Authentication System based on Texas Instruments DSP

The TI DSP Challenge is a unversity design contest based on TI DSP chips. We accepted the Challenge. A team of UMass Student Engineers consisting of Adam Lederman, Richard DeWilde, Eric Lowe, Travis Sawyer, and John Thomson, decided to pursue this unique contest.

Our goal is to build an Authentication System - a small device that would control entry to buildings and rooms by checking the voice print of every individual who desired access. Any person that did not match the stored voice print would not be allowed access.


The Plan of Attack


Current Status

The DSP Project is proceeding very well. We are working on the hardware portion, and trying to develop some sort of "reckoning" with the device. We had some difficulty initializing the device at first. The clock was cycling, and the appropriate Vcc and ground signals were present, but nothing seemed to work. Alas, it was the initialization routine that needed some work.

The TMS320 has a series of steps that need to be followed in order for it to be properly initialized:

Texas Instruments has the details on how to initialize it.


News Flash!

December, 1995

It seems as if we were premature in our judgement - the problem with initializing the board actually came from a component failure! We are anxiously awaiting a new board to be delivered from TI.

What's Next?

Now that we have that part down, we need to hookup the additional hardware. The parts that are needed are:
  1. A microphone for input;
  2. A keypad for input;
  3. An alphanumeric display for output;
  4. An RS-232 connection for a laptop to update the internal memory.

Well, that's about it! For other interesting information on TI and its DSP Chips, visit Texas Instruments!