For our final year project we are developing a turntable to be situated underneath a TV. This turntable will be attached to a stepper motor that is controlled by a central processor. The processor will be connected to a sensor or a webcam that can sense where a person is located inside a room. Our aim is to make the TV point towards a person as he moves around in a room or achieve the best possible viewing angle for a group of people. Also, the system will increase and decrease the volume of the TV according to how far people are from the TV set.

I never realized how MSPaint and stick figures can be so much fun to draw!

Currently we are thinking that the sensor can be infrared. Humans being a natural heat source can be picked up by infrared sensors. However we will need a sensor precise enough to monitor slight changes as a person starts moving towards and away from the TV.

The CPU is also not decided yet, we are thinking of a Motorola 68HC12 as we are familiar with it. Although if a webcam and image recognition is prefered instead of the infrared then a more powerful CPU will be needed.