A harp made from frickin' laser beams

Stephen Hobley just perfected his laser harp. The audio is adjusted by breaking the beam between the source and mirror array above. No, you can't buy it, but we expect it to appear with a Ukrainian dressed in animal skins at Eurovision 2008. Until then, you'll just have to watch the video after the break.

[Thanks, Kevin P.]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2008 3:55PM]

Jarre's Laser harp was nothing more than a trigger set. An impressive one, though.
I remember it being totally awesome when I was a kid. Going back and seeing the concert video recently showed me how utterly naive I was :P

Good showmanship.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2008 4:29PM]

omg if Daft Punk had this!!

[Brad Hubbard Posted Feb 15th 2008 4:58PM]

I saw this at Burning Man in like 2003. Yeah, it was with red lasers instead of green, but it was damn cool none the less.

[zack11190 Posted Feb 15th 2008 5:42PM]

I also saw a laser harp at the St. Louis Science Center a few years back. It was pretty cool.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2008 5:46PM]

One step closer to the elusive "Solar Powered Lazer Beam Guitar" referred to in the classic Spaceship Superstar by Prism...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2008 8:15PM]

I was at a robotics competition and they had the same thing except with red lasers and it was in a box. so this guy didn't thing of the laser harp by himself but that was cool effects.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2008 9:08PM]

Hey, I'm on Engadget....

The idea has been around for a long time, but I think this is the first time it's been done with an Arduino or Basic Stamp. Even Jarre's harp ran on Windows :)

More info:
www.stephenhobley.com/build

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2008 2:06PM]

per the one like todd.. welcome to about...oh.. 20 freakin years ago... come on guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIbD7VRWx8Q

[LoudLight17 Posted Feb 16th 2008 2:06AM]

Calling Rick Wakeman....you due onstage again

[JJjjjjjjjjjj Posted Feb 16th 2008 5:03AM]

The headline alone was worth the look. Thanks for the laugh.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 17th 2008 10:41PM]

They've got one of these at the Children's Museum of Manhattan (over on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I think their site is cmom.org or something like that). Not as sophisticated, but a lot of fun. There's even a button on the side where you can change the type of tone it plays (from a harp sound to a more electronic sound to something more marimba-like, etc.) Most of the time there's some toddler trying fit their whole body across it, though.