Week 1: Jan 8th 2025 - Jan 15th 2025

Individual Log - Zach

I began the semester by researching two project ideas that fall in line with personal passions of mine; music and agriculture. 

The first project idea centers around the desire to improve/innovate musical instrument tuners, more specifically when used for the tuning of pianos and other acoustic instruments. The primary difference between acoustic and electric instruments; in regard to tuning, is that electric instruments provide a clean electrical signal to the tuner, whereas the tuning of acoustic instruments relies solely on the sound waves produced by the instrument itself [1]. Some ideas of acoustic instruments where tuning is necessary would include but is not limited to: pianos, acoustic guitars, violins and other stringed instruments such as: mandolins, banjos, violins, cellos, etc.

Provided my personal experiences tuning guitars and pianos, there are often notes a tuner is unable to process effectively; more specifically, notes that fall below the 1st octave and above the 7th octave. While this is ideal for most guitars, pianos require tuning for strings that produce sounds from as low as 27 Hz and as high as 4186 Hz [2].

The issue with modern tuners that I’ve encountered is that they’re marketed with the ability to recognize and process the frequencies mentioned above, however, most product links come with a disclaimer stating that this capability is not guaranteed [10]. I’ve personally experienced this to be true. My goal is to design a tuner that improves an instrument tuner's abilities to detect frequencies by using filtering and signal processing skills learned throughout my educational journey.

The second project idea centers around improving the ability to protect plants from UV radiation and waterlogging, more specifically plants that aren’t particularly suited for Florida’s summer climate. Recently, I’ve attained the desire to grow lavender, rosemary, and other herbs that can be used for a variety of purposes like: fragrance, culinary, and skin/beauty products. Not surprisingly, Florida’s humidity and UV radiation during the summer can make it difficult to successfully propagate Mediterranean herbs. 

Project idea two is to design an automated plant protection system that both shades plants but also protects them from excess rain and moisture while maintaining a small footprint. There are many options available from DIY to purchasable products that aim to protect plants from UV radiation, but many are not automated, and those that are typically are used in large industrial applications [12][13]. The device would rely on humidity and temperature sensors to determine when the cover would activate to provide either shade or moisture protection.

Outside of project idea research, I began the initial setup and configuration for the project website since I had previously worked developing Wixsite’s. A free domain has been created for now, but will likely change to a custom domain in the coming weeks. The structure of the website was developed and included formatting the menu bar, submenu tabs, and a simple tentative color scheme. Finally, a mockup landing page and four submenu pages were prepared so that information through the course of the proposal phase could be input.