Hello All,
I have never used Arduino and have little programming or circuit building experience.
I would like to check if Arduino could be used for this project and would also need help on which parts to get.
Project is as follows:
I have 10 or 20 objects which when brought to the ear should play some pre-recorded speech.
Each should play a different piece of audio.
It should be possible all objects to play back simultaneously if all are picked up at the same time (objects will be scattered around a venue as part of an exhibition).
My plan so far is as follows:
Embed a tiny speaker in each object.
Also embed some proximity sensor in each object.
When brought to ear, the sensor sends an 'on' message to Arduino board which causes audio to play.
Audio playback methods:
I have looked at the Daisy open source MP3 player on Makers Shed which is way to expensive considering I will need at least 10 sources of audio.
The Waveshield Kit for Arduino seems like an option and just about affordable. However it seems from the description that the kit doesn't include an Arduino board... anyone know about this?
And would I need an Arduino board with this kit or could I just hook up a light sensor to this thing directly?
Thank you for reading this far and for any help....
B
Whilst it's relatively easy to detect being picked up (accelerometer, tilt switch), detecting proximity to a particular body-part (ear) is more difficult.
Maybe you could enable a light detector near the speaker after detecting the picking-up action, but this wouldn't necessarily detect an ear - it could also detect a hand, a shoulder or being shut in a cupboard.
Tough one.
Thanks.
Your suggestions would definitely be better.
However, I'm starting to see that it will be difficult to add components to the piece and have them remain hidden.
As the piece is bronze, would it be possible to make the whole piece itself touch sensitive?
I don't know if bronze is conductive asn I guess it depends on waht kind of bronze.
If not, would it be possible to apply somekind of transparent coating to render the piece conductive?
The bronze pieces would be very difficult and expensive to replace so I would need to be sure that anything I put on there won't mess it up.
I don't know if bronze is conductive asn I guess it depends on waht kind of bronze
Bronze is copper and tin what is there to not be conductive?
The problem with a touch sensor is that it requires the difference between some reference and what is being touched. If the whole thing is embedded in bronze then there is no reference point and so no way of making a touch sensor work.
To make it work you would need to electrically isolate a section of it to use as a reference.
The best bet would be to use an accelerometer to see if it were being picked up.