December 28, 2009

Laser harps need no strings

by Gareth Mankoo

Harps have been around since time immemorial, or so do the paintings by some ancient artists say. They have angels plucking at the strings of the instrument, singing glory to god. These pretty angels would be glad to know that they wouldn’t need to scar their fingers no more, with all the plucking that they do. This one uses lasers. It uses laser diodes that shine with all the splendor of the Cadmium Sulfide photo resistors that they contain. The moment you play a note the beam of light is broken, causing a chain of makes and breaks in the circuit that eventually plays a sound.

The sound is played using an Altec Lansing speaker. The future of music is here. We recently saw the LED guitar, that was, of course completely ornamental, an now this one.
[Gearfuse]