Magic Piano

The magic piano was arcade game made as a final for Columbia's Art of Engineering.

Idea

We jumped around a couple ideas before landing on the concept. I was really vouching for "Drunk Driving Simulator" but in the end, we landed on Piano Tiles.

Challenges

The biggest challenge we had was the audio sample rate. The microcontroller we used only had enough processing power to comfortably play audio around 10kHz at 8 bits which produced a subpar sound. In addition every time the we wanted to check for the button presses, the control would have to stop the audio stream.

To fix the issue, I designed a serial format of storing audio data that stores the audio in 4 bit chunks. This effectively eliminated the processing needed to convert from audio formats like WAV, instead allowing the processor to play the audio directly from the file. This allowed the speaker to play at around 25kHz at 4 bits which was deemed acceptable.

Takeaways

The biggest takeaway I got from this project was to consider the limitations from the start. Had I simulated the microcontroller and code before purchasing the parts, I would have found the issue and dedicated more budget into the microcontroller.