SwiftNotes

Inspiration

• As current musicians, one of our biggest challenges when it comes to playing and performing music is the act of flipping to the next page.
• Most of the time, these flips are not possible without a small pause or having another player, that is, the sole purpose is to turn pages.
• This is not efficient and we knew there was a better way

What it does

• A mobile application takes inputs from user about the song (i.e. time signature, number of beats, and tempo) and calculates the estimated time between page flips when it is time for a flip, the application sends a signal to a Bluetooth module connected to the main Arduino board.
• As back-up, the microphone and pedal can also act as a trigger for a page flip. The user simply steps of a pedal or says "flip" into the microphone to trigger a flip. These options will be dependent on the type of instrument played (eg. woodwind players can not use the microphone and piano players cannot use the pedal.)
• When a flip is signaled via the methods above, the Arduino runs a series of motor movements to flip a page.

How we built it

• The mobile application is built using MIT App Inventor, which connected the mobile device to the Bluetooth module and gave the user a better UI.
• The pedal uses a limit switch to easily detect a step, then sends a signal to the Arduino.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges that we have run into was finding the right data collection tool. We had plans to use a Bluetooth module in order to somehow connect to a more user friendly UI, which could also support Bluetooth handling. Having these two in mind, we settled on MIT App inventor, giving us the opportunity to easily connect to a Bluetooth module, while providing great UI to enter the data needed.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One of our great accomplishments were being able to include enough logic and complexity into the mobile application within the time constraint. The mobile application successfully did the timer calculations and given the parameters, it included a live timer and always had success connecting to the Bluetooth module, sending data with unnoticeable delay. On the hardware aspect, we successfully designed our own microphone by designing audio filters, amplifiers, etc. to meet our needs.

What we learned

First, we learned how to configure Bluetooth functionalities with Arduino and low code for simple applications. On the hardware technical aspect, we deepened our understanding of RC circuits and their frequency response by designing filters, amplifiers to suit our design requirements. Adding on, we strengthened our proficiency in working with real hardware suchlike reading of documentations and datasheets, circuit boards, and employing design processes to meet the time constraint.

What's next for SwiftNotes

To further advance SwiftNotes, the next steps include adding a speaker and hence, a metronome to serve as a better music player. this feature would better synchronize the player with the timer. Secondly, the addition of an upgraded microphone would increase the sensitivity level while drastically increasing the strength-to-noise ratios. This would yield more accurate page flipping. Third, adding image processing algorithms allows our project to take pictures of the music sheet and automatically recognize key music features, suchlike BPM, bar numbers, etc. deeming a more friendly user interface. Lastly, an extension of SwiftNotes is the generalized application of books rather than music sheets exclusively; particularly convenient for people in general and aids in people who may be impaired mobility-wise.

Built With

• arduino
• mit-app-inventor