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VOICE RECGNITION CONTROLLED SAILBOAT

Speech-Recognition Control Aids Disabled Sailor

by Mike Smith, Todd Turner, and Steve Alvey

Start ı The Hardware ı Hardware Interface to the SHARC ı Configuring the DSP for UART Access ı Test Run ı Sources and PDF

The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) now requires all graduating engineering students to have significant team design experience to prepare them for "real life" in the industry. At the University of Calgary, to meet CEAB requirements, students have the opportunity of developing a semiacademic project, but many are taking an alternative approach that is more work, more fun, and far more real.

Students are finding their own projects from local industry or the community, which gives them a full year working with real projects and customers. Four students must act as project managers and engineers, work as a team, and follow a proper life-cycle approach to planning, designing, implementing, and testing. A public presentation of the work brings things together and serves as the final acceptance test.

After completing a 16-month internship at MCK Communications, Todd Turner returned for his final year and his design project. His team decided to create a prototype for a voice-recognition system for a Martin 16 sailboat. Steve Alvey, Toddıs customer, and the Disabled Sailing Association of Alberta had modified the Martin 16, shown in Photo 1, so quadriplegic sailors could sail independently. The boat, funded by a grant from the Royal Bank of Canada, includes a 300-kg keel to prevent capsizing and a custom-designed seat to support the disabled sailor.

Photo 1: The Martin 16 sailboat, Royal Liberty, funded by the Royal Bank of Canada, has a 300-kg keel and is designed for quadriplegic sailors. The sailor controls the sails and helm using a sip-and-puff mechanism. An able-bodied companion comes along for the ride. His hand can be seen near the back of the boat.

Quadriplegic sailors have already used this boat at regattas in Calgary and across Canada. The Autohelm, pictured in Photo 2, provides the necessary electronics to control the sails and helm using a joystick or a sip-and-puff mechanism. The controller also accepts commands over a serial link from the companionıs remote control. A variety of devices remotely send commands or information to the controller or each other over this link. Toddıs team needed to add a voice-control component to the serial link without disturbing its other functions.

Photo 2ıA joystick or a sip-and-puff controller allows a disabled person to manage the Martin 16 Autohelm/Windlass System.

The design project was divided into three technical sections:

• conditioning voice input
• developing a speech-recognition engine
• interfacing between the speech-recognition engine and the Martin 16 controller using a 9-bit UART

This article focuses on the interface. The other sections will be covered in subsequent papers.

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