Description: Underdeveloped areas often lack a unified power system. In these cases, even a modest amount of electrical power can have a big impact on the lives of residents. We intend to design a power inverter capable of providing 250-500W at a selectable output of 120VAC 60Hz or 230VAC 50Hz for use with typical appliances. Due to varying types of solar panels/fuel cells/battery packs which have varying output characteristics, the inverter will have a wide input range of 12-48Vdc. The system would be designed to minimize cost and would include maximum power point tracking to best utilize the solar panel.

Team members: Andrew O'Connell, Jerry Klosek

Description: A RFID tag shall be carried by any person who enters the room. The RFID tag will then be read by a mid-range RFID reader which will be connected to a microprocessor thru UART(RS232). The microprocessor(PIC) shall change the room settings based on the ID scanned. Each ID will have its own user preferences on the lighting, temperature, and activation of various other devices. To adjust the lighting in the room, the microprocessor will control switches thru relays. To adjust the room temperature, the microprocessor will be connected to a temperature probe and some relays. There will also be a prority feature in case two or more people entered the room at the same time. The user with the highest priority will have say on the room conditions. If two users are on the same priority, a compromise will be made by the microprocessor.

Team members: Yutun Tseng Tel: 832-754-1383, Tony Song Tel: 573-999-3806, Wei-Ting Liu Tel: 217-778-3796

Description: Common pedagogy for learning to play musical instruments mainly relies heavily on aural learning and highly abstract ideas, which may not be the preferred methods of learning for many students. Focusing on visual learning, we plan to develop both an audio visualization and pedagogy which may be an alternative and taught in conjunction with traditional methods.

Essentially, we would be converting an inputted audio signal from a musical instrument, where we will utilize a DSP card to output a compatible signal to VGA. The image displayed would be a visualization which would utilize color, shapes, and a system of visual effects which would indicate the tones played, the correctness of the tones, and the intensity of the tones played. This essentially would be an alternative to traditional note notation, and will also develop a computer-based tool which can write a passage of music if time allows.

Team members: Brian Liu [Web], Nick Fila

Description: The magnetic ring cannon, a presentation at EOH, is limited in interactivity and functionality. The current design is stationary and interactivity is limited to pressing a button. What we propose is creating a new base with new motors and gear driven actuators which will give the cannon rotation and angle control and a digital charging timer which will provide far better control over projectile distance. These controls will then interface through a controller with LCD display.

Team members: Chris Giovingo Tel: 815-543-4140

Description: This project will demonstrate the feasibility of supply power over Ethernet and a distributed sample clock/control signal over the same Ethernet pairs to a Data Acquisition Channel in a distributed system. Initially the project will focus on 100Mbit/s Ethernet because of the two free pairs not used for Ethernet signals. If time permits, 1000Mbit/s Ethernet will be investigated with the power and clock system sharing wire pairs with the Ether signal pairs. Power will be distributed using the Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) extension (IEEE 802.3at). A 50V 30W switcher will be designed and a PoE+ interface will control the output on to the Ethernet cables. The clock will be sent by imposing a 30MHz clock signal on the power lines. The width of the pulses will be varied to send control information. These control packets will be sent every second, with the start of the packet indicating a system one pulse-per-second signal (1-PPS), this signal is similar to what is available from GPS receivers. The clock generation and control signals will be generated by an FPGA. While the IEEE 1588 (Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol) standard exists to synchronize clocks, currently there are a very limited number of PHY's being built, and this project requires a second source for all key components. The proposed method would allow the use of standard Ethernet PHY's (100/1000 Mbits/s).

Team members: Richard Ross

Description: Our project is a RFID smart key for a home door lock. The idea of the key would be a proximity sensing detector that will unlock the door when the key is within a certain distance range. The door will also lock automatically when the key is out of the certain range or when the door has shut. More features will be added to the key such as possible voice recognition. This smart key could be used not only for door locks, but for other locks as well such as garage door openers, car locks, or even to turn on the lights when you enter a room.

Team members: Aly Elayat, Frank Styzek, Brock Donovan

Description: The project comprises of using existing power lines in a house to transmit an audio signal to multiple boxes, which could be used either as a PA system or to play music in just one room. This could be done by making a fm transmitter that would transmit the audio through the powerline instead of over the air and a receiver to decode the audio. A 60Hz band pass filter or just a low pass filter will be connected to the line to allow power to the devices and a high pass filter to block out the line power while allowing the signal to go through. This project is worthwile because running audio cables throughout a house can be time consuming and expensive activity, and it uses an already established network to minimize wiring and improve reliability over wireless systems.

