Question on Potless wahs (again!)

[col]

I was in a work colleagues car a few weeks ago and he used the rear parking sensor to get into a tight space. As the car got closer to the vehicle behing the frequency of the bleeps increased and I wondered if this could be adapted to alter the tone of a wah without using moving parts. I had a quick look in the Maplin and Rapid catalogues and the sensors work off ultrasonic sensers and receivers and the standard range seems to be 3cm to 6m. This would probably make them useless for stompbox purposes but I wondered if there is anything similar on the market that would do the same thing at reasonable cost, certainly cheaper than a wah shell. A complete kit to fit a detection system to your car is available at Maplins for £20.
I also wondered what other peoples experiences are with the "Invisible touch". I have considered making it but wondered how stable it is as I know theremins can be a bit temperemental.

[birt]

that car sensor thing is a cool idea. you could set up different oscillators and effects in a room, controlled by various sensors in that same room and play that syntheziser by running around

[frequencycentral]

that car sensor thing is a cool idea. you could set up different oscillators and effects in a room, controlled by various sensors in that same room and play that syntheziser by running around

Soundbeam 2: http://www.soundbeam.co.uk/products/sb2-intro.html

[birt]

but thats so very... stock/finished/completed/?

[frequencycentral]

but thats so very... stock/finished/completed/?

Fun though, we have a Mk1 at the school I work at - we're just about to order the Mk2 - £3000!!

[Dragonfly]

I was in a work colleagues car a few weeks ago and he used the rear parking sensor to get into a tight space. As the car got closer to the vehicle behing the frequency of the bleeps increased and I wondered if this could be adapted to alter the tone of a wah without using moving parts. I had a quick look in the Maplin and Rapid catalogues and the sensors work off ultrasonic sensers and receivers and the standard range seems to be 3cm to 6m. This would probably make them useless for stompbox purposes but I wondered if there is anything similar on the market that would do the same thing at reasonable cost, certainly cheaper than a wah shell. A complete kit to fit a detection system to your car is available at Maplins for £20.
I also wondered what other peoples experiences are with the "Invisible touch". I have considered making it but wondered how stable it is as I know theremins can be a bit temperemental.

It just so happens that my Dad developed that system for GM. He got the idea from the Kodak "autofocus" system.  In fact, GM uses sensors sourced from Kodak ! 

He did that around the same time as he came up with the "smart wash" system for dishwashing machines...you know, "This washer has a brain" ! It's a sensor that measures the particles in the water as it's flushed from the washer. Less and less particulate matter comes off the dishes as they get cleaner, and the sensor automatically shuts off the washer once the particles reach a certain low level.

[Seljer]

for our microcontroller class we used an IR distance sensor (apparently the same one used in urinals so the water comes on when you step away)
it gave pretty good numbers for between 3 and 30cm