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An Audio Sampler Rube Goldberg Would Love
Thiago writes "Here is an audio sampler I made with 4 IR LEDs and 4 IR sensors. When something reflective goes by one of the sensor/LED combos, it triggers an event on the computer. On the videos, I mount the device on a turntable and use coins to trigger sound samples of my choice. I'd also like to make the project open-source (or whatever applies to hardware) but know nothing about licenses for this."
Just in case site is ./'ed
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Video 1
Video 2
I made something similar, consisting of several metres of wire, a video camera, a microphone, loudspeaker, a hammer, some heavy duty duct tape, and several cats.
Worked fantastically well, until the damn RSPCA turned up.
Told me it would have been fine if I'd only used poodles.
So this is like a physical version of the curiously addictive BallDroppings, then?
Ydco co
Ah, but to patent it you have to tell people how it works ... how confusing :)
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A friend of mine did something similar for a project using IR sensors. In that case, he had a break in the beam trigger a sample, so he could have a LASER HARP
-mkb
Unless the RIAA decides to claim this is breaking the copy rights of the sample music!
/. always finds a way.
or SCO claims that the IR LEDs are using a technology they developed but cannot be released; it's a trade secret!
but can Gentoo load and play the samples more quickly thanks to its more streamlined and modern kernel?!
(ps: I'm just kidding. We all know that Apple already developed this technology and there's is far cooler and superior thanks to its scroll wheel.)
IANAL, but as long as you tell people about how it works it can't be patented...
...in theory. That's never stopped the USPTO from approving patents for well-known ideas before.
IANAL, either, but I would think that you would want to patent it. Then freely disseminate the plans, but since you own the patent, nobody else can take credit for it.
Free MacMini
This is bloody awesome!
Now, I'm not sure that this is something your local DJ Sixpack would use, but I'm pretty sure you could turn this into a toy for children:
Imagine a record with holes you can fill with plastic pins - spin the record, and hear what you just made! It would exercise the children's sense of rythm and logic. Hell, make it a standalone unit while you're at it, and make cardridges that hold the samples. Drums, guitars, voices, bird sounds, car sounds, etc.
As for the license, it depends on what you want in return. Good karma or money? Or both?
www.6502asm.com - Code 6502 assembly or.. DIE!!
One suggested improvement: have the reflectivity control some variable (like pitch). small/dark/further away reflector will give you a low note, and a large/bright/close one will give you a high note.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
In essence it is simply another way of writing music, and although the concept is cool, I'm not sure how it would be useful beyond other music composition software that currently exists. Any suggestions?
This is my last post.
[6th Estate]
Rube Goldberg's inventions
Just to start a interesting flamewar..
1. If I create a trade group.
2. I invite everyone who wants my improvements to join my group.
3. No one outside my group gets the improvements.
Q.I'm not externally releasing the improvements, and am not obligated to release the code, am I?
What's wrong with public domain?
Everything you ever wanted to know about open source licenses and more!
Remember, anything you read here about open source licensing is only an opinion. Educate yourself!
Maybe you can sell one to Super Greg.
Yes you are.
You are obligated to release the code to everybody in the group, then everybody in the group can release the code outside the group. You can't set rules for the group which restrict this either, since that would violate the GPL.
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A patent only gives you the right to sue someone who infringes on your patent. Deepest pockets win. Better to put in the public domain so that no one can grab it and claim ownership.....
I don't know any licenses specifically designed with hardware in mind, but why not use one of the Creative Commons licenses?
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
I'd describe this as a sequencer, not a sampler.
This is a bit like Alesis AirFX or AirSynth, I guess. Nothing groundbreaking (airwavering) here.
You can't patent it now that's it's common knowledge (because it's been published to /.
Even if you did publish it.
Of course, this is only theoretical, in a world where patent office DID check for prior art.
I bet you didn't already apply for a patent? then you just published it(making it unpatentable, even by you) and made the idea free for all to use.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
should be to Hasbro! This would be a killer toy!
WARNING: Do not look directly into LED sensors. Eye injury may occur. Contains small circular parts that can cause choking. Not intended for children under 8.
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
You obviously don't understand how the patent system works.
Imagine a record with holes you can fill with plastic pins - spin the record, and hear what you just made! It would exercise the children's sense of rythm and logic.
The first thing that popped into my head was that gadget/toy that consists of a rectangular frame filled with small parallel metal rods; the rods can move in Y (but not in X) to make 3-D images of objects. Often they are used to make replicas of people's faces. What the heck are they called?? Grrr.
Anyway, picture a record-like disc of these movable rods. The child can move the rods, fix them in place and then play the creation. This fits with your idea: the disc would be heavier but the rods would be captive (and thus much harder for the child to lose them)
Hell, make it a standalone unit while you're at it, and make cardridges that hold the samples. Drums, guitars, voices, bird sounds, car sounds, etc.
With a simple process for converting the audio to a sound file and a USB port for exporting the child's music.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Which is why WD-40 is not patented. They would have to tell the world what is in their product and they don't want to do that.