Team members: Rajat Singhal Tel: 217-721-1591, Marshall Katz Tel: 732-492-9318, Sam Tsu Tel: 217.819.9431

Description: The sensor bar of the Nintendo Wii acts as an IR light source. The Wii controller reads its position relative to the IR light source and transmits the data to the console to control a pointer. Normally, the sensor bar is stationary and the controller moves to operate the pointer. Our project seeks to replace the sensor bar with an eye-controlled, moving IR light source attached to the front of the remote. The goal is to allow the player to simply look at a location on the TV screen and have the pointer move there. This would allow the Wii to be operated in smaller areas, as no movement of the controller would be necessary. Also, it might provide more intuitive control.

Team members: Scott Kammlade, Nathaniel Toca, Jacob Huh

Description: Automation of the menial tasks done during rush times at restaurants by cooks and assistants. This cuts down on chances for injury through less complication of the cook's work.

Team members: Hoshun Lam, Munan Xue

Description: We will be creating a device to measure blood pressure by mapping optical measurements of vascular distension and applied cuff pressure changes to applied tension. There are currently two methods to measure blood pressure: 1) using a noninvasive oscillometric cuff and 2) using an invasive arterial catheter. The former is time intensive, providing intermittent measurement, while the latter can lead to infection/embolism. Our device will provide a noninvasive method for continuous bio-monitoring of blood pressure.

Team members: Jie Chou, Luke Edelman

Description: We are designing a wireless seat sensor that will be able to detect a person in a seat. We plan to use a mix of pressure and heat sensors to accomplish this. These wireless devices will be connected to a server that will have to ability to determine which seats are full and display this information onto a website to be viewed. We believe that this will be a helpful system to monitor the volume of people in a classroom or a library. This information will help people make decisions such as lowering the number of copies to make for distribution or for students to determine whether they should make a trip out to library.

Team members: Mike Ding, Edwin Lee, Timothy Yung

Description: We assume that a basic surround sound speaker system has a location (probably in the center of the speaker placements) where the system can provide “ideal sound”. Our project aims to create an optimization system that allows a more arbitrary placement (but still limited) of the speakers around the desired point. The Speaker Optimization Circuit (SOC) will calculate the distance from each speaker to the location of the listener by measuring the time it takes for a test sound from the speaker (a click, for example) to travel to a microphone, which will be placed at the listener’s location. With the distance as well as the time-delay information, we will attempt to modify (for each speaker) two parameters: the intensity (volume), and the phase of the sound, which will affect the quality of the sound with the non-ideal positioning of the speakers. More parameters will be included if there is time available. Issues that we will probably ignore due to difficulty include the sound propagation within the space of the sound system due to wall, ceiling, and ground. We plan to use a sound system with N number of speakers, and will connect the SOC between the amplifier and speakers for modification.

Team members: Steve Meadows [Web], Joe Lee

Description: We will create an algorithm that will isolate and track facial features. Using the positions of the location of these features, the algorithm will determine if the driver is distracted or not based on the displacement of these facial points. If the driver is distracted, the software will trigger an alarm to alert the driver.

Team members: Yi-Ching Liu Tel: 217-390-6349, Eric Tsai Tel: 714-686-4975

Description: In case of an emergency, this is an energy backup that provides enough power for a quick cell phone call, but can be recharged in a few moments just before use. This might involve a small hand-crank generator and an ultracapacitor. It would need to deliver 3.3 V and 3 W for up to 5 minutes, with few minutes of cranking effort. The charger will be directly connected to the cell phone which would charge the battery in timely manner thus giving you an option of talking on the phone while you are charging it, granted that the rate of charge is greater than the usage.

Team members: Bernard Ko Tel: 217-778-3753, Hyun Seok Shin Tel: 217-721-0355

Description: The goal of this project is to develop a compact CCD (Kodak KAF-1001) to be used in satellites for remote sensing. Development would be based around the Kodak KSC-1000 Timing Generator and a PIC to clock and retrieve the data. Since this is being developed for a satellite system, the low light intensity will be augmented with an amplifier circuit. In addition, to further increase the sensitivity of the system, the KSC-1000 will implement binning, which will effectively increase the size of the pixels by combining pixels together.

