Dimension Beam and Uforce

[Scot Gresham-Lancaster]

Its called the "dimension" beam. Which is based on a diferent principle than the
LDR schemes that have benn talked about.  This technology will be on the new
Roland SP-808. The pontential hack relates to  the original manifestation,
Broderbund's "Uforce" nintendo controller when decoded with a forth board and
little code turned into a MIDI based eight point light theremin.

The "Uforce" and "Dimension" beam use the reflection of infrared from a
transmitter/reciever pair with and 8051 or equivalent embedded controller. You
can pulse the emitter and get a light speed resolution bounce back to the
reciever. There is a circuit in a book on robotics that I could dig up if anyone
is interested.

tomg wrote:

> About 2 years ago a company started selling a midi controller that works by
> breaking a generated field (light?). I wish I could remember what it's called.
> Maybe someone else can remember. I think Duran Duran used one on "Electric
> Barbarella".
> -Tom
>
> On 28-Apr-98, Adam M Bowen wrote:
> >i know this isn't music-related, but oh well. what about a pc input
> >device? there must be a clever way of arranging cells to create a simple
> >interface with as many as three degrees of freedom and a "click"
> >function. that'd be cool at least for the novelty.
>
> >has anyone tried to develop this?
>
> >steve.ridley at bbc.co.uk wrote:
> >>
> >> The LDR-based "mini-theremin" project discussed recently got
> >> me thinking of other creative uses of LDRs, especially as
> >> Maplin will sell 100 LDRs for 14 plus TAX.  These are just
> >> a few ideas "off the top of my head", so not yet tried.
> >>
>
> >--
> >Adam M Bowen
> >Pomona College
> >_____________________________
> >Walker Hall N-C 122
> >700 N. College Way
> >Claremont, CA  91711
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