And before anyone remarks that I'm wrong, I just called the WD-40 corporation to verify this. I had heard about this a long time ago and wanted to confirm this information before I posted.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Its neat but its going to be a little cumbersome in the phone booth.
I started with nothing and I still have most of it.
In the USA, you have a year after publication to file for a patent. Assuming it was you who published it in the first place.
Shut up, Sir!
It's cool hardware hack. Why it should be useful?
Bot Assisted Blogging
You could finally have more than one sensor in between frets on a guitar, so that MIDI pitch bends and such sound realistic. You'd have to wear a shiny glove to play it, but that could be cool, so long as it's not sequened. Of course, I officially copyright this idea as of..... now.
stuff |
This device is simple. If you had a quarter dispensed by a complex pathway, say using wires, traps, egg timers, cats yowling after having their tails smashed, etc., THEN you would be approaching Rube Goldberg territory.
reminds me of Nikita Pashenkov's Spinalcat. read his MIT thesis on the "Optical Turntable as an Interface for Musical Performance" (28mg PDF). here's more information on the optical turntable.
Even morality aside: you retain copyright to your changes, you're not obliged to release them to anyone: they are yours. All the GPL says is that, if you release the binary to someone, you have to give them access to the source, including your changes, in a buildable, non-obfuscated form, and you cannot restrict (under the licesnse) their right to change and redistribute under the same terms.
However, if you employ someone you can forbid them to distribute the code outside a certain circle, by threatening to fire them if they do.
Whether somone receiving an unauthorised distribution of changed code has a valid license to use the changes (as opposed to the original) under the terms of the GPL is interesting (at least to me). Anyone?
free code is really free and in the public domain.
GPL cripple-licensed or propriety licenses are step down from public domain.
...I'll just phrase that in legalese and patent it..hehe ;o)
I am NaN
Because this type of device, using IR beam sensors, reflective IR sensors, or even frickin' visible laser beams (sorry, no sharks though) is in use in probably half the science museums around the world.
Neat hack? Sure. Original? Not in the slightest. I can say that one from personal experience, having designed and built several that are currently in use in museums here in the US.
Not sure what to make of that one. It would depend on the circle. If any member thereof is outside of the supplier of the software, then that would constitute distribution and thereby activate the clauses in the GPL- the employer's obligated to provide source to the members of the circle they provided the binaries to. Now, having said this, there is absolutely NOTHING keeping those players from distributing it far and wide (anything, whether it be by a contract/agreement or licensing, activates the clauses in the GPL...).
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
It's basically 4 switches that signal a program to play different soundtracks.
What would be interesting if it wasn't all digital signal, and he threw in an A/D converter so he could detect the IR light brightness, so a dull coin would produce a different sound than a nice and shiny coin... so you have more combinations.
Just having 4 on/off signals isn't that impressive right now, but it does have potential (of course, after a while you'd probably want to migrate to the serial port for speed and complexity).
You'd think someone who can whip something like this together (although quite simple) would at least call it something appropriate. From reading the submission I was wondering how he had the IR pairs digitizing (no mention of DACs anywhere) to somehow make audio from coins, and why you'd want the coins to trigger events.
This isn't sampling at all. Sampling would be capturing the signal at a specific [sampling] rate (often in analog form), like sound cards use DACs to capture sound at 44.1 or 48KHz for example. He's just polling sensors and playing a sound when something is reflecting. It's trivial enough that I don't think it even deserves the name of sequencer either. Heck, the PLC emulator i had written in TP7+asm over 10 years ago was a lot more involved than something like this (something one could code in a few hours, the "only" hard part being programming the PIT and int handlers directly). This isn't much more than a "hello world" program, there's APIs to play sounds and libs (and lots of sample code) to check signals like this.
That'd make a nice submission to a page like epanorama.net or perhaps a quick and easy project for people being thought electronics and the basics of programming. There's no way I'd bother with licensing issues and all that for something so ridiculously trivial. I could code something like this faster...
Isn't this the high tech equivalant of putting baseball cards in the spokes of your bicycle and then being amazed how they sound different depending on how fast you go.
News flash: not every piece of freely available information has to be open-source! If you want others to be be able to use/improve your idea, publish the technical specifications and tell (clearly) how you did it. If you don't, don't tell anyone about it and maybe file a patent. It's that simple.
Open source licenses for hardware.... now I've heard everything.
WD-40 Is graphite in a petrochemical solvent
If you play the guitar, you'd know that pitch bend is achieved by bending the string, increasing the tension. Havin a sensor for each string between every frets of a guitar only gives you the notes that you played. And let's hope if you wear a shiny glove, it doesn't pick up your palm as notes.
...
Yeah, copyright your idea, whatever
I once had a signature.
Would not one (or more) of the Creative Commons licenses possibly work? Such as Share Alike + Noncommercial?
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~Anonymous~
I had a thought to something along these lines, but what I wanted was to put the unit in the rain and let the rain falling through the beam makes the noise. With a lot of work, I suppose you could even do different notes by extending the length of the beam, giving more opportunities for the rain to hit it.
