My second week working from home on my project is much less interesting. Since all hardware designs were finished last week, most of my time is being spent reviewing my designs, reading up on C++, and studying techniques in Digital Signal Processing.
Essentially, now I am continuing to read while twiddling my thumbs waiting for the Evaluation module to come in from Texas Instruments, allowing me to actually code the functions the stethoscope will use. Until then, it's just a large amount of mind numbing math.
To give an idea of just how mind-numbing, I will list the basic stages of the digital system. For extra flavor, I have drafted them as a C++ method. If you are so inclined, feel free to read them. Otherwise, simply skip to the very bottom of the post.
#include Jargon.h>
int main
{
// This is where the Jargon begins
1) take a series of samples (think of them as points in an X/Y cartesian coordinate system, X is time, Y is voltage) from the stethoscope head microphone and store them in a very long table, or series of tables.
2) take a filter function (describes responsiveness of the system to a given frequency) and use an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform to generate a series of numeric coefficients in the time domain.
3) Term by term multiply (convolve) these coefficients with the incoming data.
4) store the output of this stage, called a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter in another table
5) plot that data to the display on the Evaluation module
6) store a local copy, and send the data off to a computer for so-called off-line processing.
//This is where the Jargon Ends
}
In other news, Pandora One is wonderful, and World of Warcraft is an excellent way to kill time off in the evenings.
Edit: I am currently waiting for Texas Instruments website to decide that I'm not a terrorist hell-bent on destroying the world with a Digital Signal Processor code development environment, so that I can download the coding studio and begin working on the final code.
Ah! But consider, Alex, perhaps your very lack of witty title is but a ruse. You make a stand against the flippancy which presents itself so brazenly in those "witty titles."
ReplyDeleteWitty it may not be, but perhaps your title represents something far more fulfilling and socially redeeming: satire. You have elevated your title into the realm of literary excellence by using it to comment on the social ills of our blog. Bravo!
Or maybe not.