Team members: Neill Bryant Beltran Tel: 630-849-5238, Andy Millard Tel: 847-630-0380

Description: Finding time and energy to put up and take down holiday lights can be tough. Also nobody likes to look at holiday lights still hanging a month after the holiday. We want to create a retractable holiday lighting system with low visibility parts when the lights are retracted. If time allows custom programmable lights may be designed for the system, otherwise it will use pre-existing commercial lights.

Team members: Travis Tate, Brittany Potter

Description: The "Water Driven Micro Generator" will be a backup power supply in cases of emergency for the common home. It will output 120 volts at 60 Hz and will have a maximum power output around 100 watts. The unique feature about this generator is that it is powered only by the water that is found in an ordinary home's plumbing system like the kitchen sink faucet or the bath tub faucet.

Team members: Craig Starr Tel: 309-236-8076, Mike Steele Tel: 309-737-0532

Description: We plan to design an autonomous car mounted with a camera and a position sensor. The information from the camera and sensor will be transmitted back to a PC, which will preform processing to identify objects. The computer will provide commands to the car in order to explore the environment. Such cars would be useful for exploring hostile environments such as burning buildings and locating victims.

Team members: Rob Jacobson Tel: 847-445-3892, Nathan Stevens Tel: 816-665-5570, Erik Johnson Tel: 847-917-0562

Description: Our idea is to create a sequencer or arpeggiator of sorts for an electric guitar. It would start by putting a special pickup (hexaphonic) in/on a guitar that outputs a separate signal for each string. Then, these six signals would be selected and mixed by hardware using a pattern input by the user. Some of the features that this hardware could offer would be variable sequence length, variable speed, and also the ability to have more than one string play at a time.

Team members: Louis Marsico, Paul Chun Tel: 443-610-2601

Description: We would like to create an alarm clock that would be used to wake up somebody who is napping at the ideal time (right before deep sleep) so that they can wake up refreshed, opposed to groggy. There are certain waves that are characteristic of this stage and can be used as a control signal to an alarm. We would like to use the TI 54x or 55x to optimize performance and because of our familiarity with the board. We would like to use EEG sensors, probably for reading the frontal lobe area of the brain so that we can apply the electrodes directly to the forehead. Using good amplifiers we can send the signal wire/wirelessly to a DSP and filter to determine control signals for the alarm. The programming of the DSP would be done in a mix of C (C++?) and ASM (to optimize filter performance).

Team members: Bob Cvengros Tel: 630-306-4018, Vaibhav Naruka Tel: 816-716-8970, Mansoor Ali Tel: 312-388-5411

Description: This is a common problem: You're in a noise environment (bar, club, concert) and are finding it difficult to communicate with someone right next to you. Your voice is drowned out by noise. We wish develop a solution. Our goal is to design a wearable headset that isolates voice out of a mixture of voice and noise and can wirelessly transmit and receive the audio from another headset.

Team members: Alexander Joo Tel: (630) 886-9711, Frank Lam Tel: (630) 886-9711, Ryo Kondo Tel: (630) 886-9711

Description: Our project is to create a solution to locate commonly misplaced objects (ie: keys, wallet, remotes) in a home using both a fixed RFID transmitter and a mobile transmitter. The fixed transmitter would just indicate if the object is located within that room. We hope to be able to determine signal strength to determine a rough distance from the portable transmitter to the object. We would indicate the object location to the user via either LEDs placed on the transmitter or audibly.

Team members: Naixing Wang Tel: 781-775-4795 [Web], Bo Li Tel: 510-557-5956, John Rhine

Description: We will be creating a dc-dc converter that will be used by laptops in cars. This will provide an economical way for laptops to be powered from a cigarette lighter. This project is worth doing because the current technology is expensive and clumsy, leaving a large market for a trim, inexpensive model. People are always on the go, and with the Internet so readily available, there is no reason to be limited by battery life.

Team members: Joe Holleran Tel: (618)530-1486, A.J. Rivera Tel: (630)290-7626

Description: At some point or another in a college student's life at school, they may inadvertently fall asleep in class. Our project aims to create a device to prevent this from happening. We propose to create a pair of devices; a hand-held device that detects when the user nods off and a pocket device to wake them up when that happens. Because as a person falls asleep, they gradually lose their grip on whatever they may be holding, the hand-held device would ideally be a pen which can sense the amount of pressure exerted on it and wirelessly send a signal indicating when the user dozes off. The pocket device would vibrate after a minute to wake the user up.

