Theremin Goggles Produce An ‘Awesome And Annoying Tone’

theremin-goggles

Cyberpunk creator Sarah Petkus created these DIY theremin goggles. 

“These audio goggles produce an awesome and annoying tone that can be altered by the amount of light hitting them,” explains Petkus.

Here’s what she has to say about her theremin goggles:

Blinking, fading, and color changing lights are a standard for eye catching goggles. This being said, I decided to change it up a bit and make a set that would engage the wearer in the production of sound.

As always I wanted my goggles to be interactive. When it comes to audio, I figured there was no better way to achieve this than with some sort of theremin which would invoke hand waving and finger wiggling from the wearer and anyone near by. Now, I realize that traditional theremins are quite complex in their inner workings and tend to run quite large, so I poked around the internet until I found this simplified optical theremin that requires a hand full of basic components and two 555 timers.This particular design also creates a very unique, annoying sound which in this application is perfect! Here is the link to the circuit I used : Easy Pocket Photo Theremin.

 Here’s a video demo of the theremin goggles in action:

via make

12 thoughts on “Theremin Goggles Produce An ‘Awesome And Annoying Tone’

  1. What is it with Steampunk creators making useless shit? It doesn’t become cool just because you stick a piece of thrift-store leather in it. I can get steampunk stuff that Victorian explorers and adventurers might have worn if they’d been able to make it work, but who in their right mind would want a pair of goggles that also function as a theremin?! Mount them on a pair of earmuffs so that you don’t have to listen to the awful shrieking noise they’re producing and it might be useful bank robbers or someone, but goggles? Sigh…

  2. man that last comment was harsh. I like this project! In the engineering department at my school we love crazy sh*t like this. it is fun!

  3. When I was a kid I tried to show my Mum many a Super NES game, but she hated the sounds and just couldn’t bear to listen, she said it was all annoying bleeps.
    At the time I thought she wasn’t able to differentiate between MarioWorld’s wonderful sound, and the SFX of Defender or Asteroids.. I just didn’t understand how she couldn’t appreciate it!
    However, after watching (and listening) to this vid soon after waking up today, I feel like I’ve gained new insight into how Mum’s brain heard those sounds waay back in the early nineties..

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