Soundbox (A.K.A. ArtPie)

Context

• For the class Principles of Integrated Engineering, or PIE, in Fall 2021, I worked with a small team of four other engineering students to design and build a Soundbox.
• The Soundbox scanned the surface of an object with a laser line, then converted that line to audio output and a visual display.
• One of our team members made a project website.
• We took some cool video of the device operating.

Responsibilities

Sole

• Selecting components for and connecting the electrical system as a whole, consisting of the following across a number of data and power connections.
  • A Raspberry Pi, the brains of the device
  • A motor for turning the main turntable
  • Two speakers
  • A power supply
  • A laser
  • A camera
  • A couple strips of LEDs and their driver
• The Raspbian environment of the Pi.
  • Obtaining and processing video input from the camera driver.
  • Processing and sending audio through the speakers.

Shared

• The computer-vision code that converted the image-with-laser-line into audio.

Skills

• Embedded Linux
  • I used the Raspbian system to accept input from the camera (involving a bunch of evil driver wrangling) and provide audiovisual output.
  • I spent a lot of time with JACK and ALSA.
• Python
  • We used Python to implement the Soundbox’s CV (using opencv) and audio processing capabilities.