recommend hardware to measure water ripple

[KSagar Naidu]

Hi,

The experiment I want to do is new to me, so if you have any suggestions please say it.

Imagine a person in a body of water, and him/her is doing a doggy paddle. I want to measure the number of times all limbs paddle (combination not individually). I want to be able to plot the frequency of the paddling.

I was thinking of using a microphone to record the padding, and then somehow getting the frequency.

I was wondering if this could be done with NI's hardware and software, and if anyone has tried something like this. If so, would anyone recommend a hardware device capture the audio, and also the software to capture and plot the frequency and other plots please.

Also is using the microphone a good way to do this experiment? I this possible using a accelerometer?

Thank You for any help,
Kshirsagar Naidu

[Steve_B]

Hi Kshirsagar,

In order to recommend hardware for your application we would need to know more specifics about how you are planning on making the measurements. At this point you have to narrow down what types of sensors will allow you to acquire the data you need. You might be interested in a Dynamic Signal Acquisition card that is designed to measure sound and vibration or possible a Data Acquisition card that can acquire voltage signals from different types of sensors. There may be a solution for your application using a different instrument depending on your sensors. You would need to look at different form factors such as USB, PCI, or PXI as well as your desired number of channels and aquisition rate. You would be able to develop a custom program using LabVIEW or another programming language that could interface with the data acquisition and perform the data analysis.

The environment that you conduct your testing in will play a role in determining the best sensor type for your application. You would have to consider whether or not a microphone or accelerometer would be able to return the sound information that you could use to determine the frequency. You may need to use a combination of sensors.

Sound and Vibration Measurement Hardware
https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/category/sound-and-vibration.html

Data Acquisition (DAQ) Hardware
https://www.ni.com/en/shop/data-acquisition.html