EchoRotation

Inspiration

Inspired by VR technology's implementations of spatialized sound through gyroscopic sensor input.

What it does

Using the gyroscope sensor data, it modulates the pitch of a tone generator to denote the proper direction.

How I built it

The code was written in the arduino ide, but for the harware, an arduino 101 equiped with a buzzer was used.

Challenges I ran into

The gyroscope outputs data in terms of rotational velocity (deg/s) rather than in rotational angle, so the conversion had compounding errors that caused the position to drift when the device was stationary.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I managed to steady the data from the gyroscope in order to get a usable rotation angle in order to direct the sound generation.

What I learned

This being my first time working with hardware, I learned a lot about using sensor data, noise filtering, and how to make your code more stable by restricting the sensor data to a specific range, while still allowing the code to work as intended.

What's next for EchoRotation

By adding a GPS module to the arduino kit, or perhaps interfacing with a mobile phone to receive gps data, this form of navigating through sound can be used to help blind/vision-impaired people orient themselves in a large city environment.

Alternatively, by adding a gps and data connection, you can gather information on the position and orientation of the device, and so by embedding it into a pair of headphones, you know where the wearer is looking when they are in a particular location. Knowing if a pedestrian is looking at your storefront/into the store would be a great dataset to leverage for business analytics.

Also, for the purposes of demonstration, I have added an output for the time it takes you to locate the direction it is trying to point you towards. This output can be monitored along with the relative location to your current position (ie is the sound source to your left or right) to be used to train your reaction times towards auditory stimuli, which can be used as a training program for soldier, policemen, athletes, etc.

Built With

• arduino
• c++