since these bad poses may happen subconsciously, it may be helpful to know when bad posture is being used.

Project:
Our project idea is to build a couch/chair that provides orthopedic feedback to the user. We spend a great portion of our day sitting down whether it be for work or leisure time. We figured that we might as well create some sort of system that informs the user of posture habits and potential orthopedic hazards. Our idea is in its preliminary stages, so we are open to further developing our scope for the project. The chair will be embedded with pressure sensors on its seat and its back. The pressure readings from the glutes, lumbar and upper back will be used to evaluate the posture of the user. Along with this, we can mount a range sensor on the back of the chair to measure the distance between the user and the back since slouching tends to increase that distance. Our project is an innovation, and the most similar thing we could find is a product called Axia Smart Chair. It is a chair that provides the user “direct feedback by means of a vibration signal in the seat cushion and a personal App”.

Master Bus Processor

Clay Kaiser, Philip Macias, Richard Mannion

Master Bus Processor

Featured Project

General Description

We will design a Master Bus Processor (MBP) for music production in home studios. The MBP will use a hybrid analog/digital approach to provide both the desirable non-linearities of analog processing and the flexibility of digital control. Our design will be less costly than other audio bus processors so that it is more accessible to our target market of home studio owners. The MBP will be unique in its low cost as well as in its incorporation of a digital hardware control system. This allows for more flexibility and more intuitive controls when compared to other products on the market.

Design Proposal

Our design would contain a core functionality with scalability in added functionality. It would be designed to fit in a 2U rack mount enclosure with distinct boards for digital and analog circuits to allow for easier unit testings and account for digital/analog interference.

The audio processing signal chain would be composed of analog processing 'blocks’--like steps in the signal chain.

The basic analog blocks we would integrate are:

Compressor/limiter modes

EQ with shelf/bell modes

Saturation with symmetrical/asymmetrical modes

Each block’s multiple modes would be controlled by a digital circuit to allow for intuitive mode selection.

The digital circuit will be responsible for:

Mode selection

Analog block sequence

DSP feedback and monitoring of each analog block (REACH GOAL)

The digital circuit will entail a series of buttons to allow the user to easily select which analog block to control and another button to allow the user to scroll between different modes and presets. Another button will allow the user to control sequence of the analog blocks. An LCD display will be used to give the user feedback of the current state of the system when scrolling and selecting particular modes.

Reach Goals

added DSP functionality such as monitoring of the analog functions

Replace Arduino boards for DSP with custom digital control boards using ATmega328 microcontrollers (same as arduino board)

Rack mounted enclosure/marketable design

System Verification

We will qualify the success of the project by how closely its processing performance matches the design intent. Since audio 'quality’ can be highly subjective, we will rely on objective metrics such as Gain Reduction (GR [dB]), Total Harmonic Distortion (THD [%]), and Noise [V] to qualify the analog processing blocks. The digital controls will be qualified by their ability to actuate the correct analog blocks consistently without causing disruptions to the signal chain or interference. Additionally, the hardware user interface will be qualified by ease of use and intuitiveness.

Project Videos