Exploring Innovative Engineering Projects: Ideas and Advice

[ali.cmi]

Greetings engineers,

The question is mentioned in the title. I actually thought of making it as my final year project.

So, please guide me descriptively: if that technology exists, how can I get a step towards making it.

Any similar, out of the box ideas (I think as above one) will be appreciated a lot.

Peace.

 

[russ_watters]

Welcome to PF!

You mean sonar? Yeah, it exists. You can google it or start with the wiki...

 

[ali.cmi]

Thank you russ watters

What should I call you? I guess Sir will be alright. :)

Sir, I know that the sonar exists, its used in submarines etc. But the question is, can it be used in mapping the real world as it is shown in the movie?

 

[Jiggy-Ninja]

Thank you russ watters

What should I call you? I guess Sir will be alright. :)

Sir, I know that the sonar exists, its used in submarines etc. But the question is, can it be used in mapping the real world as it is shown in the movie?

You talking about the live-action movie, the end bit with all the cell phones looking for the Joker or whatever it was?

 

[russ_watters]

Thank you russ watters

What should I call you? I guess Sir will be alright. :)

Sir, I know that the sonar exists, its used in submarines etc. But the question is, can it be used in mapping the real world as it is shown in the movie?

Definitely. http://homepage.mac.com/wis/ASL/Publications/PDFs/Ultrasonic%20Cave%20Mapping%201.pdf

...and my name is just Russ.

 

[ali.cmi]

@ Jiggy-Ninja

Yes, I am talking about that bit. It starts when Batman shows the big stack of monitors of sonar system to Lucius Fox (The RnD expert of Wayne Enterprise) and ends when Batman rescues the hostages in the building. He uses it for learning the location of the SWAT, the hostages and the thugs.

@ Russ

Sir, (I hope you won't mind) Thank you for the reference. Now, can you guide me about how to make it? I mean what should I study to understand and build it in reality with effectiveness and efficiency.

I am studying Electrical Engineering specialization in Telecommunication and I am done with four semesters out of eight total.

P.S.: Nice website>>(www.russsscope.net) You work for NASA?

 

[Jiggy-Ninja]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZQT6lV-rsg", it's even more massively complicated than I thought it was. As usual, Hollywood takes something that might be interesting and blows it so far out of proportion that it's barely even fun to watch.

Even aside from the massive problems of hacking into every single phone in the entire city on a whim, I don't believe cell phones could be used as sonar. I don't think that they have the ability to generate an audio tone with a high enough frequency to be inaudible.

Plus, the phones don't have sonar processing software on them, unless Morgan Freeman remotely jail-broke every single one of them and installed the program (I'm pretty sure there's not an app for that.:p). If that's not possible, the phones would have to transmit the raw audio data.

Every phone in the area continuously transmitting just digital data of positions and sizes of objects would be a huge burden on the network. Continuous audio would require even more massive bandwidth, and certainly break the network. I'm not even talking about the massive back-end computation that would be required to interpret that audio data into a sonar image.

Even with a massive network of remote sensors, I don't think you'd ever be able to get an image of that resolution, and certainly not in anything resembling real time.

You would have to know the exact location and altitude of every sensor in relation to every other sensor, and use the data from each overlapping field to stitch together a coherent 3D model of a fairly large amount of terrain.

Seems a bit ambitious for someone with the equivalent of an Associates degree.

 

[russ_watters]

Nor can cell phones transmit and receive sound directionally.

I'm not sure what the constraints of the OP's project are, though, so it is tough to know how to approach it. S/he may simply be trying to map a single room with a single device that isn't necessarily a cell phone.

 

[ali.cmi]

@ Jiggy-Ninja

With due respect, what do you mean by 'equivalent of an associate degree'? :) I am not taking it personally as in my region, associate engineers are Diploma holders where as I am doing Bachelors in Electrical Engineering (BEE). There is quite a difference between both.

I infer with what you said that the technology shown in the movie is an extravaganza. (I thought so... :-\ ) Of course, I don't have the knowledge and means to do this project on a scale of a city. But I want to do it, even on a very small scale: in a room with a thing somewhat near to a cell phone; quoting Mr. Russ Watters.

I have an idea, I don't know how stupid it may sound but I'd like to share it with you. What if we make the cell phone to catch every single radio wave in a specific region and plot a point against every received direction or vector in 360 degrees. Its just me saying it. I don't know how to do it. But the question is:
>>>Is it possible to make it on a smaller scale?<<<

If yes then please tell me what to study for it i.e., where should I begin from. I am ready for some mind-boggling RnD.

As far as this ambition of mine is concerned, I want to impress the admission committee at MIT. They rejected me as a transfer student this year. I will be applying for post-graduate degree there so they need to see something pretty impressive, out of the box. So, any other deviant ideas will also be appreciated from you. :) :)

Just so you know, people here, I mean my seniors, have made robots and stuff like that. I want to bring something different to the table and be non-conservative and this is the only different thing I thought of about two years back when I started my degree.

@ Russ Watters

I am 'he'. :) You snatched the words out of my mouth. 'Prototype' is the right word here. Guidance is what I need.