Res, a matter.

A little update regarding the hardware.

Prototyping and composition notes

I’ve been thinking about the final design of the sensor. Although the maximum portability of the device is essential I rather not to work on a wireless solution by now; I believe it’s worth to spend more time improving both the hardware and software prototype, until they will reach a reliable degree of efficiency. So what I need to implement now is a tiny circuit which could be embedded in a small box to be placed on the performer’s arm or in a pocket.
Fortunately the size of the circuit is fairly small, it shouldn’t be too difficult to embed the sensor into a suitable box.

Prototyping and composition notes

Due to some deadlines I can’t develop such circuit at the moment, but I created a Velcro bracelet for the sensor and implemented a fairly satisfying polyurethane shield along with a soft plastic air chamber for the microphone. The shield will be used to avoid the 60Hz electrical interference which happens when the skin directly touches the microphone and to filter out external noises; the air chamber allows the sonic vibration of the muscles to be amplified before reaching the microphone, beside filtering out some frequencies too.
Eventually I also included a 1/4 mono chassis jack socket, which substitutes the awful output cables I used so far.

Although such setup is much simpler than the one developed by Silva, the results obtained during a first testing session were quite promising. That’s the reason why I opted for the simplest implementation; until the sensor satisfies the project requirements there’s no need to go for something more complex. Besides, the simplicity of the sensor implementation is an integral part of the final project.

MMG sensor hardware prototype