Denver Signal Processing Society

Senior Project Funding Competition

Project proposals were received from Colorado State University.

Congratulations to our 2009 winner!

Colorado State University - The Wireless Door Opener

Team members:

Iris Yi, Chris Wagner

Description:

The Wireless Door Opener Project was launched two years ago as a Senior Design project at Colorado State University, a class where Electrical and Computer Engineering students gain valuable experience taking a project from the unreliable product to a mature stage of which is useful for real-world applications. The core technology of this year’s project is the communications between two transceivers on a wheelchair and a door. It is to sense and determine the speed and direction of the transceiver on a wheelchair using a group of concentric circles produced by a radio transceiver that varies its strength by a microprocessor on a door. Also, we solved the power consumption problem from last year’s project through signal processing, which is, more specifically, saving 99% of the power consumption of the transceiver at the wheelchair by switching it from the sleeping mode to the receiving mode for a spark of time in each time period. Our device has the potential to transform the accessibility of public facilities everywhere, and we are eager to adjust the design to maximize both ease for the user, and universal installation possibilities for public buildings everywhere.