1997 Texas Instruments
Digital Signal Processing Solutions Challenge

Example Application Topics

• Audio Restoration.
  This, essentially, is restoring old audio records from movies or live performance to today's current digital standards. Also, with the advent of recordable CD's, flexibility should be given to the consumer to convert all their audio cassette tape collections into CD's. The process would involve using a TMS320 DSP-based spectrum analyzer and analyzing every section of the sound track to eliminate the noise that is prevalent in older, non-digital audio tracks.

• Active Noise Cancellation.
  This technique samples the ambient noise generated in an enclosed environment (like a car), analyzes it, and emits a signal that is out of phase with the original. This can reduce, or eliminate, the noise level. A good processor choice would be a fixed-point DSP from the TMS320C2xx or TMS320C5x generations.

• Portable voice organizer.
  The speech is compressed and stored in the "organizer." Subsequently, it could be downloaded via an infrared connection to a PC. The compressed voice would then be stored in a s/w package on your PC. Develop a speech-to-text s/w package to convert the spoken voice to text (memo).

• Digital Still Camera
  Issues of interest are:
  
  a. Huffman encoding & decoding
  b. Wavelet transforms
  c. JPEG standardization
  
  Hand-held camera pictures in digital format can be stored on the PC hard drive.

• Graphics Pipeline.
  First, traverse the 3-D object data base and compute the transformation matrix that relates the viewpoint to the object being rendered. Next, transform the geometry data for that object to viewpoint coordinate system by multiplying it through the matrix. Finally, project the polygons onto the screen, perform horizontal span setup and send the processed data to the front end stage of the 3-D pipeline for rendering. The process would be repeated for other objects visible in the scene.

• Low-cost Automotive Volume Control (AVC).
  Develop a system that will automatically adjust the car's audio system volume depending on the environment of the automobile. For example, the system knows the difference in background noise between no traffic and heavy traffic situations. When the automobile travels through heavier traffic, the volume should adjust automatically, allowing the driver to remain focused on driving. Additional features could implement switchable AVC that starts with a volume level selected by the driver, and adjusts up and down from that point, depending on the background noise.

• Intelligent Baby Monitor.
  The TMS320 DSP would recognize the difference between a cry and other noises that babies make and distinguish between baby noises and ambient noise. Once the DSP has determined the baby is crying, it could play back a recorded voice of it's parents or some other recording that could calm the baby.

• Noise Reduction.
  Telephone use in a noise-intensive environment, in particular a phone booth, picks up and amplifies unwanted noise by the receiver's microphone. Increasing speaker volume serves to amplify both signal and noise. To ensure that the incoming speech can be heard, the user is required to cover the microphone at all times accept when speaking. By using a TMS320 DSP, identify environmental noises (street noise, horns, wind, echo noises associated with phone booths, etc.) and filter these out or perform electronic noise cancellation so they are not amplified along with the desired speech signal and fed back into the receiver.

• JPEG Compression and Decompression using a 'C5x.
  Write two algorithms for the TMS320C5x device that (1) compresses a graphics image (.gif file of .bmp file) according to the JPEG standard, and (2) decompresses an image stored as a JPEG compressed image and converts it to either a .gif or a .bmp file. Another program will display the images on a computer screen.

• Vibration control of a motor platform.
  Given a motor mounted on a platform such as an aluminum table, add the necessary sensors, DSP board, and actuators to effectively eliminate the vibration of the platform.

• IMAGE Recognition using the 'C5x.
  Given an image on a computer screen, and a subset of that image (e.g. a 2"x2" image out of a 8"x10" image), perform image recognition to outline the 'found' image on the bigger picture. Draw lines around the found image.

Example Application Topics Without Descriptions

1. Using DSPs to improve servo performance.
2. Neural applications (pattern/character recognition).
3. Using DSPs to Improve Servo Performance.
4. Interfacing to the XDS-511 System.
5. I/F Controller Code Implementation and Design on a 'C2xx.
6. Using C Code on a T320C2xLP core.
7. Achieving robust control of Switched Reluctance motors through DSPs.
8. Sensorless control of brushless motors.
9. Reducing system costs through the use of a DSP controller and brushless motor.
10. 'C54x I/F to synchronous SRAM with, maximum, 1 wait state.
11. Wavelet-based transforms in communications applications.
12. AC3-Dolby.
13. Noise cancellation of noise coming from a computer workstation fan.
14. Reed-Solomon error control coding for 2-way pagers/CD players/DVD.
15. Implement V.34bis modem on 'C54x.
16. 0-Wait State Synchronous DRAM interface controller for TMS320C44.
17. Implement synchronous/asynchronous modem communications between PC terminal and v.34 modem using TMS320C32 and a UART.
18. Design a camera imaging controller using TMS320C32.
19. High speed spectrum analyzer on TMS320C32.
20. Noise elimination/detection form Carrier Wave signals using TMS320C44.
21. 'C3x H/W interface - Design a simple hardware to interface 'C3x's to the T1/D1 trunk with implementation and code to record and playback voice.
22. 'C3x H/W interface - Design a hardware to interface 'C3x's to MVIP bus.
23. A multiprocessing communications and debug kernel for the 'C4x.
24. A >1MHz bandwidth audio and video compression algorithm for 'C3x/'C4x.
25. Use a DSP as a programmable high performance CCD camera controller.
26. Noise cancellation for pay phones.
27. Neural / Ethernet networks.
28. Anti-theft systems (automotive).
29. Cellular phones.
30. Environmental monitoring/testing/control.
31. Telecommunications applications:
    a) Carrier wave generation
    b) Modulation/demodulation
32. Image compression.
33. Spectrum analysis.
34. Speech recognition
35. Echo cancellation
36. Audio compression (specifically voice).
37. MPEG compression.
38. MPEG-1 /-2 decompression.
39. JPEG compression/decompression.
40. Sound manipulation.
41. Active noise cancellation.
42. Filtering (bandpass/lowpass/highpass).
43. Image recognition.
44. Video processing.
45. FFT.
46. Image fusion.
47. Audio encoding.

(Please note that there will be no special consideration for projects based on examples listed here.)