The London Hackspace crew was having a tough time getting their Kinect demos running at Makefair 2011. While at the pub they had the idea of combining forces with Brightarcs Tesla coils and produced The Evil Genius Simulator!
After getting the go ahead from Brightarcs and the input specs of the coils they came up with an application in Openframeworks which uses skeletal tracking data to determine hand position. The hand position is scaled between two manually set calibration bars (seen in the video, below). The scaled positions then speeds or slows down a 50Hz WAV file to produce the 50-200Hz sin wave required by each coil. It only took an hour but the results are brilliant, video after the jump.
There are all these previously featured stories on the Kinect and we’ve seen Tesla coils that respond to music, coils that make music, and even MIDI controlled coils, nice to see it all combined.
Thanks to [Matt Lloyd] for the tip!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNN4Oo0KhZo&w=470]
“… While at at pub…”
Kinect can be emulated in this situation by a 19th century invention called the “switch”.
That is amazing :’D
Wosser: You sir are an idiot. The tesla coils are responding separately depending on which arm is raised. Also, the frequency raises as the arms is raised and lowers when the arm is lowered, etc. Please explain how you can do that with a switch you dumbass?
Granted, I am a idiot.
Wait, maybe two switches… no?
Cool idea.. I wonder if the kinect can track as good as to create a duophonic theremin.
WOOOHAHAHAHAH!
They are one chainmail suit away from a homemade version of Arc Attack!
Now they just need a device to make thunder crash every time he says something dramatic.
install this in a doorway
with a sign “do not reach up” if people disobey the sign….
MWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
also, this can be fully emulated with 2 switches(and 2 pots to change freq)
Hey Frogz, why don’t you just throw a couple of 555s in there, too!
if you want to go down the “emulated” path, keep it simple and have two people standing behind the subject who, on cue, hold up placards with a zig-zag lightning bolt motif on them while a third person turns the room lights on and off quickly.
Think what you could do with fluro paint and a uv light :o
I think the real thing is a tad cooler ;)
That’s very cool. Some ideas just resonate with the psyche, even if they’re relatively easy. In some sense, that’s what Maker Faire is about (IMO, of course.)
Among other things, this probably allows random spectators to control tesla coils in an electrically isolated way that even an insurance adjuster would approve of! (the “world’s most complicated opto-isolator :-)
I’m still laughing. That is hilarious, and my hat is off to all involved! If only we all had the followthrough to execute when struck by a similar inspirational spark.
;)
I had a go at playing this like a theremin. It’s possible, kinda, but rather tricky to get anything musical out of it.
@ the switch freaks…not the point of this! Oh no how dare someone do something one way that could be done another way! How dare he used his own time and money!
I was there when they rigged this up, it was definitely a highlight of the Maker Faire. Not only was it something home-made and awesome, but they came up with it and rigged it up *while at the faire*.
There was also an incredible number of Arduinos and clones on show. Playing “spot the Arduino” was a game in itself!