Universal Voice Activated Remote Control

(UVARC)

Thanh Phan

Dat Le

Mohammad Safaiezeab

Brandon Wilgor

Peter Ralston

Project Overview

• Uses external microphone to receive voice commands

• Analyzes the input command and compares to wordbank

• Determines remote control task corresponding to wordbank command

• Sends command code to external microcontroller

• Generates and transmits IR signal to the television’s receiver

Technical Specifications

Specification Proposed Product

Prototype

Effective Range 15 feet 5 feet

Battery 4 AA batteries 3 V Power supply

Vocabulary 25 words 17 words

Recognition Speaker Independent

Speaker Independent

Project DesignVoice Recognition Chip IR Generation Chip

IR Signal Generation

• Consists of PIC18LF2321 microcontroller connected to an IR LED

• Takes in parallel data from voice recognition chip on Port A

• Finds corresponding IR signal in memory table• Uses timer and pulse width modulator to

generate signal• Transmits signal on LED

Voice Recognition Chip

• Recognizes keywords at 96% accuracy• Listens to any user because of speaker

independence• Wakes up when activation word “TV” is spoken• Matches the next spoken word to a keyword in

memory • Sends five bits in parallel on Port 2 to IR

generation chip

Project Status

• External microcontroller generates the modulated IR signal

• VR chip recognizes voice commands with high accuracy

• The two chips are coded and interfaced to communicate

• Cannot program VR chip with written code

Coding Issues

• VR stamp C code must be compiled by Phyton• Phyton demo version

– Causes compilation errors– Pins assignments and flags differ from full version

• VR stamp recognizes wordbank in ROM memory• Code to send data to IR chip cannot be compiled• Working closely with Phyton customer support• Upgrade to full version for development of final product

($3500)– Worth the money because it provides more features– Includes comprehensive documentation and templates

Future Work

• Support one-word universal programming• Increase effective microphone range• Implement optional button interface• Increase memory capacity• Support multiple languages• Interface with multiple devices (DVD, satellite,

stereo, lights, etc.)

Cost Analysis

Marketing Costs Per year   Total (5 yrs)

Advertising $150,000 $750,000

Sales Department $100,000   $500,000

       

Production Costs Total Units (5yrs) Time/unit Cost/unit Total

Assembly 75000 units 0.5 hr/unit $8.00 /hr $300,000

Testing 750 units 0.5 hr/unit $15.00/hr $5,625

Parts 75000 units 16.35/unit $1,226,250

Development Cost     $30,391

    Per Unit   Total

Sales Price $65.00 $4,875,000

Total Costs $37.22 $2,791,266

Projected Profit $27.78   $2,083,734

Market Analysis

Product PriceReady Out of

BoxUser-Recorded

Macros  UniversalSpeaker

Independent

UVARC $65 Yes No Yes Yes

Accenda Surfboard $55 No Yes Yes No

Invoca 3.0 $60 No Yes Yes No

Agile TV Promptu $80 No Yes Yes No

• Priced comparably to competitors• Achieves higher versatility through speaker

independence• Fills unique roll in VR remote market

– Ideal for houses with more than just a few people– Can be employed for a wide range of television uses– Easily portable and ready for programming