Tom
Hi Guys, First off I just want to mention that I've never dealt with robotics before but I have this project that I think would be fun. As the subject describes, I'm trying to attach a webcam to a servo that will be guided by voice so that whenever someone in the room speaks it rotates to that direction. At work we are setting up a video conference room. The camera is being placed on top of the TV which is in the center of a long conference table. The problem is the camera can only focus on a third of the table.
I don't think I'm ready for creating my own circuit boards so I'm trying to find kits and such. I found a sound impact sensor online. I was thinking maybe I could use two of those to detect sound on the left and right but I'm not sure if it would be sensitive enough. I would like to use a couple of microphones but I'm not sure if they would be too sensitive and pick up the sound anywhere in the room and end up not being able to tell if it's coming from the left or the right. Any guidance you have would be greatly appreciated.
~Tom
Hey Tom!
The EZ Robot project would work for your application. The only difficult part would be moving the camera towards the source of volume.
There are a few solutions that you could use. You could use 3 microphones (one pointing forward, one 45 degrees to the left, and one 45 degrees to the right) on the camera.
The microphone with the highest volume would cause the camera to rotate in that direction.
Another option would be to have a button for each speaker. They press the button when they speak, and the camera would move to that pre-programmed location.
The second option would be most accurate, but require a configuraton process.