9 - Messaging system "Sprīdītis"

Radio communication is jammed, and all backup solutions fail... avoid risking lives by sending encrypted information with sound.

Comment 2

Inspiration

Sound is everywhere. It travels through air, around obstacles, and persists even when everything else stops working. On the front lines, where all infrastructure is fragile, sound will always be present.

What it does

A short-range emergency/backup communication tool. Used to provide last-hope messaging between front-line positions without risking human lives. It is a device that every soldier can carry. It is small, compact and no-maintenance, working even when all other alternatives prove useless. It is an electro-mechanically modulated whistle powered by the user’s breath, which, combined with a pre-arranged communication protocol, allows complex messages to be transmitted with a single breath.

How we built it

We entered the hackathon with a very ambitious and risky idea. Right away we started to conduct both synthetic tests for the software side and rapidly prototyped the first whistle designs. 8 prototypes and many coffee cups later we had our first success. We were able to transmit and receive a message from over 100 meters away using in-built laptop speakers. Meanwhile, the hardware "team" (Marko and his voices) had managed to create a viable whistle design. After a couple of hours sleep the next logical step was to the next phase - putting all of the pieces together and making it work. So that's what we did. By sacrificing sleep and compensating with high amounts of caffeine we could finally achieve the desired Result. We have successfully transmitted a message using the electro-mechanically modulated whistle "Sprīdītis".

Challenges we ran into

In a very short time-frame, we had to develop both the hardware and software for a working prototype from scratch, create a visualization to support our demo, and prepare the pitching presentation. Working with audio brought its own challenges, with echo being an issue early on. It took some time to get the algorithm to work reliably with the whistle. On top of that, lack of some electronics hardware resulted in a true “Frankenstein’s monster” prototype.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re very happy that we got the prototype working and capable of transmitting data over a respectable distance. We came into this event knowing that, instead of trying to make an impossible project sound reasonable, we wanted to focus our efforts on building something achievable and delivering a working prototype

What we learned

During the hackathon, we gained hands-on experience with whistles, sound manipulation, and working with Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), and we were fortunate to learn from our mentor how our project could be applied in real military contexts.

What's next for "Sprīdītis" at a later time

During the hackathon, our belief in the potential of this idea has only grown, and we would love to continue developing it. For demonstration purposes, the current prototype uses a frequency in the audible range. The next step is to move it above this range, making the signal inaudible to humans. Additionally, we aim to improve the design and make it more compact.

Alternative source of inspiration

How the original Sprīdītis made even the Devil dance.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates