Dan's Projects

Why?

I often get asked "Why do all these projects? What's the point?" Some of these are from school but I had direct involvement with the concept of the ideas behind the projects. I tried to involve some of my interests behind the ideas. Some are obvious like the Electro-oculographic laser pointer, others involve my interests in slightly more indirect way. If you wish to know more feel free to e-mail me.


Project List

  • Digital FM Transmitter Business Plan (Completed) - Synopsis
  • Electro-Oculographic Laser Pointer (Completed) - Synopsis
  • Automated Camera Controller (Completed) - Synopsis
  • DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) Pad (Completed) - Synopsis
  • Portable Music Player Attachment (In Progress) -Synopsis
  • FE Exam (Completed) - Synopsis
  • Written Chinese (In Progress) -Synopsis

Digital FM Transmitter Business Plan (Jan - Apr 2001)

The objective was to create a business plan around a product. This could have been an improvement on an existing concept or an entirely new and different idea. Our group (composed of five students) chose to create a plan around a Digital FM Transmitter. At the time, Digital FM was a relatively new concept. The course required writing massive reports and presentations throughout the term accumulating to one final business plan to be submitted at the end of the term.

Since the course (as it should) focused much more on the logistics of the plan than the function and innovation of the device (i.e. finance/funding details, manufacturing details, marketability, etc.) our business plan logically focused on those details rather than the mechanics and the composition. It's very neat to finally hear commercials for XM Sattelite Radio (Digital FM radio) one year after our idea.


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Electro-Oculographic Laser Pointer (Sept - Dec 2001)

This was possibly the best project I have yet to work on. My partner and I were given the task of constructing a device using the power of a PIC specifically an 16F873 micro controller chip. I had known in advance that this course was coming and had done a little bit of research in the summer. Basically a micro controller chip can be likened to a very simple computer, it takes information in and responds by producing certain output.

An Electro-Oculographic Laser Pointer takes the concept of a myograph to the next level. Myographs are pretty much the measurement of electric potential when muscles moves. I had believed that this principle could be applied to eye movements. The device would then measure the electric potential produced when theeye rotates and controls a laser pointer to point in a similar orientation. Basically if you looked left, the pointer would point left, look up, the pointer would point up and so on. The device was a success as was the presentation and the final report.


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Automated Camera Controller (Jan - Apr 2002)

This project involved the use of an FPGA (VHDL/Maxplus 2 for development) and heavy duty signap processing. The whole principle of the project was to have a regular video camera track and follow a person on a stage. Wherever the person walked the camera would automatically follow and keep the person centered on the screen. All of this was done in real-time using analog video signals. We could have used digital signals but we chose a harder route for our project. There were 5 group members involved in this project. There were multiple problems (as with other projects-this was just more recent and therefore more memorable) involving things such as signal thresholds, mount oscillations (momentum, gearing).In the end we were able to finish it on time and have it track a person in a semi-lit room.


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Dance Dance Revolution Pad (Dec 2001)

For those who know me well, they always smile when they hear me speak of it. Dance Dance Revolution is a game made by Konami where people litterally step ( or jump, hit, knee, whatever the case may be ) on these pads to a certain order. I know it sounds weird and almost frightening that people actually do this in public or broad artificial light but IT'S TOTALLY FUN! at least that's my opinion. Anyways Question: How do you play DDR at home without <ahem> appropriating an entire, heavy/huge arcade machine? Answer: Build your own dance pad and hook it up to the machine! It took several weeks of 'napkin drawings and planning but in the span of 3 days we built an entire 4 button pad out of wood that we could hook up to the computer! It was a nice project to kill some time over the Christmas Holidays.


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Portable Music Player (Current)

For Christmas I received an awesome Sony Clie S320 PDA-its the same as a Palm Pilot or a Handspring Visor only its Sony AND its got a Jog Dial plus a memory stick port. Now that I've graduated and have all these concepts of signal processing, amplifiers, and digital filters in my head what better way to make use of it then by building my very own Portable Music Player Sony Clie attachment! Basically it will attach itself to a Clie or any Palm device and play music into a set of headphones. It can be likenned to a MP3 player only I'm hoping to make it an Ogg-Vorbis player instead. Why? Well Ogg is an open format (i.e. no need for royalties) and if you're wondering why don't I just buy an MP3 player... where's the fun in that?


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FE Exam (October 26, 2002)

I'm hoping to be able to write the Fundamental Engineering exam to get a USA licensure. If you didn't know, in Canada there are governing bodies which regulate the use of the title Engineer. You have to have certain requirements fulfilled (in addition to education/schooling) to be able to call yourself an engineer and provide engineering services-those who do can call themselves Professional Engineers or P.Eng. In the States, there are similar organizations only to even start qualifying for it you must write an 8 hour exam first-This is the FE Exam. The exam material stretches way back to my early days as a first-year engineer. Luckily I kept all my notes.


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Learning Chinese (Current)

In my ongoing quest to learn more I am trying to learn how to read Chinese. As of right now, I can understand spoken Chinese Cantonese dialect fairly well (Speaking clearly is an entirely different matter). I would; however, like to learn how to read. Did you know the average Chinese newspaper contains over 2000 different characters. I'm currently using sheer will power and www.zhongwen.com to help me in my studies. I've found that by learning Chinese Etymology I can better understand and memorize characters. My current goal is to finish the first 500 most frequent characters by the end of the summer (August 2002). Think I can do it?


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