Programming Research:

Luke:
The programming that is required to make this application possible will be speech
recognition, and programming that translates certain words like On, Off, and Red to command
certain lights to change. The first step for the Pi, is to download the program called PyAudio.
PyAudio is a program that records sound into the Pi. PyAudio also uses an external USB
microphone to gather the sound. One part of the code records the sound and can alter and modify
the audio codes. The coding for speech recognition uses Googles speech-to-text, which has
some limitations on speech. The first limitation is that the commands can only be 15 seconds
long, which does not interrupt our process because our commands will be about 1-3 seconds
long. The second limitation is that once the speech-to-text is converted into code, the code is now
in a FLAC format. This does not change much again, but will cause an impact if it is converted
to MP3 files or another audio file.
Coding cannot be converted into electrical signals, but it can cut off or allow certain
pathways to be opened. In this case, the pathways are the metal pins that stick out of the Pi and
connect to the GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) cable. When electricity flows through, the
electricity flows through a circuit, which has the LED lights and turns on whichever was in the
circuit. A circuit is a closed pathway, that starts and finishes in the same place. Three circuits are
required to build this, because if two or more LED lights are in the same circuit they will not
light up. Since each LED needs to be separate they need their own track, or circuit.

Nalu:
The audio device we will be using to send the sound to the Pi is a microphone called a
snowball by the company Blue. This microphone will mechanically connect to the Pi by USB.
This type of microphone is called a condenser microphone. Condenser microphones turn sound
vibrations into voltage energy (audio signal). Inside of the outer shell there is 2 metal plates that
make an electrical current. One of these plates vibrates to the sound waves hitting it and the other
is permanently stationary. An energy source (battery) is then attached to both of these plates
which creates a current in both of the plates. By doing this an electrical field is created between
the 2 plates. When the one plate vibrates it causes the electrical field to change which creates
your audio signal. Theses signals will be sent to the Pi through the USB cable.
A breadboard is a device that you can test electrical circuits on. Since buying a bulb that
communicates via wifi would be much more expensive and harder to program we will be testing
our lights on a breadboard. After the microphone sends the audio signals to the Pi, the CPU will
send a current to a certain region on the breadboard. This allows specific slots on the breadboard
to have power, therefore lighting up certain LEDs. Although the breadboard can not handle over
5V it is still good for testing before making your final product. The breadboard creates circuit(s)
when the LED is put into both a negative and positive slot. Since we will have multiple LEDs we
will have multiple circuits.

Brendan:
LED stands for light emitting diode which is a two-lead light source. A p-n junction is a
boundary between p-type and n-type material in a semiconductor device, functioning as a
rectifier. The diode is a pn junction, which emits light when activated with the correct amount
of voltage is applied to the leads, electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the
device, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence.
Appearing as practical electronic components in 1962, the older LED lights made very low
leveled lights. The first LEDs were red. Modern LEDs are found in all colors with high power.
Older LEDs were usually just used for lamps. Modern LEDs have high advantages over older
ones like less power needed and it lasts longer. LEDs are now used as aviation lighting,
automotive headlamps, general lighting, traffic signals, camera flashes and even LED wallpaper.
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/robot/breadboard/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZYwhStcKI
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF8#q=what%20is%20a%20p-n%20junction&es_th=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/led.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pn_junction
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/diode1.htm
http://diyhacking.com/best-voice-recognition-software-for-raspberry-pi/
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/robot/morse_code/
http://www.tweaking4all.com/hardware/breadboard/
Works Cited
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"Berklee College - Introduction to Music Production - Assignement 1: How Do Microphones Work?" YouTube. YouTube.
Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"Google." Google. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"How Light Emitting Diodes Work." HowStuffWorks. 30 Jan. 2002. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"How Semiconductors Work." HowStuffWorks. 24 Apr. 2001. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"Morse Code on an LED." - Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"Tweaking4All.com - Hardware - What Is a Breadboard and How to Use It ..." Tweaking4All.com. 31 Dec. 2013. Web.
20 Oct. 2015.
"Using a Breadboard." - Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

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