ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : Speech Controlled Motor Cart

Report:ECE110HonorLabReport.pdf

Fengmao Zheng, fengmao2, ECE 110

Wenxian Zhang, wzhan103, ECE 120

1. Introduction
   a. Statement of Purpose
        Our purpose of project is to make a sound driven motor that can follow the audio instruction to move in expected direction. For this purpose, our design has two   
        1.) A sound converter that receives audio instruction and transfers the voice to electric signals and instruction information. (E.g. If you say "yes", it will transfer the result to "1" and an invert may interpret "1" to moving forward.)
        2.) A motor that will receive the instruction from sound converter and follow this instruction to move (forward, back, left and right).
       We want to make a thing that will follow instructions by sound which is the most convenient. In order to accomplish this project, we do research about similar projects and how they have been made. 
   
   b. Background researches
   All the major tech companies — Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, etc.— are pouring incredible amount of resources into their new voice assistants, such as Siri or Alexa. The grant amount of resource resulted a huge wave of obsession with using oral voice command to electronic devices. According to Business Insiders, only 2% of iPhone owners have never used Siri. [1] Sound recognition now becomes a project that is necessary in an electronic device; and these projects inspired our ideas. However, Despite the popularity, lots of people do not use sound recognition system maybe because of embarrassment in speaking to their device, unfamiliarity of the command, or the belief that button or password control is good enough for their lives. In order to solve these difficulties that users faced, we do not only aim to use sound recognition in software or virtual system, but also aim to utilize it on a more regular basis, such as using oral command to  lock a bike or to drive remote controlled cars.
   
   
2. Design Details
   1. Block Diagrams
      
      
   2. System Overview
      The system has three sections: Voice Recorders, Voice Analyzer and Motor. Voice Recorders will send the sound wave recorded from the environment to the Analyzer. The Analyzer will first amplify the sound wave and then compare to the sample sound wave and send signal to the motors with the angle, rate and direction of rotation. There are two key components in voice recognition: Speech Recognition and Speaker Recognition. Only if the sound wave produced match the phrase and the acoustic feature of the person, the circuit will send 1 to drive the motor; otherwise the circuit will send 0 to the motor which won't drive the motor.
      Alternative Key Component: Password Entry: we will have a swipe with a sequence of "1" and "0" so that there will be a password in combination of "1"s and "0"s. and only when the password is correct, we will output "1" that we can open a part of the key. After the system obtains and verify the voice input,  the circuit will open the second part of the key and give out a signal with exact "lock" or "unlock" command as programmed.
      
      
3. Parts (From Sparkfun)
   a.) Solenoid 5V (small) https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11015
   b.) EasyVR shield 3.0 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13316
   c.) Stepper motor https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13656
4. Possible challenges
   now:
   a.)We need to come out with a useful algorithm that can successfully transfer the sound information to the final result----action command. How could we use circuits and sound sensors to move a motor. 
   b.)The logistic gate is also a dilemma that needs a systematic solution to perform the algorithm.
   
   future:
   a.) People may feel embarrassed using sound system in public.
   b.) Applying these motors on vehicles may need a lot of budgets supported. 
   
   
5. References
   1. K. Leswing, "Here’s why people don’t use Siri regularly, even though 98% of iPhone users have tried it," in Business Insider, Business Insider, 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.businessinsider.com/98-of-iphone-users-have-tried-siri-but-most-dont-use-it-regularly-2016-6. Accessed: Sep. 19, 2016.
   2. B. Clark, "Study: Most iPhone owners are too embarrassed to use Siri in public," The Next Web, 2016. [Online]. Available: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/06/06/study-most-iphone-owners-are-too-embarrassed-to-use-siri-in-public/#gref. Accessed: Sep. 19, 2016.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Weekly Update
   1. 10/21/2016:     Similar project      coding video    Arduino Microphone Tutorial      
      News: The voice recognition shield arrived.
   2. 10/24/2016:   Voice Controlled lock      
      Main work: Installed the EasyVR shield software on our PC, getting familiar with its function.
      Main Resource:
          1.Youtube Tutorials
          2.EasyVR 3.0, Arduino Forum. 
          3. User Manual :http://www.veear.eu/files/EasyVR%203%20User%20Manual%201.0.11.pdf
      Lots of problem facing: 1. When connecting the shield to PC, PC won't recognize the port COM 3 and keeps asking for bridge program update while the bridge program has updated to the latest version.
                                           2. Need to learn which port on the shield needs to connect to the breadboard and the schematics of the shield.
   3. 11/7/2016: A link that may solve problem 1: http://www.theengineeringprojects.com/2013/04/getting-started-with-easyvr-commander.html
                                                                       2. http://www.veear.eu/faq/
      
                        Link for the second problem:1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzPG1kH-jWK9Q3ozWjNmOG1lczQ/edit
           Try this:http://www.instructables.com/id/Speech-Recognition-with-Arduino/
   4. 11 Nov 2016
      1. Solved problem 1 and successfully connected the shield to the computer
      2. Programmed for pin 2 with a green LED light attached. Successfully ran the code and turned on the green LED. Arduino  Code:
      speech_control.ino
      3.result:

      Bridge not started!
      EasyVR detected!
      Say a command in Group 0
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 0
      Command: 0 = READY
      Say a command in Group 2
      Command: 0 = GREEN_LIGHT_ON
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...
      Say a command in Group 2
      Timed out, try again...

7. 12/2/2016

   1. Writing the code for motor driving circuits. (pin 9 for left motor input, pin 11 doe right motor input.)
   2. Need a passphrase for main start command and passphrase for main break command for security concern.speech_control.ino