Stove Alert! A Programmed Safety Device to Aid People with Hearing Loss

Overview

Objectives/Goals Currently ¼ of all older people cannot hear over 4 kHz sounds, which is the sound that stove timers commonly make. The main goal of this project is to create a device that plays a lower pitched sound when it hears that higher pitched one. Methods/Materials First, I developed python code that created a sound recorder, a sound analyzer, and a sound player. Then, I viewed a sonogram that showed that stove alarms beep at 4.0 kHz. After that, I constructed code to listen and detect 4.0 kHz sounds with a bandpass filter, then I played a lower frequency sound. Later, I created a small device. Then, I tested it in a kitchen while an alarm was playing and/or people conversing. Finally, I created a threshold to balance true positives and false alarms. Results I understood what sound kitchen appliances make: 4.0 kHz. Stove Alert! had a 100% sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive value. It also had a 91% positive predictive value. Conclusions/Discussion Over a testing period of 36 hours, or five-million one-hundred and eighty-thousand time samples, the Stove Alert! worked well. Since the purpose was to have hearing disabled people always hear their stove alarm, the 100% sensitivity was the most important feature. The project met the objective.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Electronics & Electromagnetics · Entry J0919

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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