Tim,

After your feedback and feedback received during the WLUG meeting, it seems that
it is better to use something like an Arduino instead of a phone as the signal processing
box.

To that effect, I googled "arduino dsp" and got a whole lot of hits on DSP shields for arduino
and on projects that illustrate how to write arduino sketches that manipulate the stream.

One possibility would be to have an Arduino with a DSP and a bluetooth receiver.  The bluetooth would communicate with a phone and/or a wearable.  The phone would tell the arduino what sounds to look for - that is, provide signatures that should be matched.  The wearable and/or the phone would be used to give the event to the user.  I think that this configuration along with a battery could be configured to fit in a small fanny pack.

The arduino could also use zig-bee to communicate with a home automation system and pass events to the phone/wearable.

Hmmm, I think we are on to something.

-David
On 12/12/2012 08:33 PM, Tim Keller wrote:
I would have to imagine having your phone listen to ambient sound and
then filter looking for a whole range of specific sounds is basically
going to use all the phones processing power along with its ram...

I have to imagine that not hearing the beep when the oven is done pre
heating must be annoying

Not hearing the washing machine or the clothes dryer buzz would really
piss me off.

imagine a box. On this box would be al led screen where you could
cycle through a menu and pick a input to listen to and report when
either that input starts or stops.

In the case of a clothes dryer when the vibration sensor stops sensing
vibration, chances are good it's done.

This box would also have plugs for things like a photo sensor you
could stick on the face of your stove right over the led for
preheating the oven.

All of this stuff could be tied back to your phone that would vibrate
and sent an sms message.  Possibly you could tie it in with a home
automation system to flash lights, etc.

Just some ideas.

Tim.