Low-volume speech

Abstract

This project is the outcome of the necessity of a female patient of Parkinson's disorder and hearing disability of having someone to tell her to speak louder when her voice level could not be heard. The idea was to build an electronic equipment capable of picking up the user's voice, process its level and determine if this level is in fact too low. If the equipment finds that the user is indeed speaking too low, then it activates a vibrating motor, like the one used in pagers, so the user feels the indication to speak louder. Once the user adjusts the voice, then the equipment stays in its passive mode, not activating the alarm. This way the device substitutes for the person, always alerting the user to speak louder when the voice level is too low. During this project, all the electronics knowledge available was compiled producing a piece of equipment useful to people with disabilities. The capstone design course is definitely an effective one to all future engineers. It prepares the student not only academically, but also introduces him or her to a professional environment, learning how to behave in work groups. It also encourages the student to develop a research and investigative perspective, something that is very important for an engineer.