Have a listen to the SonicState podcast dated 27th March - at about 13:30 they talk about the laser harp, then the subject becomes all controversial…

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=6376

The local PBS station WFYI came by today to record a short piece on the laser harp project. We spend about 3 hours filming, as it proved tricky to get the lasers to show up properly on camera.

Should be on sometime next week…

It looks like I’ll be doing an interview with WFYI on Monday about the Laser Harp and the sudden popularity of the video on YouTube.

I thought I’d better get version III going - using the PixArt sensor on the front of a WiiMote to control expression.

Basically sliding your hand along the beam can now be programmed to control any of the standard MIDI continous controller parameters.

Pitch bending is treated a little differently in MIDI, and I’m having a few extra issues in scaling the output of the WiiMote to the 14 bit integer values required. All standard 7 bit controllers work fine.

Got the PAiA Theremax kit last week, got the board assembled in a couple of nights. My soldering skills have really come on in the last year, I would never have attempted direct soldering of IC’s to a board until now…

John Claeys brought his Moog Etherwave over this week to show us all how darned difficult the Theremin is to play…

So now the challenge is on, trying to build a Theremin that is easier to play - with linear pitch control, and my signature sharks with laser beams on their heads

Born this morning…

7lbs 6oz

Great big honkin’ hands…

Laser Harp plans and source code are now available here:

www.stephenhobley.com/store

BIG NEWS!!

I finally got my tri-wing screwdriver in the mail today. I was able to strip down a WiiMote and remove the IR sensor from the front. I attached one of my 532nm notch filters and found that the blob tracking can follow a laser pointer.

So…. This means that the WiiMote can be used for tracking gestures with the laser harp! It may not be fast enough to completely replace the the TAOS sensors, but it can certainly track your hand position with greater accuracy than taking ambient light readings.

Will keep this thread updated, as I run some more tests…

I’ve been working feverishly at getting some plans, schematics and full commented source code ready for the Laser Harp. I will be charging money, but the good news is not very much (~$20) - which is not bad for 22 years of my life

As soon as they are ready, and been given the final polish, I’ll upload them to the website.

More than anything I want other people to take the ball and run with it. There are so many improvements that could be made. The Wiimote is one thing I really want to spend more time investigating. The IR camera on the front could be adapted to track laser light, then the possibilities are endless…

But, as some of you know we’re about to have our first child, so my time may well be limitied for the next few months [Or even years - Ed]

Makezine.com called me up to invite me to the 2008 Maker’s Faire in San Francisco. So looks like I’ll be loading up the laser harp and driving out there.

More info here:
http://makerfaire.com/