Author Topic: build a sonar like device with ear buds?  (Read 2012 times)

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Offline baycomTopic starter

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build a sonar like device with ear buds?
« on: August 09, 2011, 03:46:47 AM »
Hello,

I hope this forum is the appropriate one for this type of question.

The purpose of my question is to know if standard ear buds (like the ones you would use to listen to mp3 music) can be used to build a device that is capable of emitting sound and recollect the echo generated by that sound, and then be able to interpret the results like a sonar would, to graph distances etc...

Building the software that would control the emission of the sound as well as the recollection of the sound from the same device would not be a problem, as long as it can be confirmed that some simple ear buds could provide sufficient precision to measure information at say 10 to 70 cm distance.

Thank You in advance,
Andreas
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Offline corrado33

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Re: build a sonar like device with ear buds?
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2011, 02:29:40 PM »
Is your project to specifically build a sonar device, or just to use one?  Why not just buy a pre-made one?  Big companies have MUCH more money and development time than you, why try to re-invent the wheel?

With that said, i'd say no, simply because earbuds are built to produce sound to be heard at a VERY close distance.  I don't think it'd project, nor would it be directional enough.

That's just my uneducated decision though.   :)
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Offline baycomTopic starter

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Re: build a sonar like device with ear buds?
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2011, 06:15:45 AM »
Thank you for your reply corrado33.

We could resort to purchasing a pre-built solution, however the idea was to be able to provide the software and that people could run it with ready available tools in their home.  Thus, the idea of earbuds. If PC loud speakers would work, we could use those as well. For direction issues, we thought about triangulation, but for that we would need three devices I guess, and not only 2.

If you can think of and advice on any other home-grown solution, that would be great, otherwise, we can always purchase the necessary hardware.

thank you and best regards,
Andreas

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Offline waltr

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Re: build a sonar like device with ear buds?
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2011, 07:47:09 AM »
Well, I don't think anyone has done this so why don't you just start experimenting to see if it will work and how well.

If you are really talking about SONAR you'll find that the ear buds (and standard audio equipment) will not work at SONAR frequencies (way above what a human ear can detect, google will give more detailed info).

You may get something like SONAR working at audio frequencies but you and your friends will need ear protection while it runs.
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