How to Make a Mechatronics Audio Class

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Photo by PIRO4D on Pixabay

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In this blog post, I will show you how to create a mechatronics audio class. It is an extension of a previous blog post titled “How to Make a Mechatronics Lab Class” where we discuss how to setup a lab class for your students. This time, we will focus on the sounds and other audio effects that can be incorporated into the class. When it comes to tinkering with mechanical and electrical devices, students will often get bored of reading the same information over and over again. Adding some background sound effects, different voices and visuals can help keep them engaged in your classroom as well as on their home computers or phones!

Background Sound

In most mechatronics courses, you will learn about the sounds, frequencies and physics of mechanical and electrical components. These components can have various properties such as stiffness, damping, resonance, etc. Depending on the scenario, these properties can have a large impact on certain functions of the component. For example, a car’s suspension system is designed to absorb large vibrations and allow smaller vibrations to pass through the car without deforming the components that make up the car’s exterior and interior. This background sound can provide a general overview of these properties and can be used to explain topics such as frequency, amplitude, waveform and phase. For example, a ping sound can represent a high amplitude but short duration waveform, which can be used to introduce the concept of amplitude. Auditory Color can be used to present a visual representation of the frequency of a sound, which can be used to explain the concept of pitch. Tactile Feedback can be used to create a tactile sensation in the listener’s hands or feet, which can be used to explain the concept of damping.

Voice Over

Voice Over is an audio effect used to create an audio narration. You can either record a voice yourself, or use the built-in microphone of your computer to record students’ narration! You can also use voice-overs on YouTube to create short audio-narrations for your students. Voice Over can be used to present the introductory information about a topic, explain the properties of mechanical and electrical components or provide a narration to a lecture. This is one of the most helpful audio effects for interactive classes.

Auditory Color

Auditory Color is a sound effect where you can create different pitch frequencies for different sounds. For example, if you want a ping sound to be high in pitch, but low in amplitude, you can create a sound with a low pitch frequency but high amplitude. There are various apps and online tools that can be used to create the various frequencies and amplitudes required for an auditory color. This can be especially helpful in classes that have a large number of students. If the computer has a large number of speakers, you can create different auditory color frequencies for each speaker to create a more engaging auditory experience. Similarly, if you are using headphones, you can create different auditory color frequencies for each channel. This can be especially helpful for auditory training, which requires you to hear the same commands spoken in different ways, depending on the channel that is being played through the headphones. You can also create auditory color for audio files that you want to play during the class.

Visuals and Tactile Feedback

Visuals are images, videos or animations that are projected on a screen or a whiteboard. You can either use these visuals yourself or get students to contribute their own visuals! Visuals can be used to explain basic concepts, create a world-or-paper-scenario or simply explain how a certain device works. Visuals can be used to present animations such as rotations, sine waves and etc. They can also be used to illustrate the various properties of mechanical and electrical components. When it comes to tactile feedback, you can either project a vibration on a device such as a whiteboard or a marker, or get the class to contribute by vibrating a device such as a desk. Tactile feedback can be used to explain the concept of damping, which essentially means that a device gets quieter when you apply a force on it.

Conclusion

This blog post is intended to give you an idea of what you can do with mechanical and electrical sounds as well as audio effects. The audio effects can be used to create more engaging audio environments and introduce different audio frequencies, pitch and amplitude. The mechanical sounds can be used to explain the properties of mechanical and electrical components. The audio effects can be used to create the auditory environment of your classroom and present visuals for your students. Do note that these are merely suggestions and you should use these audio effects in your classes as well as see which ones are most engaging for your students.