PmWiki | Student / Teamboarpojectproposal

University of Massachusetts at Lowell

Assistive Technology Design Fair 2009

Project Proposal

Date: March 5, 2009

School Name: TEAMS Academy

Team Members: Jacob Cohen (Methuen High School), Johnson Pham (Lowell High School), Francis Ambe (Lowell High School)

Team Advisors: Janna Thomas, Don Rhine, Bill Harmon (978) 934-4613

Statement of Need: Our client wants to be able to use a xylophone.

Background: Mr. Rhine is an employee of UMass Lowell and our teacher for both Robotics and Assistive Tech. He is a graduate of RPI and spent time earlier in his life as part of the Air Force. He likes making his students do ATDF projects for his class to work on. He gave us the task of building an electric xylophone for an unannounced purpose.

Items Currently on the Market:

There were many regular xylophones on the market but not as many as electric. Of the remaining electric ones all of the products seen had physical buttons instead of motion sensors. Few also had both modes of play other than the very expensive. After all electric xylophones are not as common as keyboards with multiple sounds so that was our primary competitor.

Design Requirements/Constraints:
• It must be able to connect to a serial cord.
• It must also have 8 seperate jacks
• It cannot be fragile, easily broken, or have loose parts.
• It must be cost effective
• It must be durable and have an appealling appearance.
• It must have pre-recorded songs on it.
• It must have 2 modes (Auto-play and Manual-play)
• Must be easy to use with little maintainence