advice needed on designing an electronic car finder

trickae

Me and my partner are currently looking for ideas we can implement in a 10-12 week period.

Some ideas we chose from our lecturers list are

* car finder - when you can't find your car in the parking lot.

* audio delay system - for movies that may have a certain phrase that was said that wasn't heard clearly - maybe the actor was using an accent or its a foreign film you're trying to understand, or maybe the language being spoken isn't your first - create a ckt that will locate the phrase, slow it down on playback and then resume normal viewing.

* prank call handler: when a prank call is detected form a known number or its someone you don't want to talk to, use the prank call handler to let them know their call is unwanted.


- at the moment i'm more keen on the car finder, while my partner is more keen on the audio delay system. Does anyone have any further ideas we can implement? I have to stress that this project focuses on electronic design (analog and solid state)

thanks in advance.

trickae

what concepts should i look into for radio wave transmission and reception? Does it fall under RF electronics?

Also where can i find resources for designing a radio wave transmitter - that transmits a signal - such as a code - and when the receiver receives the signal - relays a code back (say a HIGH) when its found?

i frankly don't know where to start researching this.

russ_watters

You mean like a LoJack? Or something like it to find your car in a parking lot?

Btw, it served no purpose starting so many threads on the subject - it just clutters up the forum.

berkeman

What year is this project for? How much analog design have you studied? Do you have experience with uCs? DSP?

trickae

Re: Berkeman
Hi berkeman - this is a design course we take just before we start our thesis. I have to a couple of 3rd/4th year professional electives to take before i can worry about that.
i've done control, currently doing analog electronics. I'm a dual degree thats why i have some courses left for my EE side. However my partner has the following courses behind him:
*analog electronics
*solid state electronics
*microelectronic design

I have a strong background in programming/ software design.

what scope could we be looking at?

Re:russ_watters
- i'll look into a lojack
- had no idea such questions aren't warranted here or a public access forum.
- just started EE design this semester - kinda freaking out, i apologies.


Edit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoJack

i believe i'd be using a similar method - however it won't be that large scale. Most likely to help someone find their car if they forgot where they parked it. I'm thinking of ways of not having it constantly emit a signal - only as needed maybe.
I could have it broadcast through the radio antenna.

berkeman

trickae, what russ_watters was referring to was the way that you started three different threads simultaneously to ask basically the same question. Your questions were fine, but it is wrong in a carefully moderated technical forums like the PF to post the same question in multiple ways in multiple threads. The clutter and confusion that results slows everybody else down, as they try to figure out why there are multiple threads like that. And it makes us Mentors waste time trying to figure out what is going on, and whether we should try to merge some of the threads to clean things up.

Just ask a good question in a thread, and let the discussion progress. Posting the same question multiple times/ways in different threads is not allowed on the PF.

trickae

oh sorry about that.