A Clock for the Blind

29Jan08

Designing for Constraints

simple and accurate: the clock should be easy the access and give the time as quickly and as accuratly as possible,
1. thus a voice activated clock that responds with voice as well.
If the clock needs to be read by touch or pressed, the user is required to find the clock and are thus locked into a postion for a certain period of time. Voice or sound activation frees the user to be within a predefined distance from the clock for it to sense the voice and for the user to hear the responce. This would require quite a bit of hardware and software as well as possible tuning to the user and their individual speech patterns.

2. A second design might maintain a voice response, since it does provide the user with the most amount of information in the smallest span of time. Instead of voice activation, im thinking of a tactile interface, such as a large plate or button that is pressed to trigger the time.
- I will make a working prototype of #1 with a Electret Microphone Element being read as an analog input into an Arduino micro-controller. By setting a threshold based the incoming bytes read into the serial monitor, if the sound sensed goes above the threshold –> the Arduino turns a digital pin HIGH, thereby connecting a 5v reed relay switch. The relay will bridge a switch on a talking wrist watch, thereby speaking the time and stating weather it is am or pm. If this prototype, it is not “voice” activated, but sound activated if the sound goes above a predefined level.

and here she is:

Filed under: arduino, designing for constraints, physical computing   |  Leave a Comment