So this morning I checked my personal email, as opposed to my work email, and was surprised to see a message from Christian DeFoe saying that I have been selected to Road Test the RPi 2 and that it is being sent my way. For those that are curious, if there are any people actually reading this, here is what I put in my application:
" As a Geophysicist by trade, I get very excited when new, cheap, open-source hardware comes out that I can bend to my will. I have been planning lately to take my old RPi Model B and implement it with a seismic "geophone" array to record and process data for a smaller scale project I am working on (identifying the location of a buried hollow pipe about 15 feet underground using a "hammer seismic" source). This should be fairly straight forward as the output of the geophones is merely a voltage caused by the movement of a magnet against the coils within the sensor itself. This measurement will need to be put through a field DAC and then fed into the Pi, where it will be recorded. From there I have two options, use already created "Seismic Unix" processing package to process the data or begin branching out the area of seismic processing within the Python language (I much prefer the Python approach because I feel that there is definitely room on the market for more free seismic processing packages).
In the past I have had a lot of issues with running any processing software with moderately small data sets on the single-core Pi Model B, and with the extra ram and extra core I am really hoping that some of these problems are resolved. This project tests the Pi's memory and cpu speeds with the processing and the hardware compatibility with the integration of the geophones.
What the heck is a geophysicist? What is Geophysics - EOAS
What is a seismic survey? How do seismic surveys work? - Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog
More on Geophones
What is Seismic Processing (warning, not so brief overview)? http://www.xsgeo.com/course/proc.ht
More on Seismic Processing in Python SRL 81:3 Electronic Seismologist "
As the application says, I am a Geophysicist which is essentially a cross between a computer scientist, electrical engineer, physicist, and geologist. The sub-set of geophysics that I have spent most of my time on is seismic, or the examination of reflection of sound waves in the subsurface. The general idea is that you take an acoustic source, such as a hammer or dynamite, and set it off such that it (hopefully) sends most of its energy into the ground as a "pressure" or "shear" wave (P and S-waves). As these waves travel into the earth, impedance contrasts in the rock cause a certain amount of each of the waves to reflect back to the surface or refract, travelling along the boundary of the two "layers". By recording the waves at the surface, processing techniques can be used to take the data (in the form of an amplitude and "travel time" of the wave) and transform it into an approximate "picture" of the subsurface.
The project I am planning on doing with the Pi 2 stems from the same seismic theory. My general idea is to take a small array of geophones and place them in a line over a large storm drain in the ground, record multiple "shots" of me hitting the ground with a hammer, and process the subsequent data into a somewhat accurate image of the subsurface (that ideally will show the large storm drain). Previously I had done some testing with my Pi B and it never had satisfactory processing power to allow me to continue. When I heard that the Pi 2 would be much faster than the original Pi, I thought it would be the perfect chance to both do a small geophysical experiment and test out the Pi 2's capability. So that is just what I will do!
In the short term I am going to begin planning out my experiments and getting an idea for the processing I will do, I feel like this is most efficiently done as I wait for the thing to arrive. I have a good idea of what I want to do, but I want to do this thing right and have good documentation so people can independently determine if they like the Pi 2 as well.
Also if there is any interest, I can post my plans and really anything I come up with. Still not totally sure if anyone will actually be interested, but hey.
Austin
