Laser Harp

© Ing. Radovan Konečný - radkon, 2014-2018

Laser harp is a special kind of music keyboard. Just as a person presses the individual keys on the piano keyboard, on the laser harp a person "plucks" the laser beams. The tone sounds when the laser beam of the tone is interrupted by hand. Each laser beam is assigned to one tone.

The laser harp is not a musical instrument itself - it does not make any sound. It's just a controller of another (electronic) musical instrument through MIDI or USB.

Purpose

This laser harp can be used in Interactive music system or for playing on a musical instrument. Of course, a musical instrument can also be a computer program that responds to MIDI messages.

It can also be used for teaching or special therapy. For some people with disabilities, lasers are not suitable - there is a risk of damage to the eye when looking directly into the laser beam and for epileptics there are dangerous flickering light stimuli. But available is a similar device - Interactive Music System INGENIA that is more suitable for disabled people and for epileptics.

Description and parameters

This laser harp has 15 parallel red laser beams with a 60 mm spacing. Total dimension without the stand is 104.2 cm x 71.1 cm x 2.9 cm. It is made of wood and everything is hand made. Above each laser beam there is a colorful (RGB) LED to indicate the meaning of the "string" (as on a acoustic harp there are some strings colored) or for any other indication.

The body of the laser harp can be placed in a stand, hung or laid down, e.g. on a table.

Each laser beam corresponds individual tone, depending on the scale selected and the tone shift (transposition) selected.

Each of the lasers can work in three modes - the laser turned on, the laser turned off, the laser is reduced. The intensity of the laser is not such that it can be seen in the air. However, it is well visible on the upper side of the hand, partly on the lower side of the hand, or it can be easily seen in a fog, e.g. using a fogger.

This laser harp can recognize the speed at which the laser beam was interrupted by hand, and this information is projected into the force of a "pressed" tone. Similarly, when the tone is released (note: not all electronic musical instruments support this feature).