Tesla Time Machine

Talk to the man, the myth, the legend, utilizing "quasi-electrostatic hysteresis tranmorgification". This allows his voice to traverse the chasms of time and space, thus letting you talk to him!

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Tesla Time Machine

Story

Thinking of car related ideas, we broke into Elon Musk's private office and stole some unpublished journals from Nikola Tesla. One of these journals revealed the receipe to create a time machine. At first, we did not believe it, but because of Tesla's eccentric reputation, we decided to build it anyway. So, our formulahacks project lets you send information back in time and talk to Nikola Tesla!

Technical Introduction

For our project, we designed an interactive and mechanical version of Nikola Tesla with several features including:

  • Tesla Coil inspired custom audio output
  • LLM-based replication of Nikola Tesla's personality
  • An easy to use speech-based interface and user-friendly visual design

featuring innovation in electronics and AI engineering.

Meet the Team

In creating this complex undertaking, we needed people with expertise in a lot of different areas, including 3D modelling, electronics design, and AI engineering. Our team featured people who split tasks in just these areas, specifically:

  • Praneel (CS) and Sarthak (CS) worked primarily on the AI engineering and Arduino aspect, including text-to-speech, LLM response generation, servo control, and speech-to-text.

  • Karmanyaah (CS) and Jake (ECE) worked primarily on electrical and 3D modeling aspects.

However, given our similar interests, we were all able to help each other out and bring fresh perspectives to each other's problems.

Technological Focuses

MECHANICAL DESIGN

The mechanical design was relatively simpler. We designed a moving animatronic head that we 3D printed and proceeded to move with a servo when the program received signals that the LLM had returned a response and the speaker was talking.

Electrical DESIGN

The ECE design involved a significant number of moving parts, including simpler parts such as the button that the user was asked to press when speaking, and more difficult parts that lay in making the Tesla coil produce discernible audio.

AI DESIGN

To design the software side, we interfaced a Google speech-to-text API (after changing parts of the intended source code) with the GPT-4 API and provided it with context to make it speak like Tesla. In addition, we built controls aspects that allowed for proper servo movement and used Google's text-to-speech model to make it speak and allow us to interrupt it if needed.

Inspiration & Applications

This project has applications in many fields, some of which are listed below.

Car Systems: This project has the potential to be used as an entertainment module for cars, especially Tesla cars which could use this as a great marketing/entertainment idea.

Entertainment and Media: This could be used as an entertainment source at museums, amusement parks, and more, especially places dedicated to Nikola Tesla. It would allow for great interactivity and engagement as people could directly interact with a fun version of a historic figure.

Education: This project could serve as a great way to engage children with science history, as they directly talk to Nikola Tesla and gain information about him, his work, and his life story.

Customer Service: By fine tuning the model, we could also use this as a model for a fun version of customer service where the customer has fun while gaining the support they need.

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