If you think this is just a Lego replica of something your grandparents would use, think again. This LP player actually spins records and plays music!
While the Long Play (LP) player was very popular back in the 1950s, this modern take created by Anika Vuurzoon and Matthias Paul Scholz is any music lover and Lego fan’s dream come true. The LP player, also known as the gramophone, was built using the Mindstorms program and regular Lego bricks for the casing.
Special vinyl records were created with color-coded commands underneath. The Mindstorms robot housed beneath the LP player uses a sensor to scan the records as they spin, producing a specific note to play a song. In this case, it can play, “Are You Sleeping, Brother John?” quite cutely.
How did they do it? First, a song like a nursery rhyme is converted into codes using music-reading software. Then a special program designed only by the creators converts the musical notes into colored bands which fit perfectly onto the back of the record or disk. This prototype model can only play simple tunes, making it sound more like a kid’s toy for now. Hopefully Vuurzoon and Scholz can come up with a more fine-tuned method for producing sounds. But the results are cool just the same.
Other features of the LP Player include spinning Lego figures on the side, plus a small access door that allows the user to control and adjust the Mindstorms robot.
What will they think of next? For music aficionados who miss cassette tapes, maybe someone will come up with a design for a Lego cassette player using a similar program, too.
For the love of everything Lego, surf on over to these other awesome Walyou features: Lego weapons and Lego masterpieces.
Via: Hack A Day
