Circuit Skills: transmitting sound with light

[Video Link] Collin Cunningham of MAKE shows how to put together a kit that sends sound signals over fiber optic cable, and explains why that's cool.

Circuit Skills: Fiber Optics

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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herrnichte

Someone needs to pitch “The Collin n’ Jeri (Ellsworth) Geek Hour” …ok, geek half hour… to some video/TV/cable station. (PBS would be perfect, but i fear they’ve wandered into shark budgetary waters) Jameco™ could be the primary initial sponsor. guest spots by Bill Hammack (“the engineer guy”). It wouldn’t pull any viewers away from dancing with the stars, but i’m sure it would make money. think MythBusters only with blinky lights and stuff. com’on do it do it! i’m running out of cheetos fast.
avraamov

…..lights can sound pretty interesting on their own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iqmbVObYmNw#t=62s
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=607675355 Brent Kirkham

Cat!!!! This video has a cat!!! What’s not to like. Oh, and some guy talking about fiber optics, electronics and stuff, but……….. CAT!!!!!!! Ceiling cat at that!

OK, back to normal(ish) now.

cute kitty though…. just sayin’…..
dagfooyo

@avraamov That video you linked to is awesome! Do you know anything more about what technology was used to produce those sounds from the video?
RebNachum

Wait a minute. Isn’t light just speeded-up sound?
- anansi133
  
  no.
  
  sound is a wave that needs a medium like air or water to transmit.
  
  Light is a wave and/or a particle, that can transmit through vacuum.
anansi133

Oh! Shiny! How hard would it be to put a laser diode in place of the LED, and transmit the sound through the air without the fiber optics? I’ve always wanted a laser modem, since reading Larry Niven as a kid.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1090101014 Toby Graves
  
  Yes. Works better in a dark room, or completely isolated from ambient light.
- avraamov
  
  well alexander graham bell’s ‘Photophone’ is what you’re describing – from about 1880 if memory serves. that used vibrating mirrors and sunlight, along with a forerunner of the diode this guy uses for a receiver. there was also a long-distance laser telephone experiment from 1963:
  
  http://www.modulatedlight.org/eos/Operation_Red_Line.html
Angryjim

Quintron’s drum buddy does fun things with converting light to sound.. A little different from this maybe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtssL8WlJA
avraamov

dagfooyo: i think it’s just a photovoltaic cell (like a solar battery charger) plugged into the mic socket of the camera. he talks about it in one of the other videos he’s posted.