Senior design project ideas F 2020 Audio research

Senior design project ideas F 2020 • Audio research group in CSL (https: //go. illinois. edu/Augmented. Listening) • Postdoc Ryan Corey (corey 1@illinois. edu) • Professor Andy Singer (acsinger@illinois. edu) • Funding available for some projects

Silent(ish) movement of mics and speakers • We have a room that is 10’ x 20’ in CSL, in which we wish to make remote acoustic experiments possible through a web interface. • We would like to have a way to move a mic or speaker along a path in the room. This could be accomplished with: • A rail system like 3 D printers use • A robot arm with multiple degrees of freedom • A system of reels and pulleys a. k. a. “spidercam” • X-Y pulley plotter, or …

Software-controlled physical sound sources • Run real-time audio processing experiments/demos using live physical sound sources instead of recordings played through speakers • Several sound-making objects controlled simultaneously using software • Telephones, appliances, alarms, fans, instruments, toys, vehicles, etc. • Make a robotic orchestra out of household objects!

Help people hear through masks • Problem: listeners with hearing loss can’t understand people with masks (distance + muffled sound + no lipreading) • Existing solutions like clear masks and wearable amplification systems must be used by the talker • Design a solution for the listener to better hear strangers, e. g. customers in a store • Should work with social distancing and require no touching by talker • Should be easy to use, low cost, easy to produce ?