Talk:Laser harp

	Music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Musical Instruments, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of musical instruments on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Musical InstrumentsWikipedia:WikiProject Musical InstrumentsTemplate:WikiProject Musical Instrumentsmusical instruments
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Electronic music Start‑class

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Electronic music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Electronic music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Electronic musicWikipedia:WikiProject Electronic musicTemplate:WikiProject Electronic musicelectronic music
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Gloves

Lasers so powerful you have to wear gloves? I don't believe that. --Abdull 10:43, 30 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Direct exposure to a class IV laser may lead to skin damage; see laser safety and [1]. –Mysid (talk) 08:42, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

He had to wear gloves when using his early outdoor setups, as they were powered through an Argon gas laser of several Watts. His recent setups are less powerful, but he still wears white gloves because they make detection easier, as more light bounces off and hits the sensors underneath. Playing with his bare hands is possible, and he did so during the Live In Beijing and World Arena Tour concerts. Stoney3K (talk) 00:23, 26 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The power of the laser in our harp is quite a lot lower than that used in Jarre's early harps and whilst it is possible to play ours without wearing gloves after it has been fanned out to 8 beams it is NOT possible to keep your hand in the beam for any length of time without gloves when it is still a single beam. It will readily burn through a piece of paper in a measured 2.2 seconds. The rating of our laser is >600mWatts and has actually been measured at 720 mWatts. Jarre's early harps reportedly used lasers of at least 1 watt + magnitude. It is therefore perfectly reasonable to expect it to be somewhat painful on un-protected skin if not actually injurious. A photograph on the following page shows clearly the effect that our lower powered laser had on my hand during the development stage! http://www.jarrelook.co.uk/KitLaserHarp/LaserHarp.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.194.255.1 (talk) 11:03, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Duff physics

There is so much physics that is wrong in this article, it's unreal. "the gloves act as a trigger for the note on the beam in question" -- what does that mean? "deccelerating the light to only half the speed, so it is half the temperature" -- it's impossible to "decelerate light" in this context (for sure, you could decelerate the light by making the harp out of a sheet of glass, but then he wouldn't be able to put his hand in it). And "decelerating" only has one "c". Furthermore, where does half the speed = half the temperature come from? Carl w 22:33, 22 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The velocity of light doesn't actually change in glass. The phase velocity changes but the group velocity stays the same (which denotes the actual speed of light propagation) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.101.44 (talk) 21:07, 10 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I just added more information on the Framed style of laser harp, which I have been building for a number of years now, including some information on how a typical midi software program for this type of harp can work. I am also working on a type of 'Infinite Beam ' laser harp, using safe 5mw lasers. If my results are successful, then I will add the information latter in the year. 65.102.124.174 (talk) 19:05, 15 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's real alright

OK, the problem is obviously "no own research", but the Laser Harp is not a fake, because I played one. There was an installation at the 1989 "Concert d'Images" exhibition at the Nouveau Forum des Halles in Paris. It consisted of a number of laser beams behind a perspex partition, in which two thick gloves were mounted, not unlike a baby incubator. On the palms, retro-reflectors were affixed. You could stick your arms into the gloves and trigger notes by sticking your hands in the beams. By moving your hands up and down, you could also do modulation.

As for "careful inspection of concert footage", that's completely useless because those videos have been edited. As an example, the Laser Harp started malfunctioning during the 1990 Paris La Défense concert. If you happen to have a live recording from the Europe 2 radio station, it can plainly be heard. After a few painful minutes of mis-triggered and double-triggered notes, the melody supposed to be played with the laser harp is replaced with a synth that sounds very, but not completely similar to the original sound (which would presumably have been the Syntex).

The whole section about "many people believe" should probably be removed, because "many people" have never seen one up close and personal, let alone played on one.

Now, whether all of the music during one of Jarre's concert is 100% live is quite another discussion, but the fact of the matter is that (a) it works and (b) it didn't work when used live during the 1990 Paris concert. SeverityOne 21:51, 16 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've added some information about working (and malfunctioning) laser harps to the article. As a reference, here is a page with information about Jarre exhibitions, including the playable laser harp at Concert d'Images. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SeverityOne (talk • contribs) 20:42, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Just one practical question: Is it really enough to put just a hand to block the beam? If so, does that mean that a stray bird may disrupt a Jean-Michel Jarre concert? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.137.119.42 (talk) 23:33, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The harp works by detecting a reflection of the laser beam off his hand. A stray bird some few dozen feet up in the air will give a much smaller reflection than his hand, which is much nearer to the sensor. The same goes for beams reflecting off the ceiling, although that can be a problem in smaller venues. It works by figuring out the timing of the reflected beam (it is a single scanning beam) in relation to the light picked up by the sensor. Stoney3K (talk) 10:48, 26 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Little Boots & friends

Why do people put senseless sections about some douche building or buying a laser harp in here? Nobody cares! I don't want to delete this stuff before others would approve it. Jean-Michel is an exception because

1. He is not a douche bag.

2. He used it first and popularized it.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. -- 79.232.54.35 (talk) 16:15, 30 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think every single mention of a laser harp builder deserves a special mention, although Stephen Hobley (the 'douche bag' who built the Little Boots unit) was one of the first who built a working, self-contained version in his garage. The general topic of hobbyists building the thing is worth mentioning, IMO. Stoney3K (talk) 00:26, 26 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Typical framed style laser harp software functions

I doubt this is of any added value here, because it is not specific to laser harps and can be said for any MIDI controller. Stoney3K (talk) 14:00, 12 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I fully agree with Stoney3K. This chapter is not encyclopedic over Laser Harp. It is a general MIDI features.Iw2mln (talk) 14:05, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Blogs & YouTube used as references

The "article" currently reads as a blog - interesting -, but not enciclopedia. --Technopat (talk) 10:49, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In modern Culture

This was in the sims 3 future expansion. Has it been seen anywhere else? --Tristyn^{^⌘} 07:37, 21 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]