Gallery: Arduino-Powered Turntables That Turn DJing Into Child's Play

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    Photo: Per Holmquist
    01

    Blox-3

    Beat Blox is a beats-making station built from rudimentary turntables, Arduino boards, sensors, and some very simple building blocks.
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    Photo: Per Holmquist
    02

    Blox-2

    Student designer Per Holmquist built the machines because he says he has a "complicated relationship with music." He has a great ear for it, but never learned to play an instrument.
  • Image may contain Wood Plywood Electronics Human Person Computer and Hardware
    Photo: Per Holmquist
    03

    Blox-1

    Each Beat Blox box has an Arduino that mimics a different instrument: one plays the bongos, another plays the bass (Holmquist tapped the standard Music Instrument Shield for those), and the third plays the snare drum, which Holmquist specially programmed after finding a discarded drum set.
  • Image may contain Human and Person
    Photo: Per Holmquist
    04

    Blox-4

    Distance sensors on the turntable arm react to wooden blocks that players set on the platter. Each box will emit new loops of beats and sounds.
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