Speak Up!

Inspiration

One of our team members is hard of hearing, and this project would make it easier for her to ask people to speak up without interrupting them.

What it does

This MCU uses the sound sensor to detect audio levels. If the sound level is about the same as the background noise level, the LED display will let the speaker know that the user cannot hear them.

How we built it

We used the Arduino IDE to program and upload our code to our Arduino UNO R4 Wifi microcontroller. The program first samples the noise level when the Arduino is booted up to create a baseline sound level. It then continuously compares the current sound level with the baseline. The user can hit the Reset button on the Arduino to recalibrate the microcontroller if things change.

Challenges we ran into

Two of our integral components broke while we were working with them, which forced us to switch directions midway through the project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we overcame our limitations in hardware and supplies.

What we learned

We learned that if a component never seems to power on no matter who is using it, it is probably broken.

What's next for Speak Up!

We wish to connect the board to a server and make the noise level threshold configurable by the user via a web app. Additionally, the microphone used in this prototype is only capable of measuring sound level, but by using a higher quality microphone, we may be able to isolate voice frequencies for comparison, in the case that there is sudden whirring or rumbling that may affect the functioning of the microcontroller.