We’re used to [Sprite_TM] rolling out his own hacks hot on the heels of new concepts. Now we’re glad to see that [Jeff Ledger] is doing the same thing here. He was inspired by a Kickstarter project which vows to let you use fruit, clay, and a number of other common (but weird for this use) substances to interface with electronic projects. The mess you see above is the Bananaphone, a synthesizer played with touch sensitive bananas. Think of them as keys on a piano.
The interface works by measuring R/C decay. Each banana is connected to its own input pin on the Propeller board. The capacitance of the bananas rise when you touch them, and this results in a longer R/C decay measurement. Calibrate the target decay period, and you’ve got a reliable capacitive touch sensor which also happens to be delicious. Check out the results which [Jeff] achieves in the video after the break.
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Ring,Ring,Ring,Ring,Ring,Ring,Ring, Bannanaphone!
Really cool project.
Ding,Dong,Ding,Dong,Ding,Dong,Ding, Donnanaphone!
hmm, wonder if this was inspired by the makey makey on kickstarter much?
http://www.sparkfun.com/news/867
Similar concept.
Could this be made with arduino ?
Now play banana phone on it.
Touch the banana.
What? No.
Do it.
No.
Touch the banana.
I’m NOT touching THE BANANA.
Come on just touch it.
[walks away]
Man, you can drag money out of Kickstarter for almost anything it seems.
Anything good that’s well fleshed out with good credentials and a solid product (and sometimes plan for a product) stands a reasonable chance. Maybe. Sometimes.
You don’t hear about the failures though.
Nope, you never do.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/37-saddest-failed-kickstarters
http://www.edge-online.com/features/ten-kickstarter-projects-didnt-make-it
http://dailycrowdsource.com/crowdsourcing-help/case-studies/973-funding-unsuccessful-a-look-at-five-failed-kickstarter-projects
etc…
Well, this idea was pretty appealing…
So what is the equivalent circuit of a banana?
I’m sure there’s a use for this… I just don’t know what it could be.
What symbol do I use for a banana when drawing a circuit diagram?
Oh, I saw this at maker faire yesterday!
i want to replace all the light switches in my house with bananas