They need to be driven by a current limited supply (a resistor will do
to start), and an Aduino can drive it. It needs to be kept below 1mW
so that eyesight isn't easily damaged.
If green LASERs are used, the guy who runs Odicforce said they should
have Infrared filters too; he said green LASERs emit a lot of
Infrared, which they eye does not respond to by blinking, so be
careful. Odicforce sells green LASER SAFETY GOGGLES too:
http://s243333424.e-shop.info/shop/article_OFL52/Laser-Safety-Goggles...
The laser Harp in the article uses six Sharp GP2D12 or GP2D120 IR
range measuring.
This is actually the 'guts' of the instrument. It measures distance
to, for example, your hands. This works whether or not their are
lasers.
The lasers are really showing you where to put your hands, and the
range measuring sensors do all of the work to figure out how far away
your hand is.
Six would be about £50. A bit expensive for my school projects :-(
Those sensors look nice to use, they produce an analogue voltage to
represent distance. That would be fed into an Arduino analogue pin,
and a sketch reads that, and decides what note to play.I keep meaning
to try them for robotics. At least one of the micromouse guys have
used them.
One of the articles explains how to use an Arduino to generate MIDI
events, so, I imagine almost any midi instrument can be used.
I would suggest starting with a one-string "Theramin". Then all of the
basic electronics, and playing music gets solved using only one of
those distance-measuring sensors.
Once something is working, there'd be lots of room for experimenting
with different sensors, and ways to control the notes.
I am thinking a nifty solution might be a single laser scanned across
an arc using my 'mechanical TV' mechanism set up to work as a camera.
GB
Sounds like the "Theramin" is the perfect place to start it.
I remember you describing your 'mechanical TV' and since the lasers
are separate from the sensors then it sounds like a great way of
keeping cost down.
Would love to be involved if there is anything I can contribute.
Mike
On Sep 1, 1:38 pm, G Bulmer <gbul...@gmail.com> wrote:
> They need to be driven by a current limited supply (a resistor will do
> to start), and an Aduino can drive it. It needs to be kept below 1mW
> so that eyesight isn't easily damaged.
> If green LASERs are used, the guy who runs Odicforce said they should
> have Infrared filters too; he said green LASERs emit a lot of
> Infrared, which they eye does not respond to by blinking, so be
> careful. Odicforce sells green LASER SAFETY GOGGLES too:http://s243333424.e-shop.info/shop/article_OFL52/Laser-Safety-Goggles...
> The laser Harp in the article uses six Sharp GP2D12 or GP2D120 IR
> range measuring.
> This is actually the 'guts' of the instrument. It measures distance
> to, for example, your hands. This works whether or not their are
> lasers.
> The lasers are really showing you where to put your hands, and the
> range measuring sensors do all of the work to figure out how far away
> your hand is.
> Six would be about £50. A bit expensive for my school projects :-(
> Those sensors look nice to use, they produce an analogue voltage to
> represent distance. That would be fed into an Arduino analogue pin,
> and a sketch reads that, and decides what note to play.I keep meaning
> to try them for robotics. At least one of the micromouse guys have
> used them.
> One of the articles explains how to use an Arduino to generate MIDI
> events, so, I imagine almost any midi instrument can be used.
> I would suggest starting with a one-string "Theramin". Then all of the
> basic electronics, and playing music gets solved using only one of
> those distance-measuring sensors.
> Once something is working, there'd be lots of room for experimenting
> with different sensors, and ways to control the notes.
> I am thinking a nifty solution might be a single laser scanned across
> an arc using my 'mechanical TV' mechanism set up to work as a camera.
> GB
On Sep 3, 2:07 pm, Michael Nicholls <nicholls...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
> I did like the look of the laser harp.
> Sounds like the "Theramin" is the perfect place to start it.
> I remember you describing your 'mechanical TV' and since the lasers
> are separate from the sensors then it sounds like a great way of
> keeping cost down.
> Would love to be involved if there is anything I can contribute.
I think we could quickly make a short-range distance-sensor from a
couple of ultra-bright LEDs, light sensors and white gloves.
I have all the parts except the white gloves.
We'd need to to hook up an Arduino (got one of them) to a midi-synth
of some kind (I haven't got one of those).
For simplicity we could drive a piezo-speaker with a tone controlled
by the distance sensor, just to see if any of it works, and take it
from there.
