The Ravezooka
The Ravezooka is a musical weapon that shoots a wide range of powerful sounds based on the target's distance from the instrument.
Created with Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis, the Ravezooka was displayed at the 2006 ITP Winter Show. It has received a lot of press including We Make Money Not Art, Boing Boing, Wired Magazine, and Gizmodo.
Software: Max/MSP
Hardware: Arduino, Ultrasonic Range Sensor, Infrared Proximity Sensor, Luxeon LED, amplifier, laptop computer
Sound: Resembles an analog synthesizer manipulating sine wave frequencies with the aggressiveness of a machine gun. User controls include the range of frequencies (based on distance of target), distortion effects (based on handle slider position), volume control (potentiometer dial), and on/off (handle trigger switch).
Design: As a stylish musical weapon of audio destruction, the Ravezooka aesthetic is playfully based on a Bazooka.
How the Ravezooka Works:
The user straps the Ravezooka over his or her shoulders and squeezes the trigger handle to initiate sound and a beam of light. As the user moves the Ravezooka around, he or she will notice a change in the frequency range being played based on the distance of the person or object in front of the instrument. The closer the target, the lower the frequency range. The light emitted from the Luxeon LED will give a rough visual clue as to what person or object is being targeted. The user will also be able to slide the trigger handle back and forth to initiate a change in the distortion effect of the sound. The closer the handle is drawn towards the user, the greater the distortion. The user will also be able to control is volume by turning the potentiometer knob on the side of the Ravezooka. If the trigger handle is not squeezed, no sound will be played.
The sound of the Ravezooka is generated by MIDI data collected from the sensors. Using MIDI as protocol, there are two channels being processed in MAXMSP. Channel 1 is linked to the data collected from the Ultrasonic Range Sensor and Channel 2 is linked to the data collected from the IR Proximity Sensor. Sound output is played through a guitar or bass amplifier from the computer.
Prototype schematic for the Ravezooka:
