Whistle Pongbat Peter Capraro Michael Hankin Anand Rajeswaran

Concept “Mortal Pongbat” meets “Brick” Paddle Control Options –Noise Controlled Paddle –Frequency Controlled Paddle Slide Whistle for more consistent sine waves Slide Whistle/Microphone Controller

Rules User scores if ball gets to right side of screen –Computer “blocks” protect that side –Bullet system to destroy blocks “Computer” scores if ball gets to left side of screen –User has the paddle to protect this side –Paddle gradient to alter direction of ball movement Game played to 5 points

Architecture

Audio Controller Uses CODEC for analog to digital conversion Splits clock to package sound byte WAV format (taken from MindTunes group, 2008)‏ Passes 16 binary bits as converted integer

VGA Controller Component attributes passed from software –Paddle –Ball –Score –Blocks –Bullet

Software Paddle Control –Integer representation of WAV format Positive Numbers: ,767 Negative Numbers: 65, ,768 Bullet Control –Three hits to charge –One more hit fires –Destroys one or two blocks Ball Control –Motion –Direction

Frequency Algorithm Tested In MatLab –Slide whistle showed decent sine wave –Broke down at extreme frequencies Algorithm –Essentially reduce to square wave –Average consecutive period measurements Frequency still inconsistent when frequency moved quickly –Solution: Tell user to move it slowly

Paddle Movement Mechanism Problem –On average, calculated pitch followed expected pitch –Wide and Constant Oscillation Solution –Extreme High and Low boundary values required to change direction –Reaching boundary just once begins consistent motion

Lessons Learned FPGA Board and hardware/software communication The importance of setting clear, simple, and testable goals Don’t reinvent the wheel…but don’t trust that it turns correctly in the first place. Not easy to work when somebody is always whistling annoyingly in the lab.