> On Sep 3, 2:07 pm, Michael Nicholls <nicholls...@googlemail.com>
> wrote:
> > I did like the look of the laser harp.
> > Sounds like the "Theramin" is the perfect place to start it.
> > I remember you describing your 'mechanical TV' and since the lasers
> > are separate from the sensors then it sounds like a great way of
> > keeping cost down.
> > Would love to be involved if there is anything I can contribute.
> I think we could quickly make a short-range distance-sensor from a
> couple of ultra-bright LEDs, light sensors and white gloves.
> I have all the parts except the white gloves.
> We'd need to to hook up an Arduino (got one of them) to a midi-synth
> of some kind (I haven't got one of those).
> For simplicity we could drive a piezo-speaker with a tone controlled
> by the distance sensor, just to see if any of it works, and take it
> from there.
Rubber gloves would probably be quite unpleasant to wear after a while
(based on my experience doing science workshops!), doubly so if
there's any passing pairs between wearers to be done...
> My Dad's company sells first aid and he sells rubber gloves (I think
> they do white), so I could easily get hold of some if they would be
> any good?
> Mike
> On Sep 4, 12:29 am, G Bulmer <gbul...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sep 3, 2:07 pm, Michael Nicholls <nicholls...@googlemail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > I did like the look of the laser harp.
> > > Sounds like the "Theramin" is the perfect place to start it.
> > > I remember you describing your 'mechanical TV' and since the lasers
> > > are separate from the sensors then it sounds like a great way of
> > > keeping cost down.
> > > Would love to be involved if there is anything I can contribute.
> > I think we could quickly make a short-range distance-sensor from a
> > couple of ultra-bright LEDs, light sensors and white gloves.
> > I have all the parts except the white gloves.
> > We'd need to to hook up an Arduino (got one of them) to a midi-synth
> > of some kind (I haven't got one of those).
> > For simplicity we could drive a piezo-speaker with a tone controlled
> > by the distance sensor, just to see if any of it works, and take it
> > from there.
> Rubber gloves would probably be quite unpleasant to wear after a while
> (based on my experience doing science workshops!), doubly so if
> there's any passing pairs between wearers to be done...
> Failing that, my skin's nice and pasty, I'm sure its reflective
> properties are really very good :)
> nikki
> On Sep 4, 10:39 am, Michael Nicholls <nicholls...@googlemail.com>
> wrote:
> > My Dad's company sells first aid and he sells rubber gloves (I think
> > they do white), so I could easily get hold of some if they would be
> > any good?
> > Mike
> > On Sep 4, 12:29 am, G Bulmer <gbul...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Sep 3, 2:07 pm, Michael Nicholls <nicholls...@googlemail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > > I did like the look of the laser harp.
> > > > Sounds like the "Theramin" is the perfect place to start it.
> > > > I remember you describing your 'mechanical TV' and since the lasers
> > > > are separate from the sensors then it sounds like a great way of
> > > > keeping cost down.
> > > > Would love to be involved if there is anything I can contribute.
> > > I think we could quickly make a short-range distance-sensor from a
> > > couple of ultra-bright LEDs, light sensors and white gloves.
> > > I have all the parts except the white gloves.
> > > We'd need to to hook up an Arduino (got one of them) to a midi-synth
> > > of some kind (I haven't got one of those).
> > > For simplicity we could drive a piezo-speaker with a tone controlled
> > > by the distance sensor, just to see if any of it works, and take it
> > > from there.
On Sep 4, 11:31 am, nikki <genzai...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Rubber gloves would probably be quite unpleasant to wear after a while
> (based on my experience doing science workshops!), doubly so if
> there's any passing pairs between wearers to be done...
They are discontinued :-(
I'd be happy with 30p a pair!
> Failing that, my skin's nice and pasty, I'm sure its reflective
> properties are really very good :)
Nice :-)
I was thinking of white gloves for a few reasons:
1. Get a nice strong reflection, so cheap light sensors would work at
a greater distance,
2. Reduce the variability between players hands, so there would be
less set-up.
I thought this would be a nice improvement if we had visitors
playing it.
3. Looks quite deliberate, a part of the performance, like a conductor
putting on gloves.
Thank you!
So 10 is pretty big!
In retrospect, the bigger the better from a performance
perspective ...
"I am just going to put on my HUGE hands to play ..."
> > > s'all about the performance :)
> > Absolutely!
> > Especially if you were forced to experience my "musical talent" :-(
