Making Music with the Virtual Laser Harp
Laser harp inventor Steven Hobley is back with another exceptional project. We covered his outstanding laser harp build last year and was also included in our Top 40 Arduino Projects. So what’s so cool about a harp anyways? It’s just the incredible cool factor of a classical instrument meeting the future with wicked bright lasers now combined with a “Harp-Hero” video game interface.
A single 450-milliwatt green laser beam reflected by fast moving motorized mirror ‘creates’ multiple beams very rapidly. The variation in hand movements through the laser beams creates the flux. This symphonic change in the beam is picked up by sensor arrays connected to a Nintendo Wiimote. An impOSCar VSTi software synthesizer on a computer interprets the signals via Bluetooth and that’s how hand motion becomes music.
The innovator has shared some of the details on his website and the above video. If you are looking for more laser projects beam over to view all of our laser projects and buy lasers from our store for your next laser project supplies.
July 30th, 2009
Hello everybody!!!
I’m so happy with your “Making Music with the Virtual Laser Harp”.
Thank you!!!
January 16th, 2012
This is a great mod. But i feel like we should credit Jean Michel Jarre (as the one who popularized it) or Bernard Szajner (according to wikipedia, the one who patented it).