This group project was the cumulation of everything we learned in our bioinstrumentation class. Our goal was to propose a design for a medical device that would notify people with Parkinson's Disease when they are speaking too softly. To do this, we did extensive research on what Parkinson's Disease is, how sound (from speech) travels, and how speech production and hearing is affected by different diseases such as Parkinson's. Ultimately, we came up with an accessory-like device that is worn around the neck. This would measure the vibration of the vocal cords and generate a signal (vibration) to notify the user when they are speaking too softly. We also created performance specifications for our proposed device and a flow chart of our feedback system.

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One of the biggest takeaways from this project was that I need to be careful in identifying the problem before coming up with solutions. It's important to communicate with the customer and do adequate research to ensure that you have a relevant problem and feasible solutions. I also learned about feedback systems and how to build and troubleshoot electronic systems.