Automatic height adjustment microphone stand

[fathiyaqaan]

I am having difficulty in deciding how ultrasonic sensor to works in detecting human presence and stop at the right place and does not goes down when human move a little bit

[Bender]

Are you referring to an existing system, or is this something you want to design? If you are referring to an existing system, could you provide a link?

[fiveworlds]

You can program the microcontroller to ignore minute changes in the person's position.

Edited March 23, 2017 by fiveworlds

[fathiyaqaan]

I am refering to something that want to design. Can you elaborate about ignoring minute changes in positioning. Furthermore, how to setup the ultrasonic sensor to detect the height of person?

[fiveworlds]

Can you elaborate about ignoring minute changes in positioning. Furthermore, how to setup the ultrasonic sensor to detect the height of person?

 

Well say for instance that you get a value when your hand is in front of the sensor. If you move your hand the value will change slightly. So what you need to do is store the last value in a variable and use an if statement.

 

You could use more than one sensor. One above the other unless your system is really expensive.

Edited March 23, 2017 by fiveworlds

[Klaynos]

how to setup the ultrasonic sensor to detect the height of person?

When i read your opening post this is the question that appeared in my mind. I was hoping it was an already built device we could see.

 

My initial thought would be by scanning an ultrasonic distance gauge over a few angles using a servo. You can then map the space, work out whether anyone is stood there and their height. An acoustic radar, ACDAR...

 

You could use more than one sensor. One above the other unless your system is really expensive.

I was assuming the sensor system had to be on the mic stand.

 

Really I'm not convinced this is a terribly good idea, likely to be finicky and doesn't add much value.

[Bender]

Ultrasound sensors typically aren't very reliable for detecting something "unstructured" like a human. e.g. if the surface you want to detect is at an angle, the sound wave can be deflected in another direction and is never detected.

 

For smooth operation, you could implement a Kalman filter, but if you don't already have a decent background in these kind of things, it is not straightforward to implement.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Bender

[Klaynos]

Ultrasound sensors typically aren't very reliable for detecting something "unstructured" like a human. e.g. if the surface you want to detect is at an angle, the sound wave can be deflected in another direction and is never detected.

 

For smooth operation, you could implement a Kalman filter, but if you don't already have a decent background in these kind of things, it is not straightforward to implement.

Very true. I've not tried them but you can get IR lidar modules that might be a little better. You'd have a much better grasp of the angle you're measuring as well.

[fathiyaqaan]

I initially want to use the IR but my teammates are quite stubborn to use ultrasound. Using multiple sensors are excellent advice. I will try to make it work. Just for the information, this is my group project for my mechatronics course. I still need to learn more huhuhu

[imatfaal]

whenever I have used expensive recording/reproduction/amplification equipment I have had to spend (what felt to me) an inordinate amount of time isolating from all extraneous mechanical, electrical, electronic, and sonic sources. Your idea seems to be introducing a dose of each sort of possible pollution of your signal

[Klaynos]

I initially want to use the IR but my teammates are quite stubborn to use ultrasound. Using multiple sensors are excellent advice. I will try to make it work. Just for the information, this is my group project for my mechatronics course. I still need to learn more huhuhu

Have they experimented with not flat surfaces?

[fathiyaqaan]

We still in the design stage, next week will start buying and fabricating stuff

[fiveworlds]

I was assuming the sensor system had to be on the mic stand.

 

 

Yeah on the stand one sensor placed above the mic to see above your head and one placed below the mic to tell if the mic is raised too high.

 

There should also be buttons to raise and lower the mic in case the sensor is slightly off and a button/switch to activate the automatic raising since it would be undesirable if the singer was moving alot.

Edited March 23, 2017 by fiveworlds

[Klaynos]

 

Yeah on the stand one sensor placed above the mic to see above your head and one placed below the mic to tell if the mic is raised too high.

Ah I see. I think a third might be needed as a there's no one stood there sensor at a very low height.

[fiveworlds]

Ah I see. I think a third might be needed as a there's no one stood there sensor at a very low height.

 

 

You can detect the range to the nearest object with ultrasound. If there is no one there it won't detect an object. https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Ping?from=Tutorial.UltrasoundSensor

 

Though it could detect a wall if you placed the stand near one.

Edited March 23, 2017 by fiveworlds