LaserComm: Sending Music With Light!
This activity was originally developed back in 2017 by the PhoSoc Outreach team members Eric J. Stanton, Victoria Rosborough and Takako Hirokawa as a hands-on activity for high school students, in which students made their own laser-communications transceiver.
Updated "Light & Sound" LaserComm for MOXI Science Museum
In the summer of 2019 we worked with Sam Shaw at the MOXI Wolf Science Museum to hold a pilot workshop to test out the PhoSoc LaserComm activity with local kids and families.
The newly revised activity uses laser cut components, printed circuit boards and 3D Printed mounts to allow museum visitors to focus entirely on manipulating light. We made all the components fit onto a peg-board, which has tall sides to prevent stray laser light and allow kids to see where the light is going. The activity includes the following components:
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Made possible by generous support from Praevium Research Inc.
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Download a brief writeup of the whole activity at this link on the right →
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The final setup, as deployed at the MOXI Science Museum's first Scientist Interactive Event!
Original "LaserComm" Activity for UCSB School of Scientific Thought
PhoSoc Outreach team members Eric J. Stanton, Victoria Rosborough and Takako Hirokawa developed this activity for one of the summer classes they taught as part of CSEP's School for Scientific Thought. Highschoolers in the program built circuits that operated as optical transmitters of audio, and photodetectors plugged into headphones to receive the audio signal.
The short activity allows the students to optically transmit music (from a smartphone, for example) via an LED or Laser, and receive it to listen on headphones. Students can compare the use of an LED/laser and optical fiber/free-space by simply listening to the received audio quality!
This activity is based on Simon Field’s plans at sci-toys.com: Simple laser communicator
The short activity allows the students to optically transmit music (from a smartphone, for example) via an LED or Laser, and receive it to listen on headphones. Students can compare the use of an LED/laser and optical fiber/free-space by simply listening to the received audio quality!
This activity is based on Simon Field’s plans at sci-toys.com: Simple laser communicator
Downloads for 2016-2017 LaserComm SST Activities:
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