Two is the Loneliest Number.

Keyboard Hero is now an effort of two, since one of the members is no longer with us. Before this a lot of work and effort had been put into developing the PC Software. We experienced some problems with strikes at the university so we all worked remotely and updated the repository with our work regularly. Meetings were always held after class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. All members attended, reported progress, and were advised on current status, delays, and needs for member improvement.

The software for editing/viewing/playing MIDI Songs and Repository for MIDI songs and handling classes are complete. We are delayed on our hardware progress and need to complete it all by December 2nd.

Green Light for Keyboard Hero

Keyboard Hero's proposal has been approved. The only change in the specs is that now we have to explore the viability of recording and saving from the keyboard.

We have ordered components for the project.

Meetings - September 9, 11, 14, 15, 16th - Proposal Writing v2.0

During these meetings all members were present. We all worked on redacting the proposal and making sure that all the information and specifics of the project were well detailed and thoroughly explained.

We are back to a waiting phase where we need to wait to see if the project is approved or not. Right now we will hold on buying components but we will continue with the designing hardware and software phase. We might also start the coding phase for the User Interface. This will include developing the Tools, Services, and Custom Types that are required to develop a MIDI editing, viewing, and playing software that will also connect to the repository. Therefore the database and link to it from the User Interface will also be designed.

Heroes Meeting - September 7th

During this meeting we discussed our hardware findings. More research needs to be done on certain things. These points were also discussed:

1. Meeting Recurrence
2. Group Rules
3. Project Progress Measuring

For our next meeting all team members must look for all information pertaining to MIDI File Format and MIDI Data Manipulation using JAVA and C. This way we'll be able to make a better Software Plan.

Heroes Meeting - September 1st - Waiting Phase

The proposal has been submitted for approval. In the mean time we are going to start getting more familiarized with our hardware. Right now we will be researching all the components for our project and evaluating different technologies.

The research topics are discussed in meeting:

1. LED Control - Decoders, Multiplexers, Latches, Transistors, Transistor Arrays, FETs, etc. - All
2. LEDs - Carlos
3. LCD Display - Juan
4. Push Buttons - Do we want them to be integrated in the LCD Display chosen? Cost. Juan
5. USB Module - All
6. Power Supply - Options (battery, outlet), duration, voltage regulators. - Lisela
7. MIDI Circuit - Lisela
8. MCU - All
9. Memory Module - Cost. Carlos and check Juan’s Micro 2 project.

All members were present for this meeting.

New Beginnings.

We would like to present the new product from the Learning Heroes, Keyboard Hero. Keyboard Hero focuses on helping people learn how to play the keyboard faster and more interactively. The instrument is difficult to master. Visual stimulation is helpful for the human learning process and here is where Keyboard Hero comes in. By visually indicating the user what key must be pressed will help him learn notes and songs faster and easier. A MIDI connection will allow the product to show the correct notes to play and realize when the user pushes the right key or not. Feedback will be given back to the user via an LCD screen, letting him know how well he is doing and what notes he missed. The device will be able to download songs of the user’s liking to its internal memory and teach the user how to play them. Since Keyboard Hero is a portable device the user will be able to take it anywhere, practice at anytime, and adapt it to any keyboard. Given its nature the product should be affordable to a great number of people.

The detailed specifications are been worked on as we speak. These will be posted shortly.

Goodbye Guitar Based Learning Hero...

Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 6:53 PM timestamp of a very unfortunate event in Learning Hero's life. We received a response based on the brochure that our project didn't have enough hardware design and that the user wouldn't get feedback from our application making the learning process futile. After close consideration and intense research trying to make it work it was decided that we will pursue other ideas. Stay tuned.

Heroes Meeting - August 26th

During this meeting several topics were discussed and tasks were assigned to each member of Learning Heroes. The meeting focused on:

1. Reviewing Gantt chart and making adjustments where needed. Gantt chart tasks were assigned to each group member based on their individual experiences. These assignments will be revised as software and hardware modules become more specific in the coming days.

2. Setting deadline to August 27th at 8:00pm for turning in a summary of the research findings from each group member. A summarized document will allow everyone to review the highlights of each assigned research topic by the time the next meeting takes place on August 29th. The information should prove useful when writing out the project proposal.

All members were present for this meeting.

Heroes Meeting - August 23rd

During this meeting we discussed the feasibility of Learning Hero, adjusted how we envisioned it and we handled the assignments that were due for the next day. The meeting focused on:

1. Discussing the feasibility of having a lighted fretboard as one of Learning Hero's deliverables by the end of the semester. Due to small spacing between fretboard and guitar chords it was not feasible to add sensors or buttons onto the fretboard. Drilling along the fretboard to integrate LEDs into the fretboard was not feasible either because it would affect the fidelity of the sound played by the guitar.

2. Adjusting Learning Hero's product model based on our feasibility analysis. After redefining the product deliverable, we were able to make the brochure for Learning Hero basing it on our new product model.

3. Preliminary version of Gantt chart for Learning Hero was made while working on other Capstone assignments relating to the music and electrical standards Learning Hero must comply with.

All members were present for this meeting.

Brochure

Our brochure includes more detailed information about the preliminary specifications of our product. It also includes a picture of what the final product might look like. Enjoy!

Heroes Meeting - August 21st

During this meeting several topics were discussed and tasks were assigned to each member of Learning Heroes. The meeting focused on:

1. Assigning research topics

• Understanding guitar tabs
• Feasibility of integrating sensors or buttons to the fretboard
  
• Microprocessors (USB capable, multiple I/O pins)
• Memory modules
  
• Music repository (DBMS)
• What similar products are available in the market

2. Assigning the research of standards our device must comply with

3. Defining the preliminary project schedule for the Gantt chart

All members were present for this meeting.

Meet Learning Hero

Tired of looking like you can play a guitar? Want to actually learn playing a guitar? We believe we have the solution for you!!

Learning Hero is your very own personal guitar trainer. It has been envisioned as a portable device that displays where you place your fingers to play a particular note. Deciding where your fingers are placed is done through software. Learning Hero's software lets you write your own guitar tabs, therefore enabling you to learn playing the guitar through your favorite songs. You can then upload your guitar tabs in a music repository to share with others. By looking through the music repository you may even be pleased to discover that someone else has already uploaded your favorite song to the repository, speeding up the learning process even more.

Learning Hero, has received initial approval from our professors and supervisors. Given the green light, we can proceed to research the feasibility of our vision for Learning Hero and hopefully from there we can deliver a solid product. Being an initial envisionment for Learning Hero, much can change but we will keep you all posted of any developments.

Similar products accomplish what we have proposed at too great a cost. We hope to create through our efforts, a more affordable solution. So stop pretending you are playing a guitar and actually learn to play one. Learning Hero is for you!! Stay tuned...

Welcome

Greetings to all and welcome to our blog for the course of ICOM5047 (aka Capstone). This blog was created with the purpose of documenting our progress and the planning of the project for this course. The group members for this project are Carlos Avilés, Juan Suárez and Lisela Martínez. We are the Learning Heroes. More details relating to the project will be revealed soon.