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Laser harp

A laser harp is an electronic musical user interface and laser lighting display. It projects several laser beams played by the musician by blocking them to produce sounds, visually reminiscent of a harp. It was popularised by Jean-Michel Jarre, and has been a high-profile feature of almost all his concerts since 1981.

Invention[edit]

French composer Bernard Szajner applied to patent the laser harp in 1981.[1] It was granted in 1982, meaning that the French patent office had found no evidence of another inventor of the same or similar instrument before him.[1]


However, Australian inventor Geoffrey Rose claims to have taken out a provisional patent with the United Kingdom's patent office in 1975–1976, and his invention may have been shown and used as early as 1976.[2][3][4]

An infrared or rangefinder attached to the instrument that determines the position of the hand that blocks a beam

ultrasonic

A laser-based rangefinder that determines the distance from the hand to the laser's starting or ending point (and possibly using this laser itself as the string)—or a variation of this that uses the intensity of the sensor signal itself

A camera that tracks position and motion of the laser dot on the hand, or length of the exposed beam if visible, then calculates a continuous value based upon a reference

Beamz

Laser safety

Media related to Laser harps at Wikimedia Commons