CS122A
Fall Quarter, 1998
List of Class Projects
Prof. Frank Vahid
Most of these projects are intended to be kept on permanent display.
They should be suitable for display in a "museum of computing" where
visitors could try them out easily -- thus, the project MUST be easy
to use (power up and it works in an obvious manner), and should include
a nice presentation on poster board -- more details on the presentation
aspects will be provided later.
TAKEN (Susan): Turn on a light at a random and time how long it
takes the player to hit the stop/time button.
"Follow Me" (1 player)
TAKEN (Amin): Have a series of lights and turn one on for a
short predetermined amount of time. If the player succsessfully
hits the corresponding button within the alloted amount of time, the
player gets a point.
"Follow Me" (2 player)
TAKEN (John Tyner and Ka Ming Lo)
Have a series of lights and turn one on for a short predetermined
amount of time. Each light will have two corresponding buttons.
The player who hits their button first gets a point. The first
player who gets to ten wins.
Dollar Auction
A device to carry out the classic sociology experiment "The
Dollar Auction." A dollar is available and two people must bid
for it; the highest bidder gets the dollar. The catch:
each person must pay whatever they bid, whether they win or not.
The device requires a large display of the current bids, and
buttons with which bids can be placed. "Bells and whistles"
can be added to make it more entertaining to watch the bidding
process -- ideally even a auctioneer's voice announcing the bids
and encouraging higher ones.
Competing Colors
(TAKEN: Joseph Oh and James R.) A device demonstrating another classic
psychology experiment.
A two person game where each player has a blue card and a red
card. If both players play the blue card then both players
will get 5 points each. If both players play the red card then
they lose 5 points each. If one players plays the blue card and
the other plays the red card, then the player with the red card
gets 10 points and the player with the blue card gets no points.
Competing Truck Companies
TAKEN (Aaron English): A device demonstrating another classic psychology experiment.
There are two truck companies on opposite sides of a mountain.
Both companies must cross the mountain to make their deliveries,
and each delivery is worth $10.
There are two single lane roads which the truckers can take. One is
a straight road. The other is a curvey road. The straight road is
twice as fast, but if both compaines take the same road, they will
run into
each other and one of the trucks will have to back up to the begining
of the road to let the other pass. The two competitors should
not be able to see one another. A map should display where
each truck is located at any given time.
Sound Detection
TAKEN (Dawson and Suvi): A device that measures what frequencies
a human can hear.
The user can adjust the frequency, which is generated and
also displayed numerically. The user presses a button at the
lowest and highest frequencies heard, and those numbers are
displayed. To ensure they aren't lying, a checking mode has
them listen for a sounds of different frequencies, pressing a
button within a certain period of time, to validate the low and high.
Voice sampler
TAKEN (Matt and Chris): Records and then plays back short
sentences, possibly adding special effects.
Animator
Using a digital camera, captures images when requested and
plays them back in sequence when requested. A user moves
objects slightly between capture request, so the playback
looks like smooth motion.
Xilinx to LCD interface
TAKEN (Philip Hoang): Write a program which allows the user to
print characters or
strings on the LCD's using the XS40 boards.
How a CPU WOrks
A display that shows how a CPU works. Items are shown
being fetched from memory/registers, transformed, and stored
back -- ideally, data could be input and output too. Even
better, a simple program could be written by the user, and
its execution observed!
Dog Bark Detector
TAKEN (Tsung Chih and Keith): Detects a dog bark, and emits a signal
in response.
8051 model extension
TAKEN (Kathryn): Incorporate interrupts, timers and UARTs into
UCR's 8051 VHDL model.
VHDL model of A2D system
TAKEN (Susan): Implement the A2D lab fully in VHDL, including
the 8051 core, A2D converter, LCD, etc.
Mail detector
TAKEN (Aaron M. and Evan): Detects if mail is in a mailbox,
signals a unit inside the house (wirelessly) if so.
Garage door indicator
TAKEN (Mark Bhataravidhya): Detects if a garage door is open
and it is dark outside, meaning the home owner forgot to close
it. Blinks a red light rapidly inside the house in this case,
maybe accompanied by an occasional beep. Slowly blinks a
green light under other conditions (door closed, or door open
but light outside) to indicate that the system is working.
Hamming code decoder
TAKEN (Jeremy Thorpe): Decodes a hamming encoded binary string
and display the results on an LCD.
Music synthesizer
TAKEN (Joshua and Fei): Plays musical notes in response to
keys being pressed. Allows programming of songs, as well as
modification of the sounds.