Author: pareeksk

This week, I was the speaker for our group’s design presentation, so I had to prepare and review the content of the slides and our design to make sure I was ready for the presentation as well as any further questions. During the Q&A portion, Tamal mentioned that using Raspberry Pi 5s for the wearable node component could be risky due to potential inconsistency, so he recommended using earlier models like the Raspberry Pi 4. In light of this, my group and I decided to look further into the differences and the causes for concern, and we plan to discuss this as well with our TA Rhea and Professor Qing Li. Also, as the speech lead, I’m looking into finalizing the design and pipeline for the audio component, making sure the right data is getting processed by the right libraries to maximize accuracy and minimize latency. Next week, I plan to finish the design report with my team, order the necessary components (especially for the audio system), and begin the software implementation of the system.

This week, I was working heavily on the final design and the design presentation due next week, which I’ll be presenting for my group. I also requested a USB 3.0 video camera that functions in low light, which is perfect in our scenario of a stage production. I’ve been doing more research on the auditory portion of the project and was able to get through what I was hoping I would be able to accomplish from last week. Specifically, I found certain modules/libraries that come with the Raspberry Pi 5 such as WebRTC VAD for the voice activity detection component and Vosk for the automatic speech recognition portion. During our group meetings, I was also looking into the UWB sensors and their compatibility with the Raspberry Pi 5, and my team and I discussed different options for synchronization of the anchors and the tags to the Pi. My progress is on schedule, and next week, I hope to deliver a good and explanatory presentation and also find the exact microphones that our group should be using. I’m looking at Lavalier microphones over Bluetooth microphones because of their better range, but I need to look into transceiver compatibility with our Raspberry Pi 5 ports.

This week, I worked with my group to complete the proposal presentation slides and discuss components that would be required. After some discussion, we ordered a Raspberry Pi 5 and a motor driver, and I’m also thinking of ordering the USB 3.0 video camera that’s available on the parts list. I’ve also started taking a look at the auditory component and the technology stack that would be needed to accomplish VAD (voice activity detection) and ASR (automatic speech recognition) reliably. Currently, I’m on schedule and next week, I look to finalize the design of the entire system and its integration with my group, and on my own end, I want to figure out exactly how the audio system would work in tandem with the Raspberry Pi 5 that we ordered. Specifically, I want to see if there are any online libraries or in-built features that come with the Pi that would be helpful for transcribing the speech from the actors’ microphones into usable text.