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Tweet-like description of the project:
Modules for voice display -
Need or problem you are attempting to solve:
Read numerical display with a voice, without having to use the sight. -
Beneficiary, single person and/or community:
People with disabilities, like blind or people unable to read.
People with difficulties or impediment in reading a value on a display. -
Solution, brief description of the project
Voice module for electronic instruments and sensors, able to say numbers and short sentences. Specifically designed for small devices like multimeters or domotics.
This module was born to read, through a loudspeaker, values that are normally shown on the instrument display.
It is composed by an hardware (that reads data), a software library (that can compose pronunciation according to the data) and some guidelines to make the project a speaking one. -
Technologies already adopted or that you are planning to adopt
Small MicroController like Atmel or PIC;
Audio Player Module like WTV020 or Mini DF Player;
Mini Speaker. -
WebSite (or socials)
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License, that you are planning to use:
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Current status/stage of the project. Considering your project, please point out the project stages that you have already accomplished.
The majority of electrical equipment currently available on the market consists of a visual output device, that communicates and interacts with the user through a visual display. Some devices, however, are also equipped with a voice interaction system, that allows users to utilize this technology without using their sight.
Nevertheless, the totality of these electrical devices equipped with an alternative interface is very narrow and confined and is often regarding popular customary appliances, such as smartphones, domestic or medical scales.
In Italy, therefore, finding “voice instruments” (as weather stations, domestic thermostats, washing machines or digital multimeters) is quite difficult, if not impossible.
Initially, while working in a chemistry lab, I thought about building a measuring instrument particularly useful in these contexts: a speaking pH-meter.
The first prototype of this innovative instrument has been carried out through an analog pH sensor, an audio module WTV020, both controlled by an Arduino Uno board, the core of the device.
The first version of the speaking pH-meter can pronounce sequentially the entire part, if necessary the word “comma” and the decimal portion of pH value when the probe is immersed in a liquid.
In the following versions, after carrying out some research, I thought about using a Mini DF Player as an audio module, rather than a WTV020 (more troubled and sophisticated to manage), while I decided to use an AtMega 328 as a control unit, streamlining the whole system.
The key point of the subsequent developments was the possibility to use the pH-meter vocal system on other instruments, such as a barometer, an ammeter or even a dishwasher.
In order to meet these requirements it is necessary to know how to manage a huge amount of information and values, differently from the pH measurement, that ranges from 0 to 14.
To achieve this it is necessary to subdivide the value or the information in the different parts that compose pronunciation, and subsequently manage microcontroller’s routine in order to play audio tracks.
The last step of the project consists of creating a case to contain all the electronic components. As for the small devices, in order to cut costs, I have decided to work with laser cutter machine, puncturing and customizing standard boxes, whenever possible. While, regarding particular devices, I have decided to cut and assemble the different sides of the case.
