Laser harp

[johns at oei.com]

     I have a suggestion for sensing velocity.  This is a variation of the 
     way most synth's measure keyboard velocity.  For every "note" you use 
     two closely spaced beams with two closely spaced sensors.  As your 
     hand moves towards the beam pair, it will always block one beam first 
     then a short time later the second.  The time difference between the 
     two events is a measure of how fast your hand was moving (or the 
     velocity) when the beam pair was "touched".
     
     It seems to me that, given the right choice of CPU and related 
     circuitry, this kind of thing is very feasible.  You probably would 
     hardly notice the small beam spacing, or perhaps, assuming you are 
     using a visible laser, it might even look better.
     
     Have you checked out that device that is called, I think, a "MIDI Egg" 
     (conjured from memory only)?  It was featured in Electronic Musician 
     lately and uses some kind of laser field that is translated to MIDI 
     events with your hands or whatever.
     
     JJS