I need a flexible user interface (see last log), but didn't like any of my ideas for adding buttons or other mechanical devices. I have created previous iterations of a logic probe (it's a tool I use extensively) but they were all too bulky and difficult to probe tiny signal traces. Modifying the HP logic probe has been the perfect solution, but I am loathe to festoon it with yet more gizmos that make the probe awkward to use.

So--I'm going to try something very different-- I have not done this before. I realized that this FPGA design so far has a lot of unused circuitry (15 % utilization) and some good unused computing power (24 DSP multipliers). And, it has an ADC. That's a recipe for a small FFT, so what if I put a tiny MEMS microphone/amp on the probe and did some rudimentary sound pitch recognition as a basis for controlling the probe functions?

This gives me a lot of degrees of freedom for multiple control functions without gnarfing up the comfortable physical handling of the probe.

The big question is, of course, is how well can I make this idea work. It's not going to be SIRI, but I'm thinking I could come up with some easy to remember vocalization scheme that gives me the control I need. I still have to really think about the user interface, and how to make the sound commands easy to figure out or remember (the hidden action problem of poor interfaces like IPhone touch or an OS command line interface).

It really ties in with the contest goals--look at what can the probe do with 1 second utterances of sounds. I wonder what my wife will think when she hears strange grunting sounds coming from my office... :)