Project Ideas

Guitar Built-in Effects

The general idea for this project is to create a digital interface to facilitate and integrate sound effects into a guitar to provide flexibility for the player. The proposed idea is to supply an ergonomic design that allows for the player to swiftly change effects in a convenient efficient manner as well as having the convenience of having everything integrated onto the guitar itself.

General Overview:

Provide an easy interface to interact with a variety of effects such as: Distortion, Delay, Reverb/Echo, Chorus and modulation.
Will use a touchscreen that will be integrated onto the guitar to access effects.
Provide presets that facilitate user experience as well as giving the user the ability to create custom presets. These presets will be the active components used during a performance
Provide the user with two view modes for the display:
- Player Mode: A mode in which the user will view the effects and be able to toggle on/off which effects in the pipeline are active. The active preset can also be changed from this mode but not edited.
- Edit Mode: Allows the user to edit presets and the attributes of their effects. (EX: Create a custom preset with distortion and echo, the user can change the amount of echo and distortion put into the effect)
Backend for effects would be leveraged from Spotify's "Pedalboard" Library written on python. [1]

Block Diagrams

Hardware:

Software: (interfaced by the touchscreen)

Modular Block Diagram:

System Comparison: (Commercially available Acoustic Guitar)

Bicycle E-Brakes/ABS

This proposal idea is to implement Electronic Braking and an Anti Lock Braking System (ABS) to a Bicycle. This system will allow the rider to improve the braking performance by selectively timing a microcontroller to automatically take control of the brakes after a braking threshold is found where the wheel is going to lock.

E-Brakes:

Instead of using mechanical braking this bike will rely on an electronic braking system instead, only having mechanical brakes as a backup. This is done in order to have a simpler access to the braking system, thus making it simpler to implement an ABS system.

The general concept of an E-Brake system is simple: the force applied on the Brake lever is mapped to the total braking displacement of the mechanical brakes. The mapping can be accomplished using a force sensor connected to the brake wire and the mapping can be done by a microcontroller. The microcontroller then will send a signal to a motor that will be capable of actuating both front and rear brakes.

How ABS works:

The locking of the wheel occurs when too much braking power is applied on the brakes, making the tire slip. The slip produced disables the driver from steering and decreases the braking performance. This slip can be avoided using ABS where an electronic system will be built to automatically take control of the brakes close to a locking situation. After this occurs the electronic system toggles the brakes on and off at a frequency between 5 Hz - 10 Hz depending on the current speed.

The use of the E-Brake comes handy in this situation as having full control of the mechanical brakes with the microcontroller makes the implementation of ABS much more trivial. [2]

Block Diagram:

System Comparison:

The company Bosch (among others) manufactures a similar product where ABS is incorporated into their E-Bikes, similar to how our idea proposes the implementation on ABS on standard Bicycles.

Computerized Smart Greenhouse

The region of the country you reside in strongly dictates what plants you can and can’t grow. This system will allow the user to break from this environmental constraint. If a fruit or vegetable is not in season or doesn’t grow in your region, you must rely on the produce to be shipped from a distant country that takes many weeks to get here. Soil supports plant growth by providing oxygen, water, temperature and nutrients. This embedded system will test the soil for all these various conditions and allow the system to pump whatever necessary condition it needs. This will allow the user to adjust to whatever climate they wish to imitate and effectively grow produce that is available within those constraints.

Detection Systems:

Water: The system will detect the dryness of the soil and disperse water to the soil when necessary. Some climates are drier and need less water to thrive while other regions get rain every day. This system will be connected to a water source that will simulate rain accurately in the region selected.

Temperature: Each region has its respective temperature and climate. This system will have a thermometer to detect the temperature of the soil and dictate whether it needs to be hotter or colder to maximize the plants’ production. The system will be connected to a heat lamp that can adjust the power of the bulb.

Nutrients: Three elements are essential to plant growth: carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and are supplied through air and water. The other essential elements that are provided by the soil are split between macro and micronutrients. Macronutrients include nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur. Micronutrients include iron, chlorine, zinc, molybdenum, boron, manganese, copper, sodium, and cobalt. This system will accurately detect the levels of these elements and pump the necessary fertilizers into the plant to help with growth.

pH levels: The soil must be at a certain level of acidity to produce vegetation. The embedded system will test the pH level and pump water to see if it becomes too acidic or acid if it becomes too much of a base.

Oxygen: The spaces among soil particles contain air that provides oxygen, which living cells use to break down sugars and release the energy needed to live and grow. This system will detect the oxygen level in the soil and pump oxygen to help these cells.[3]

Similar Products

From further research, there is a company called Climate Control.

This company produces a climate-controlled environment at an extremely large scale. No price was listed but seems like an extremely expensive product. This product will help reduce costs and be a competitor.

Block Diagram: