How to: Turn a bowl of water into an $8 audio controller

Sebastian Tomczak is an Australian musician/programmer/video game hacker. This video shows how he turned a laser pointer, a bowl of water, a solar panel and (I'm guessing) a Max/MSP patch into a (nearly) musical instrument. He's developed the concept into the Toriton Plus, with five lasers. It's beautiful, although I get nervous seeing that bowl of water next to a laptop... (Thanks, Steven)

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

Thats funny, maybe it was just the patch he was using, but it totally sounded.....watery!

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:22 am

Hey there Daddio!

Makes me wonder what this guy does for a telly. Does that come with watery sound effects, too? Maybe he just hasn't he got anything better to do?

Hmmm! So many questions.

Sassy

By the way, do you think someone should give him a lesson on the dangers of using his laptop in the bath - just in case?

I can see him having more than just a headache if he tries THAT one at home...

# posted by

Sassy Brit @ Alternative-Read.com : 2:09 pm

Unsigned bands and signers

check out

http://www.incrediblemp3.com

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:19 pm

Brit: I see no point in having wireleess@home but to use the laptop in the bathroom.

And what if _the_thing_ was just a filter?

Audio Input -> Pre-amp -> Laser ~~> Water ~~> Light diode -> Amp -> Audio Output?

# posted by

Zingus J. Rinkle : 4:25 pm

You could probably use a webcam instead of a solar cell (and do some computer vision stuff with it) to get some more interesting results. Solar cell just gets intensity but a video camera could capture the 2d image..

# posted by

David Wallin : 9:45 pm

That second clip sounds excellent. I really want to know how to build one of those.

# posted by

Ace : 5:07 am

Fanstastic, though I kept wanting David Sylvian to start singing...
"When the room is quiet
The daylight almost gone,"
etc... :-)

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:17 pm

this guy uses 5 lasers ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9LQHazTRg

# posted by

Scott Silenced : 10:38 pm

Water-sound and other sound-art by Materializer Industries:
http://www.materializer.exto.org/gallery/objects/id/2574.html
Enjoy

Regards,
Materializer

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:51 pm