Using the Java-DSP Real-Time Hardware Interface in Undergraduate Classes

The Java-DSP (J-DSP) software enables students to perform online computer laboratories in undergraduate classes. Although it was shown, through assessment, that the use of the J-DSP software and labs enhanced the learning experience, the addition of a hardware laboratory provides learning opportunities in real-time signal processing that are very valuable. In this paper, we present two hardware J-DSP interfaces that we developed to expose undergraduate students to real-time DSP. The first interface was developed for the Texas Instruments (TI) DSP Starter Kit (DSK) C6713. The J-DSP/DSK interface enables undergraduate students to design and implement signal processing algorithms real time on DSP hardware using the user-friendly graphical interface of J-DSP. The second interface was developed for use with a real-time wireless sensor network. The hardware includes wireless sensor motes that consist of an accelerometer, magnetometer, thermometer, microphone, and light sensor. Although the sensor motes require tedious low-level programming using the nesC language, the J-DSP interface allows students to acquire and examine data using signal analysis tools from the J-DSP environment