The Royal Academy of Art has created some thing called Space Replay which is…
A hovering object that explores and manipulates transitional public spaces with particular acoustic properties. By constantly recording and replaying these ambient sounds, the levitating sphere produces a delayed echo of human activity.
Here is a cool video they posted of Space Replay in action.
//player.vimeo.com/video/87979136
Space Replay from RCA IED on Vimeo.
The sphere responds sonically to people and its surroundings by means of a battery-powered Arduino, an Adafruit Wave Shield hacked to record and playback audio on-the-fly and a small speaker. These were inserted into a latex balloon after being vacuum formed in plastic in the shape of a cone — in order to enhance the sound coming from the speaker and protect the balloon from the wires and PCB edges.
The balloon was filled with enough helium to be able to lift everything and hover, reaching its buoyancy point. The final and lightest prototype weights 120g, comprising of electronics, packaging and balloon.
This project is a collaboration with Julinka Ebhardt and Will Yates-Johnson from Design Products.
More info on the Royal College of Art Information Experience designs at this microsite – http://ied.rca.ac.uk/.
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Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician & Performer, Boulder, CO
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Mark Mosher 