Because Conventional Laser Harps Aren’t Dangerous Enough

In the late 1980s, the French musician [Jean-Michel Jarre] famously toured with a laser harp. The word among teenage fans was that he had to wear special gloves to stop his hands getting burned, because 1980s teens were both impressionable and didn’t know much about lasers. In fact we’re told by a member of our community who was part of his road crew that the glove was a matter of reflectivity, so laser harps remain relatively harmless and French harpists retain their fingers. To add a bit of spice to the laser harp experience, [James Cochrane] hooked up a laser rangefinder to a Tesla coil to make an instrument with a bit more crackling energy in its performance than the [Jarre] model.

It starts with a laser tape measure modified to serve as an Arduino rangefinder, coupled to custom MIDI code to make a laser harp MIDI controller. The Tesla coil in question happens also to be a MIDI instrument, so the one can control the other with ease. The addition of an earthed chain mail glove allows it to be played in close proximity to the coil, and he rewards us with a rendition of the Star Trek theme. Tesla fun and games behind us, he then gives us a demonstration with a more conventional MIDI instrument.

We’ve had innumerable Tesla coil projects here over the years, if you’re hungry for more we suggest starting with this unusual planar PCB coil design. Meanwhile you can see the laser harp coil in the video below the break.

7 thoughts on “Because Conventional Laser Harps Aren’t Dangerous Enough

  1. Am I misunderstanding the setup, or is the tesla coil incidental to the laser theremin? I see a laser theremin, and I see a tesla coil, but I don’t see how they’re interacting, they seem to be more of a side by side setup.

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