Black Box Lightshow flickers its LEDs to the beat

Nah, the Black Box Lightshow won't welcome you home, do your laundry or keep you updated on scores around the league, but it will keep your eyes fixated when connected to an audio source. The unit was reportedly based on a design conjured up while Rosendahl was still in college, and it basically emits a LED lightshow by "displaying the top half of the waveform of each channel with their zero levels in the center." The two knobs on the left control the amplitude and the sweep speed, and of course, the bass notes tend to have the most noticeable effect. Hypnotic, indeed.

[Via MAKE]

[dudeInAmerica @ Oct 11th 2007 11:05PM]

Welcome to 1984.

I also heard they had these lamps that contained something that looked like "lava".

[Dylan @ Oct 11th 2007 11:11PM]

Wow, a visual equalizer, Ive never seen one of those before! Seriously, common now. As a design student myself, I’d personally like to just say that this is not what we’re taught to do, unless you go to Devry perhaps. Excessive junk like this is appalling. There are thousands of ways you could apply design in some way to help someone or the world in general out, stringing a couple of LED lights together to attract the “oooh shiny” crowd is ridiculous.

[Warwick @ Oct 12th 2007 4:34AM]

That sounds a little odd coming from someone that reads a website dedicated to useless gadgets and high end technology that serves little other purpose than to entertain people.

[n3rrd @ Oct 11th 2007 11:26PM]

Really now. Don't be so incredibly lame. If you're so superior, design something and submit it to a blog so that people can rip on your lame ideas.

[Hollywood Ron @ Oct 11th 2007 11:36PM]

So someone spent a lot of time high, I take it?

[jbcaro @ Oct 11th 2007 11:40PM]

I have a plasma ball that is much cooler.

[ThePengwin @ Oct 12th 2007 12:14AM]

Can it draw the face from Aphex Twin's ∆Mi-1=-a∑Di(n)(∑Fij(n-1)+Fexti(n-1))?

[Michael Smith @ Oct 12th 2007 12:34AM]

No-one take this to Boston.

[cptripps @ Oct 12th 2007 7:24AM]

I'm holding out for the Heathkit version of this.

[Eric @ Oct 13th 2007 11:12AM]

http://www.joecool.org/color_organ.htm

[influxor @ Oct 12th 2007 1:41PM]

looks like somwthing from the 60's.. even my old componet stereo rack EQ has a better and more stimulating display and has many more 'micro' leds in multiple colors. it was made in like 1985.

[Andrew Peter Chobaniuk @ Oct 12th 2007 4:25PM]

I should go home today and take a picture of the one I made in grade 9 electronics, its shiny too, oh, and its got MULTIPLE COLOURS!!!