“Squaremin ” name thanks to Collin Cunningham from his post at blog.makezine.com, this project is also featured on engadget.com. This battery powered electronic musical instrument is a descendant of the theremin and can be played without contact from the musician. This small instrument contains two infared (IR) sensors that measure proximity. One sensor controls the note, while the other controls the octave that is played through the speaker in the front. The tone is reflected by one of seven colors that illuminates the center area and highlights a small indicator located on the top panel.
The instrument can play seven octaves each of notes C – B, C ranging between 65 hz – 4160 hz. The notes are being generated based on some code from the arduino site. It’s not incredibly accurate, but gets the job done.
The instrument utilizes two short range Sharp IR sensors (GP2D120). This article clarifies just about everything pertaining to these sensors.
One of the most challenging parts was the time-line, to be completed in a week and also fitting everything in without time to build custom pcb boards. I utilized a boot-loaded atmega chip in a breadboard and more info can be found at mapduino.com. Here is the source code if anyone feels like putting one together.
Theremin Style Instrument from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.
Digital to Analog Converter (DAC)
Recently I put together a digital to analog converter (DAC) based on this tutorial from make.com, so that I could get these sounds into my computer. The tute was straight-forward and easy and it works like a gem. Sorry this pic looks like crap, it was taken with my iPhone cam.
5 Comments
Check out Auduino: http://code.google.com/p/tinkerit/wiki/Auduino
I think you might find it interesting. Looks like it would be compatible with your hardware with a minimum of tweaking.
it’s already been done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GFLWNFR8WU
In the youtube video the distance is altering audio samples on a computer and applying effects to them. For the squaremin, a sine wave is being generated with the micro-controller, so it is completely portable. There are two distance sensors, one to change the note and the other to change the octave of that note being generated. So not really the same at all, except that they both have distance sensors and make sound.
fyi – diyhow2 just pulls content off of other sites and calls it their own. I wrote about your project for Make Online here -
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/04/touchless_digital_synth_takes_after.html
Happy to learn you found the “Squaremin” moniker befitting of such a fine instrument =]
Thanks Collin, I have made the appropriate corrections, I was unaware, as I did not get a trackback from blog.makezine.com.
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【話題】知デリでおなじみのマコちゃんもびっくり！？ テルミンに似た電子楽器「スクエアミン」登場…
出典：Squaremin – Theremin Style Instrument（Nick Hardeman） Theremin Style Instrument from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo. ちなみに，知デリのマコちゃんについてはこちらをご参照ください．…
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