Rhythmaster

Inspiration

A behavioral study conducted by Frontiers in Neuroscience showed the importance of practice in identifying rhythms and beats by strengthening neural connections. Our friend, and drummer expressed the lack of access to a product that could help her identify mistakes while practicing and how practicing had the tendency to reinforce incorrect patterns because of that.

What it does

It can be attached to any drum set. It will measure and time each beat and flash a green LED if the beat was hit and a blue LED if it was missed. Helping people identify and correct mistakes while independently practicing.

How we built it

We used a force sensor to collect data on when the drum was hit. We used an arduino and codded it to process the incoming signals and compare it to the required output. The result, missed or not is displayed by LEDs in the peripheral circuit. We used interrupts to service a "stop" indicated by the press of an external button.

Challenges we ran into

Faulty equipment - Hex pad to input rhythm had sticky keys
Lack of familiarity with Arduino code - steep learning curve
Lack of time to debug and implement alternate solutions

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We continuously tested and iterated our design as we faced several challenges and now have a working prototype. Although none of us have worked with arduino before we managed to make it work.