Team members: Vincent Ho Tel: 773 470 7380, Danny Chan Tel: 773 827 7262, Kin Lai Tel: 312 714 4379

Description: Often painters need to recreate a particular color that they had made in a prior session of painting. This involves the mixing of some particular primary colors in a specific ratio. At the moment this is done purely qualitatively. The automatic painters’ palette will give artists accuracy and precision that they have never achieved before. Moreover, this product will especially benefit rising artists who have not yet perfected the art of color mixing. This tool could also be used by children and in various educational environments.

Team members: Ofer Eckstein Tel: 847-962-3555, Christopher Tempel Tel: 217-891-5491, Shaival Shah Tel: 217-721-7519

Description: This project is proposed by I.A. consulting to design a product to effortlessly remove ice from windshields. The design needs to be a flexible heater that can fit into the window dash and runs from the cigarette outlet. The heater has to be intelligent and not discharge the battery completely and can heat according to temperature, humidity and discharge time.

Team members: Wei Liu Tel: 3036385910, Doddy Widjajakusuma Tel: 2177210349

Description: This project has 3 main features that set it apart from what is widely available for musical instrument amplification: -Class-D switching output stage for high efficiency (>90% at 50% load) -Switching power supply to replace 60hz iron transformers -DSP front-end to allow flexibility in tone control of the instrument The flexibility of the DSP, the high output power (up to 500W) and the greatly reduced weight make this a very useful piece of equipment for a musician.

Team members: Steven Ward Tel: 708-373-3708, Udit Jalan Tel: 217-721-0709

Description: "The DAGR Handheld GPS receiver is used by militaries around the world. Right now, DAGR is powered by 4 AA NiCad or rechargeable lithium batteries. The battery life is about a day. It would be desirable to extend the battery life by harvesting power off the foot soldier or from the environment and adding the harvested power to the power supply. A chopper power supply could be designed to regulate the harvested power and add it into the battery power...The power requirement for DAGR is less than 1 Watt. Any amount of power up to 1 Watt would extend battery life." Our design will use multiple power sources to generate the power necessary to meet the above requirements. By using multiple power sources, we hope to achieve a more continuous and reliable source of power. Sources we will use in achieving this include human movement (while walking), and solar power.

Team members: Fred Raddatz Tel: 312-957-4218, Siddhant Rana Tel: 217.819.9253

Description: Our project is to create a more modern thermostat that uses sensors and a learning algorithm to automatically adjust the heating and cooling in a house to save energy. The goal is to keep the house at a comfortable temperature when residents are present but help save energy when there is no occupancy. We will also design a very easy to use web-based user interface so that "even your grandma could use it". The web-based interface will allow for complete control of the thermostat remotely along with a view of gathered statistics from the sensors. Our overall goal is a low cost design with an easy to use interface.

Team members: Andrew Ofisher, Brittney Campbell

Description: The sound control system will regulate the output dB level of a speaker by measuring the dB level at the "listening point." An algorithm will cause the speaker to increase to an optimal volume if there is a large ambient or outside cause of noise. The change in volume will only occur if the louder dB level at the "listening point" is prolonged.

Team members: Mike Ernst Tel: 2246599191

Description: AUTOMATED GREENHOUSE. This prototype greenhouse will be equipped with sensors such that the conditions in the greenhouse can be monitored and maintained at specific levels automatically. Sensors will be used to do this, in particular thermal sensors, photodiode sensors (light sensor) and PH level sensors. These sensors will constantly monitor the conditions of the greenhouse and turn on a light bulb, fan and alert a signal for manual labor in order to maintain these optimum conditions. A micro-processor will be used to control the sensors and also to receive feedback from them. This feedback will then be interpreted, and the micro-processor will turn on the necessary devices in order to return the greenhouse to specified conditions. The user will be able to set and change the necessary conditions of the greenhouse through a user-interface.

Team members: Mohd Hafiz Zainudin Tel: 2173776919, Ningci Ho Tel: 2177219696, Muhammad Syauqi Alias Tel: 2179793007

Description: Shovelling snow in the bitter winter is a pain to many people. Hence, this automated shovel should be able to initiate with just a touch of a button by the user. Through the use of sound imaging technology, it is able to tell if it is on soil or on concrete. Afterwhich, it will be able to clear the concrete path by pushing the snow onto soil to make the path free.

Team members: Dian Hua Lin Tel: 217-819-0883, Fiona Shuzhen Chen Tel: 217-721-8553, Dominic Poon Tel: 217-721-8556