ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : A.V.A.J

Members:

Adnan Challawala, Akshat Singh, Deep Goradia, Prarthik Krishnan

Statement of Purpose:

The increased prevalence of technology in music production today is undeniable. To gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for these technologies used, we would like to consider one particular application: autotune.

We're trying to build an analog version of this technology to try and replicate the frequency correction effect that it is able to produce.

To do this end, we will use a mic input to determine an input frequency. Using this we will use a sorting algorithm or something similar to arrive at the closest frequency playable on a Xylophone subsequently, we'll use a designed system to play this note.

How do we build this?

We first take an input from a microphone. We then convert this input using fourier transformation so that it can be processed based on its frequency. All of this processing can be done on-board a microprocessor after which we run a sorting algorithm with respect to the domain of all playable frequencies on the Xylophone. We then correlate this to a particular note and play it using a relay-actuator system.

Difficulties:

This project deals with analog signal processing, which is something we haven't learned as of now. We first need to understand the basics of signal processing to understand how we can convert the sound input into a frequency value that will then be compared and played on the keyboard/piano. We have divided the work so being able to assemble each individual component requires time. 

Everything done in this lab is new to all of us so it may be challenging to understand these concepts and apply them but it will be an amazing learning opportunity. 

Process: 

The flowchart below summarizes how we will integrate hardware and software into this project. Mid pass filters may easen the process of sorting the input.

PARTS

Work Distribution:

We have distributed the work in terms of the flowchart:

We have two working on the algorithm to process the frequency and output a note on the xylophone. Two are working on processing the data (picking the sound up from the microphone and processing it to get a frequency that is then passed to the algorithm)