Final Image

Description

This Sound & Emotion Detector is designed to sense changes in emotional  and speaking volume. Sometimes, when I am talking on the phone with family or friends, my mood may shift and my voice may get louder without me noticing. I also feel  bad when I see parents yelling at their children. When people become emotional, they might say things they later regret. I want to create a device that can detect changes in sound and emotion so it can help people become more aware of these moments.

Detail Images

Demo Video

Process

Discussion

I’m really glad that everyone had a lot of laughs during my demo and felt that this is a thoughtful and practical project.

When I was doing the breadboard demo, I got the effect I wanted very quickly, and it was stable. But the soldering process took much longer than I expected. I soldered each functional part separately and tested every port to make sure it worked. However, when I put everything together at the end, it still became unstable.

Besides, I realized that when turning an electronic setup into an actual device, planning the wiring and the placement of components is also a very important step. 

Giving the device a cute face to characterize it is also helpful for something meant to provide emotional support. Combining the electronic parts with different features of the character, like putting the sound sensor in the “ears” and the indicators in the “eyes”, is an efficient and presentable approach in the design.

During the critique, I got the suggestion to set the environmental base volume first and then detect relative increases. This actually solves a big concern I had. Also, putting the vibration mechanism in the ears is a fun idea—it integrates into the device much better than an external butterfly.

Technical information

Code

/*

Puppy Sound Detector device for Intro to physical computing project 2

 Turn on the switch and the power  LED lights up. After detecting the higher sound volume (threshold = 40) the yellow LED lights up  in the eyes. After detecting the higher sound volume (threshold = 40)  accumulating for than 8 seconds, the red LED lights up  in the mouth light turns on and will keep the brightness for 10 seconds.

Some sources that I used:

- ChatPGT helped me set up threshold for volume and correct my code

pin mapping:

Arduino pin | role | description

___________________________________________________________________

A0 input Sound detector

7 output LED for Eyes part

2 output LED for Eyes part

4 output LED for Mouth part

Made by Zixin Ye,  zye2@andrew.cmu.edu

*/

"const int envelopePin = A0;    // Sound input

const int redLedPin1 = 7;      // Light 1 (Red)

const int redLedPin2 = 2;      // Light 2 (Red)

const int greenLedPin = 4;     // Light 3 (Green)

const int threshold = 40;                // Sound volume threshold

const unsigned long requiredHighTime = 8000;   // Accumulated high-volume time: 8 seconds

const unsigned long greenLedDuration = 10000;  // Green LED duration: 10 seconds

unsigned long highDuration = 0;          // Accumulated high-volume time

unsigned long lastMillis = 0;            // Time of last loop

unsigned long greenLedStartTime = 0;     // Green LED start time

bool isGreenLedActive = false;            // Whether green LED is active

bool isGreenLedPreviouslyTriggered = false; // Whether green LED has been triggered before

void setup() {

 pinMode(redLedPin1, OUTPUT);

 pinMode(redLedPin2, OUTPUT);

 pinMode(greenLedPin, OUTPUT);

 Serial.begin(9600);

 lastMillis = millis();

}

void loop() {

 unsigned long now = millis();

 unsigned long deltaTime = now - lastMillis; // Time interval of this loop

 lastMillis = now;

 int soundLevel = analogRead(envelopePin);

 Serial.println(soundLevel);

 // ---- Green LED duration logic ----

 if (isGreenLedActive) {

   if (now - greenLedStartTime >= greenLedDuration) {

     // Turn off green LED after 10 seconds and reset high-volume timer

     digitalWrite(greenLedPin, LOW);

     isGreenLedActive = false;

     isGreenLedPreviouslyTriggered = true; // Mark green LED as already triggered

     highDuration = 0; // Reset accumulated time

   }

   return;  // Do not process red LED logic while green LED is active

 }

 // ---- Red LED accumulation logic ----

 if (soundLevel > threshold) {

   // High sound level detected, accumulate time

   highDuration += deltaTime;

   digitalWrite(redLedPin1, HIGH);

   digitalWrite(redLedPin2, HIGH);

 } else {

   // Sound level below threshold, pause accumulation and turn off red LEDs

   digitalWrite(redLedPin1, LOW);

   digitalWrite(redLedPin2, LOW);

 }

 // ---- Green LED trigger logic ----

 if (highDuration >= requiredHighTime) {

   digitalWrite(greenLedPin, HIGH);

   greenLedStartTime = now;

   isGreenLedActive = true;

 }

 // If the green LED has already been triggered and sound stays below threshold,

 // reset the accumulated high-volume time

 if (isGreenLedPreviouslyTriggered && soundLevel <= threshold) {

   highDuration = 0;

 }

 delay(50);

}

"

Code checked by CHATgpt"