SMART: The Sound-to-Motion Analysis and Recording Tool, a Self-Contained HTML Science Instrument Invented by Subverting Web Browser Audio Architecture for Authentic STEM Learning

Overview This record deposits SMART — Sound-to-Motion Analysis & Recording Tool — a self-contained single-file HTML application that exploits the PC audio subsystem as a precision physics measurement instrument. SMART connects to low-cost DIY sensors for real-time data logging. SMART uses the browser’s getUserMedia API, AudioWorklet, and AnalyserNode to provide a precision event timer (theoretical resolution ≈21–23 µs at 44.1/48 kHz) and a waveform and spectrum scope, accepting one or two input channels via a standard 3.5 mm audio jack, USB adapter or audio triggers via microphone input. SMART implements six module families: Capture and Calibrate (threshold setup and free recording); Linear Motion and Gravity (picket-fence free-fall measurement of g); Periodic Motion (pendulum period, SHM, and damping); Rotational Motion (angular velocity, spin-down, moment of inertia, and kinetic energy); Two-Event Timing (speed of sound, coefficient of restitution, projectile motion, and momentum in collisions); and Resonance and Frequency (tuning fork identification, harmonic spectrum, beats, vibrating string, resonance tube, and Doppler effect). All modules share a common acquisition core, a common event list as intermediate representation, and a built-in signal simulator that allows every experiment to be demonstrated and tested without hardware or microphone permission. SMART is a sister application to the RIGEL browser port (RIGEL-WEB, doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20541487), sharing its single-file no-framework architecture and UI patterns. The two applications are complementary rather than overlapping: SMART addresses one or two fast acoustic channels requiring sample-accurate timing; RIGEL-WEB addresses many-channel sensor work via serial microcontroller. Together they form a zero-cost cross-platform laboratory instrument suite exploiting hardware already present in every school device. SMART runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari — a wider browser compatibility than RIGEL-WEB’s Chromium-only Web Serial path, because getUserMedia is a broadly supported web standard. The deposit includes: the HTML application (public release prototype); a Design by Subversion analysis establishing that SMART meets the framework’s operational tests as a technical-strand subversion, and that its development constitutes prospective application of the framework; the SMART briefing profile (as-built); and screenshots of all module families in either light or dark themes; a movie clip demonstrating a user navigating the SMART user interface in demosntration mode. Significance as primary-source evidence This deposit is significant in five areas. As a technical-strand extension of the Design by Subversion framework — operating at two scales simultaneously. SMART exploits a structural property of the browser’s audio subsystem that its designers did not assemble for physics measurement: every school laptop and Chromebook contains a precision timing instrument operating at 44.1 or 48 kHz — sufficient to exceed the specification of purpose-built data loggers costing hundreds of dollars — available at zero additional cost on hardware schools already own. The getUserMedia API was designed for communication and media capture. The AudioWorklet was designed for low-latency audio processing. The AnalyserNode was designed for audio visualisation. None was designed for secondary school physics measurement. Their coexistence in a freely available, cross-platform, installation-free environment is the subsystem-scale structural affordance exploited. This subsystem-scale subversion sits within a parent-scale subversion shared with the sister application RIGEL-WEB (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20541487). At the parent scale, the browser as an application platform was designed to deliver web content from servers. The structural property exploited is that a browser can run a complete, capable application from a single local HTML file with no installation, no server, no framework, and no network dependency. This browser-as-platform subversion is the shared parent; RIGEL-WEB and SMART are distinct instantiations of it, each exploiting a different internal subsystem — Web Serial API for RIGEL-WEB, the audio subsystem for SMART — producing instruments with different capabilities and different browser compatibility profiles. The two-scale structure demonstrates a specific form of the framework’s transfer value: once the parent-scale browser-as-platform structural affordance was identified in RIGEL-WEB, that identification carried forward to SMART without requiring the full structural analysis to be repeated. A system-scale subversion, once found and documented, can be instantiated multiple times in different configurations using different internal affordances of the same host system. This is the framework operating as a practitioner tool with genuine transfer value