So, I've been working on a project here at school that essentially was creating a speech recognition system (with full NLP capabilities) for a car, and we have the demo all up and running, and now I'd like to put it in a car

Basically we will be putting the following into a car:

1. A desktop computer, neatly secured away so that no one sees it, with 802.11b, and a GPS receiver attached to it. Running Linux most likely. Probably will require a power inverter and a basic stamp to control startup and shutdown.

2. A 6.4 inch touch screen lcd mounted in a double-din enclosure. Possibly LCD panels on the rear of the front seat headrests.

3. several microphones mounted in various locations with a switch to choose which one(s) are active. Mount locations include behind the steering column, on the seat belt, and an array on the dash.

4. a stock Panasonic Headunit, single DIN, mounted somewhere, if it can fit... maybe have the LCD panel in the bottom of the Double DIN, and have it flip out...

5. some wiring tricks to hook up the electrical system of the car (windows, sunroof, air conditioner) to a USB or serial port onto the computer, maybe with the assistance of an embedded cpu such as a basic Stamp or a Motorola 68HC11.

6. An external amp or two, speakers, possibly a subwoofer (simple).
7. Upgraded Alternator + battery.
8. A proprietary noise cancelation unit, connected to the computer.

Anyway, so we have most of the software ready to go to select music using one's voice, as well as ask for and receive directions via the GPS.

Since this is a school project, and we will be essentially prototyping tomorrow's car communication mechanisms, I'd like to see if there may be a dealer or two willing to "sponsor" such a project for reduced labor costs, and possibly wholesale parts prices. Does anyone have any leads? I know good installers in California, but I don't know who's good in Pittsburgh.

Thanks!

Ajay

P.S. you can see a demo video of this system working on Winamp at:

Video Demo

(46MB; DivX 4 codec required to view video; can be obtained at: www.divx.com).

Since that video was recorded, I have fixed numerous bugs and increased performance by 18%. This was running on an Athlon 850 with 512MB of RAM. The system does talk back to you as well, as you will see at the end of the video.


And yes, I have considered using my car as the test subject... Maxima KITT, anyone?