PhotoAcoustics brainstorm

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Are there any components that would lend themselves well to trying to do something akin to PhotoAcoustics:

I saw this link but there wasn't much there.
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1267040533

It was mentioned in that thread that many lasers are designed to do be switched on & off for fiber optic communications, but a rotating disc with holes in it could work too.

2

Sorry, I had to look up "dry lab" and I'm not sure which of the 3 meanings you meant. You meant modelling it on a computer?

Ok, the audio processing is too much for the arduino cause it can't handle that much data. If I was just interested in say a volume level at that frequency, is it conceivable to have an op-amp and some type of integrator? That I could then just sample the volume level intermittently?

Alternatively, has anyone tried using Processing to capture the audio and stay in communication with the Arduino for bi-directional communication?

I also have not seen any experiments along these lines online.

Thanks.

3

Do the ultrasonic sensors that people typically use for distance, output anything else besides travel time, like volume?

Anyways, it looks like using Processing would be better to capture the audio. It looks like it incorporates the java audio libraries and some FFT functions.

Thanks for your help.

4

By volume I just meant any measure of intensity of signal received at the ultrasonic sensor. And can I have it listen whenever I desire, or do you only have access to the velocity/travel time?

Another question, if I may.
I recently used a Light-to-Frequency sensor that was very handy to interface with an interrupt. Is there a typical electrical circuit (noob here) that one would use to turn the amplitude of a wave into a TTL signal, like the Light-to-Frequency sensor does? And could this be done for sound as well?

5

I just wanted to use the ultrasonic sensor as a microphone that could tell me some measure of intensity of the signal that it is receiving.

I've looked but I'm not sure what I'm looking at regarding the Voltage-to-Frequency stuff.

Does a Voltage-to-Frequency converter work for DC & AC signals?

6

Fair enough. I just wanted to determine that there wasn't an overly complex electrical solution to the measurement problem. I agree creating the phenomena is the first step.