TEAM 5: AWESOME
Spring 2009

MEMBERS

PROJECT CONCEPT

This project will allow a television to adjust itself based on its surroundings and in normal usage will eliminate the need for a remote. We will be using microphones and a camera to feed information such as ambient noise, user speech, and presence of people into a set top box which will adjust the television accordingly.


MOTIVATION

There are a lot of times when something sudden will interrupt your television watching experience. Using our technology, a quick interference like a phone call or loud yelling will cause the TV to adjust itself so the user does not need to do anything. This convenience, as well as using auditory commands instead of a remote, mean that the user will never need to get up from their couch and can watch TV uninterrupted or have their program paused if they leave the room.


COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

  • There are a number of voice controlled remotes out there which allow for users to control the television with their voice. One of the numerous examples is the Surfboard Voice Activated Remotewhich costs $50.
    While many of these remotes exist and some are rather cheap, they still require the use of a remote! Our project eliminates the need for a remote altogether. Additionally, none of these remotes facilitates the TV making intelligent adjustments to its surroundings without user input.


    • Competitive Product Link

    TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

  • Motorola VIP1910 Flexible HD IP set-top
          -Control center for deciphering sensory inputs and producing proper response on the television.
  • USB controlled microphones
          -Placed in various locations across the room to detect voice commands and ambient noise in order to dynamically control the television
  • USB Webcam with facial recognition
          -Used to detect faces to gauge the occupancy of the room.

    • REQUIREMENTS

  • Accept auditory commands from a user to control TV
  • Make adjustments to TV based on ambient noise
  • Detect whether anyone is watching TV and adjust accordingly
  • Accept input from multiple microphones
  • Recognize speech with high accuracy

    Parts List

  • Motorola IPTV set top box (1910, 1920, 1960, or 1970)
          Priya said she could get this.
  • USB Hub
    USB Hub Link
    $18.98 total
  • 2 Microphones
    Microphone Link
    $24.23 each. Not sure that these are compatible with Linux.
  • A high resolution webcam. Logitech has a bunch of good ones that are PC compatible, but again, We do not know which ones are compatible with Linux.
    Webcam Link
    $29.99 seems reasonable if it would end up being compatible.


    We know that the box has a Linux based OS, but do not know what sort of webcam or microphones would be compatible. The ones listed above are what we're tentatively interested in, but we were hoping that someone had more information on compatibility issues. We shall continue to do research today, but we wanted to send this off now with an at least reasonable looking request so that we can get your input as well.

    • ARCHITECTURE

    USE CASES (INTERACTION DIAGRAMS)

    SYSTEM STATES & TRANSITIONS

    RISKS & MITIGATION STRATEGIES

  • Microphone failure (Ex: microphones not picking up voices when it's supposed to)
  • Inaccuracy speech recognition
  • Edge cases relating to timing (Ex: if someone walks out of the room for a minute and our sleep timer (to turn off the tv after a room is empty) is a minute and it turns off just as they're coming back)
  • Noises from TV get mixed up with voice commands

    • ERROR HANDLING

    To be completed.

    IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS

    To be completed.

    TEST CASES

    To be completed.

    EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION

    To be completed.

    LESSONS LEARNED

    To be completed.

    FUN STUFF

    To be completed.

    REFERENCES

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