One more thing on the list...
I think your idea with plastic pins in the hole would work. If it were just coins on a flat surface, it could fly off when you spin the turntable too hard.
And good job, you just made your first contribution to a hardware GPL project!
I once had a signature.
Can't afford all these coins.
In fact, surround the danger with a 3D grid and s/he can dance up an orchestra with gestural tone 'shaping'. (Idea adapted from one by Spider Robinson's wife Jean.)
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Great story about Daphne Oram of the BBC RadioPhonics laboratory. She came up with a similarly inspired musical-thingy in the late 50's. Albeit entirely analog (analogue?) http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/oramics /
Well, that wouldn't be a LASER harp, but it's certainly possible to build an infrared harp.
A company called Interactive Light (now defunct) used to sell an infrared MIDI instrument called the Dimension Beam, sometimes referred-to as the "D-Beam".
The D-Beam emitted an egg-shaped infrared field which could consist of up to three distinct regions radiating from the core outward; one could define distinct MIDI parameters for each region. I believe Roland licensed the technology for the HPD-15 HandSonic.
Needless to say that the potential uses of the D-Beam are many and varied, and it's a favorite of many high-tech artists and and experimental musicians.
Indeed, by narrowly focusing the IR beams of several devices, one could indeed construct an incredibly versatile infrared harp. One group of students created a "body harp" by harnessing eight D-Beams.
Egads man, I'm gonna be rich! What, with the secret formula to WD-40, and I craftily deduced that Tabasco sauce is cayenne pepper, vinegar and salt, I stand to make from these two products alone. I could be a trillionaire by using the recipes on the backs of many foodstuffs, why I just noticed that this can of Mountain Dew I'm drinking just gives away their secret! Those fools! MWAHAHAH! They're rue the day they made this slipup, oh the rueing shall be glorious with the gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I'm sure you do by now...:^)
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I saw this on the web when looking for interesting math stuff for my kids. It's a drum sequencer that works on similar principles to the article's hardware approach. http://www.philtulga.com/unifix.html
Not A Sig
You know that form fitting foam mattress material you see on infomercial? If you used that material as a record and if you're sensors were pointed at an angle (I assume they are already) impressions or dents from pressing down into the foam could disrupt the led light beams. The holes would flatten back into shape after a bit so you'd have to keep making them. You'd have to make the samples play when there is no talk back from the sensors which might be a bit harder, and you'd either have to pump up the juice on the LEDs or else make the mattress material shiny, but it probably wouldn't be all that different.
Raymond Scott's circle machine> used a rotating arm: "The intensity of each light in this circle is individually adjustable. At the tip of the arm there is a photo cell. This cell is a part of an electronic sound generating system, so adjusted that the more light the cell 'sees' the higher the pitch of the sound produced. The cell also moves around in a circle at adjustable speeds. One of the controls, above the circle of lights, changes the pitch center of the complete cycle when required. As you will notice, there are many variable functions possible."
The above link includes sound samples.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Oh, that link should have been: Raymond Scott's circle machine.
So, to repeat: this 1950s contraption used a photocell at the end of a rotating arm: " The intensity of each light in this circle is individually adjustable. At the tip of the arm there is a photo cell. This cell is a part of an electronic sound generating system, so adjusted that the more light the cell 'sees' the higher the pitch of the sound produced. The cell also moves around in a circle at adjustable speeds. One of the controls, above the circle of lights, changes the pitch center of the complete cycle when required. As you will notice, there are many variable functions possible."
The link has sound samples.
I will use the Preview button. I will use the Preview button. I will use the Preview button...
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Link here.
And you obviously don't know how the humour system works. You did remember to turn it on when you compiled your kernel?
the layman's guide to computer science
According to Snopes, it was the 40th attempt to make something to Displace Water.
Cryptic product names involving numbers are often explained away as having been inspired by the Nth attempt at formulating a product (or its name). Hence legend has it that the manufacturer of Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda, after the first six tries at selecting a less cumbersome name proved unsatisfactory, finally threw in the towel and opted for the simple choice of "7-Up" instead. And if a cleaner is called "Formula 409," surely that must be because the first 408 formulas didn't work out. [Makes you wonder about the poor people who had to test Preparations A through G.]
WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed WD-40 back in 1953. The chemist, Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion -- a task which is done by displacing water. Norm's persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
WD-40, whatever its specific formula is, does have solvent properties which unfortuantely, are counter productive. The solvent properties tend to displace more permanent forms of lubrication, and then it evaporates. It's a very temporary solution to a lubrication problem-- good for freeing up frozen bolts perhaps, or possibly drying out a distributor cap after steam cleaning, but not for general lubrication purposes such as in locks or hinges, as it will make the problem worse. WD-40 is also quite flammable. Instead, use powdered graphite for locks, and good old 3-in-1 for hinges...
can't he just put the diagrams online?!
Love it, but it doesn't seem to keep time very well, which is a shame
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