Hello, my name is Andersen English. I'm a senior physics major at Colorado College, and I've
come along to San Juan Island to work on the OVAL project and get an opportunity to use some of the nifty physics/computer
science skills I've learned over the years and apply them to a REAL research project.
My job here is to write software that will (hopefully) localize an Orca's calls, then tell a
remote camera to zoom in on the whale's position. Ideally, we will then be able to simultaneously record sounds,
positions and images of Orcas as they pass through the Faro Straight. By analyzing the data and seeing which whales
are making what noises, later researchers may be able to better understand the language and behavior of killer
whales.
The project I'm working on has two main components: the localization software, and serial port communication
with an OOPic (Object Oriented Programmable Integrated Circuit).
Localization
The localization algorithm takes in sound signals from two or more hydrophones in an array and
finds the arrival time difference between them. By simulating the sound waves that arrive at the hydrophones and
backtracking through time, we can approximate the location of the source.
Serial Ports & OOPics
