give me a suggestion for my mini project,please

guys am doing my graduate on electronics and communication.this semester we have to do a mini project.
what i need is some ideas.
as this is a forum which has members from all over the world,i hope i will get some good ideas.
basically,i need some project ideas which works on micro controller-8051 or micro processor-8085.also the size is to be small,not a very big one (after all its a mini-project-time frame is 1-2 months).the aim is to create something ourselves with knowledge gained by the previous semesters.
some examples:
*smoke detector(will detect fire and extinguish.it can also inform police station and fire station)
*home automation system(program it to turn on and off devices)
*programmed robot which follows the user drawn line(thick black line)
*automatic water level controller(turn on the pump if water level is low and vice versa)
i hope this is enough to get an idea about the level of the mini-project i need.

i also welcome suggestions in the communication field,but i dont have any examples for it.since i dont have any experience with that.

thank you all for the time

 

i guess no tech people is here in DP or may be its because its sunday.
your ideas will be very helpful.
please help me if possible

 

laser tripwire.
When the link is broken the alarm goes off, electronic doors are locked and a specified number is called.

Alarm clock.
It plays the set alarm for 5 minutes, it vibrates and then tunes to a preset FM station.



Good luck

 

Oh yeah and also....

Gas levels tester:
Tests for levels of gas in the air (of a certain area) and makes a red light "blink" if there are dangerous leves of gas...

 

thanks dominic and kerosene for your suggestions.
i liked the gas level tester.i can integrate that function with some other things so that it will be some more larger in size.
i think the laser trip wire,alarm and clap switch are much smaller in size compared to what am looking for.
more ideas welcomed (new and fresh ideas are always welcomed)
thanks

 

What about strobe lighting that changes it's rate according to the beat of the song?

 

could you please explain a bit,i couldn't get the idea clearly.

 

like a disco light.

 

Basically disco lights (the ones that flash really quickly) can be modified to flash in time with the music that's playing by picking up the vibrations from the bass.
You could do this with any lights...

 

thanks guys for the wonderful ideas but let me remember you am doing a graduation so ideas can be little more complex,
thank you
dominic reps coming your way for the help.

 

Here's an unusual one then. People who take part in dog agility have to run their dogs over certain pieces of equipment during a competition. The dog must make contact with the lower parts of the ramps on these pieces of equipment. At present a judge has to stand and watch and decide whether the dog managed to get a paw or part of a paw on the required area and whether it should get faulted. It's very hit and miss as the dogs are so fast. You'd be a hero in the agility world if you could come up with something that would do the judge's job electronically. I imagine it would be something like the Cyclops gadget they have in tennis.

 

thanks for the idea trisha.
i guess that job can be done very simply by putting a touch sensor on that thing you said (i still have no idea about the real thing you are speaking of),and connect all these to a micro controller which records the input.after that from the output we can see the results easily.
thanks for the idea,from this i get another idea,make a "fastest finger first" system for a quiz competition.
in some quiz rounds,the team who answers first will get points,to avoid confusion we can do this electronically,by recording their input and produce the output.

 

Glad you got some ideas. In dog agility the dogs have to go over obstacles such as an A frame. This is two ramps joined together at the top. They have to run up one side and down the other but they musn't jump off half way down. They've considerd touch pads but they'd have to be very sensitive as the dogs might only touch the required area with a toe before jumping off. Also there would have to be a way of securing the pads so that the dogs can't slip or catch their paws. Anyway, lesson over! I hope you do well with your project. If you complete it you'll be able to practise for "Who wants to be a millionaire."