SC-USVG01 - The Ultrasonic Goggles !

Hey guys, Been a long time since I posted here about something I did in Real-Live since [THE GILGAMESH]. This is another awesome experiment with Micro-controllers and yielded success beyond expectations.

The concept evolved while playing video games, mainly - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction. It was the first game in the series to feature a SONAR Goggles and I thought the next game would probably revert back to old NV-HV-EM Multi-Vision Goggles combo. But surprisingly (Or maybe not) they retained it. Furthermore, I also ended up making a game revolving in minimalist graphics and the gameplay heavily revolving around navigating in dark labyrinths and caves underwater using SONAR, and planned further to push the game idea on Touch Controls, and even planned a two-player co-op more for it.
(Check it out [HERE] / Review [HERE] )

The overall idea of the project quickly developed once we had chosen how the core functionality would be. The Ultrasonic Sensor that we managed to get was DYP-ME007 v2. With the beam angle of 30 degrees and range of approx. 5 meters. Well, That did it. The only thing left was getting a few more components together and getting this baby in action. Of course, the overall packaging and aesthetics were heavily inspired from the Multi-Vision Goggles of Splinter Cell and amalgamation of whatever we could salvage from our household. The Micro-controller was Atmel's ATMEGA8, that we could easily manage to grab from the market.

Now, let me explain how stuff works. The central idea was to give the user a means to gauge distance between the sensor, which is the Goggles, and the obstacles, whether static or dynamic. The core functionality needed to be extremely quick, optimized and intuitive. otherwise the whole setup was no good. We settled on the audible blips from the buzzer. The varying interval between the blips would allow the user to gauge the distances. The quickened pace of the blips would suggest the obstacle drawing closer to the user. While no blips could be heard if unobstructed. The first recorded blip was if any obstacle was at about 4.5 meters away.

The major design challenge was making it optimized. If the functionality was sluggish, users would never get the clear idea and then it would be no good. However, we did manage to make it as reactive as possible with surprising accuracy. The major challenge was packaging all components with no trouble to the user's end and making it simple as possible. We did manage to make it as simple as just Strap-It, Turn-It-On and GO!

The Micro-controller ATMEGA8 did throw some tantrums like a real 8-year old kid. But we did manage to get it working for us. And furthermore, the packaging worked out brilliantly, without making us look like bunch of idiots wearing some funky stuff.

The test trials of the device yielded success beyond our expectations, and yes, the joy of running around with the device and camera in the college campus is really priceless! (P.S. I'm the one in the Black T-Shirt with White Dragon on it.)

Here's the demo we managed to shoot. :P



And if you guys want to discuss more about the device, either comment here, shoot me an email or just contact me on Facebook. :)