at the technical strand. It is also a further instance of the prospective application of the framework described in the second significance area below. As evidence for the prospective operation of the Design by Subversion framework. SMART and the RIGEL-WEB (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20541487) were developed after the Design by Subversion framework vocabulary was identified through retrospective archival analysis. Both applications were produced under constraints deliberately set using that vocabulary: standalone, offline, no external dependencies, single file, no frameworks. The hard ceiling was set high. The three-strand architecture provided the categorical frame within which the constraints were visualised. The framework’s operational tests were then applied to verify that the resulting work qualifies as technical-strand subversions in the framework’s specific structural sense. This temporal sequence — vocabulary identified retrospectively; vocabulary used to set design constraints prospectively; new work produced under those constraints; framework’s operational tests applied to confirm — constitutes the first documented prospective application of the Design by Subversion framework. The framework was used as a tool to produce work that did not yet exist. The framework’s predictive capacity is demonstrated in the practitioner’s own continued work, not only in retrospective confirmation over cases that preceded the framework’s naming. This addresses the over-fitting concern — that the framework was constructed to fit cases that already existed — at evidentiary level. As evidence of the framework’s recursive operation. The framework identifies the methodology operating in the originator’s body of work; the originator then deploys the methodology to produce new work that satisfies the methodology; the methodology verifies the new work qualifies as framework-grade. This recursive structure — framework operating on itself at the originator level — demonstrates that the framework is a working practitioner tool, not only an analytical apparatus for understanding completed work. As a practical resource for educators. SMART requires no equipment purchase beyond a standard 3.5 mm audio jack and low-cost sensor components (IR photogates, piezo impact sensors) that can be assembled for under five dollars. The built-in signal simulator allows every experiment to be demonstrated without hardware. The cross-platform browser compatibility (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) means SMART is accessible on every school device type, including Chromebooks and Safari-only iPad deployments that the RIGEL serial path cannot reach. As documentation of structural insight at the acquisition layer. The single-summed channel mode for two-event timing experiments is a specific structural-forensic finding: rather than requiring reliable stereo input — which is inconsistently implemented across devices and browsers — both sensors’ positive outputs are summed onto one trace and events are attributed by temporal sequence. This converts a hardware and API limitation into an architectural simplification. The design exploits the predictable temporal ordering of physics experiment events rather than requiring reliable channel separation. This mode works on any mono input, including devices where stereo input is present but unreliable. Connection to the Longitudinal Research Portfolio SMART is the direct institutional descendant of the 1991 QBasic GIS mapping system — the first documented instance of Michael Fenton building a tool the available software was not designed for. The same principle connects: 1991: QBasic subverted to create a GIS mapping system for Giardia surveillance 2008: GameMaker subverted to create a universal science instrument (RIGEL) 2025: Casio calculator RECEIVE() protocol subverted to enable timed data logging without a COM error 2026: RIGEL-WEB - a self-contained single-file HTML multi-channel sensor interface that subverts the web browser architecture. Each discovery used the same method: identify a structural property of an existing tool, exploit it for a purpose the designers did not intend, document the result. This work is a continuation of the question that founded the Nexus Research Group in 1997 - How do you do authentic science with nothing? Design by Subversion analysis Constraint framed as design brief. Secondary school experiments reducing to timing threshold-crossing events or measuring frequency have no free, cross-platform, installation-free tool. Purpose-built data loggers (Vernier LabQuest, PASCO) cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, require proprietary software, and may not run on school-managed devices. The constraint is structural: the measurement capability required is unavailable at the cost and portability required by most New Zealand, Australian and United Kingdom secondary schools. Structural forensics on the available system — two scales. The subversion operates at two scales simultaneously. At the parent scale, the browser as an application platform was designed to deliver