Cornell ECE 4760 Projects Roundup

ECE students are finishing up at Cornell this year, and fortunately for us at Hackster, they and their instructor Bruce Land have decided to share their work with the world.

As seen in the video below, this project involves building a simulated guitar. To play it, you hold down the correct conductive fret and strum with a specialized pick. Information is transmitted from an Arduino Uno on the guitar to a computer, and finally to a PIC32 microcontroller which displays a Guitar Hero-like game on a TFT screen.

Back in the good old days, you had to play beer pong with your actual hands. As seen in the video below, these students are apparently trying to change the game with their PIC32-based robot. The device takes input from IMU sensors positioned on the participant’s arm, and mimics this movement on a small 3-DoF robotic arm. Its plastic spoon end-of-arm “tooling” allows it to toss a ping pong ball into the awaiting cups.

In order to monitor sleep patterns — hopefully leading to better quality rest— this project consists of a glove that can measure heart rate and movement, as well as a band that is wrapped around one’s chest to measure breathing. Data is collected via an Arduino Nano, then transmitted wirelessly to a PIC32, which displays data on a TFT screen.

This clock, inspired by a display at 200 Water Street in Manhattan, uses 72 RGB LEDs to display the time, date, and temperature. Colors change depending on the function selected. The idea was to get time data via a WWVB radio signal for display, but being deep inside a laboratory, they instead used an Arduino Uno to simulate these radio waves.

Tired of playing video games with your fingers? The goal of this project is to be able to play a simple video using game via electrooculography information transmitted using electrodes attached to the player’s head. Players avoid obstacles by looking left and right as they traverse a TFT LED screen.

If you need an oscilloscope, but don’t want to lug the whole instrument around, this project presents another alternative. PIC-32-based scope design here transmits data to an NTSC television, providing a convenient display method that could be utilized in a variety of situations.

Perhaps the most ambitious project on this list, Hornung’s original vision was to create his own autonomous drone based on a PIC32, along with off-the-shelf control components. While he never achieved truly autonomous flight, he was able to control the drone with the PIC32, and even designed and built his own frame to accommodate the needed parts.

But Wait… There’s More!

Want to see additional ECE content? Be sure to check out Bruce Land’s YouTube page for a wide variety of student projects and lectures!