Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Automated Trumpet Tuner


In case you missed the UC San Diego automated trumpet-tuning story on Facebook last week, the comment string is below, or check it out on the Jacobs School of Engineering Facebook Fan Page (July 14 entries). Related video is on YouTube.

UC San Diego bioengineering undergraduate Jason Caffrey created an amazing LABVIEW-interfaced device to semi-automatically tune a trumpet. Jason entered it for the annual contest by National Instruments, the vendor of LABVIEW. More detail is below. The punch line is that he needs your vote, now, if you think his design is worthy. (Bioengineering professor Gert Cauwenberghs served as the faculty advisor on the project.)


    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering We can stay within this comment string. So...does your tool REALLY tune a trumpet?
      July 14 at 3:02pm · 

    • Jason Caffrey Yes, a fixture that mounts a computer controlled motor to the tuning slide allows for real-time tuning!
      July 14 at 3:03pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Anyone wanting to get up to speed? check out the blog post: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogsp​ot.com/2011/07/trumpet-tun​er-is-mostly-automatic.htm​l
      July 14 at 3:03pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Do you play the trumpet? If so, has it helped your playing?
      July 14 at 3:04pm · 

    • Jason Caffrey I do play the trumpet, and took lessons throughout grade school. If I had this device back when I started playing, I would have loved using its ability to correct for out of tune notes and for learning ear training.
      July 14 at 3:05pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Do you hope to get the technology to the point that kids learning the trumpet will benefit?
      July 14 at 3:06pm · 

    • Jason Caffrey The aim has always been geared towards new trumpet players (mostly kids). While this is a prototype designed around the competition details, further work could yield a sleeker and more user friendly tool.
      July 14 at 3:09pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering So what is next in terms of the competition. there is the popular vote that closes tomorrow (hint, hint...vote people!)...but then there is also the technical competition...tell us about that
      July 14 at 3:10pm · 

    • Jason Caffrey Yes, our team was selected as a finalist (top 4 worldwide) by technical standards by two NI engineers.In the first week of August, I will fly out to Austin, TX to attend NI Week 2011 and present a poster about the project. During one of the sessions, they will announce the technical competition winner, who wins a $2000 prize.
      July 14 at 3:12pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering congrats. please keep us posted on that. In the meantime...if you're talking to someone who knows nothing about the trumpet tuning project, but they want to know what it's all about, what do you say?
      July 14 at 3:14pm · 

    • Jason Caffrey Our team has created a computer-controlled device that automatically trumpet tunes a trumpet while you play it!
      July 14 at 3:16pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering So while you are playing it, the sounds you make start sounding better as the device tunes your playing?
      July 14 at 3:18pm · 

    • Jason Caffrey They sure do. As you play a certain note, the device analyzes your pitch and quickly adjusts it to the correct pitch. This way, particular notes that are naturally out of tune on the trumpet are accounted for as well.
      July 14 at 3:20pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Great. thanks for all the info, and good luck in the first week of August in Austin. We'll be sure to check back and see how it goes. Anything else you'd like to add before you sign off?
      July 14 at 3:22pm · 

    • Jason Caffrey Just make sure to vote! Thanks so much for this opportunity.
      July 14 at 3:24pm · 

    • UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering good luck in Austin!
      July 14 at 3:27pm · 
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)