Technology definitely means going crazy for some people. Had it not been like that, who would have tried to make synthesizer keys out of BANANAS!
Jeff Ledger (of Gadget Gangster) has given shape to the Bananaphone touch capacitance synthesizer, contributing to a growing community of music-tech buffs who like to overlap their music with things you can eat.
Previously, bananas and other edible objects have been used in computer interface devices. The bananaphone is slightly different and uses some add on kits by Gadget Gangster and is based around the Parallax Propeller Micro Controller.
How the Bananaphone Synthesizer works
Touching the banana keys, increase the capacitance in the connection points. This increases the resistor – capacitor time constant which is monitored by the micro controller. The micro controller on receiving the input, decides if the Synthesizer should play the tones accordingly. To control the frequency or the pitch of the sound with each touch, two things are taken into consideration. The length od=f the wires and the ripeness of the bananas. A line of code is then altered to establish a cut-off frequency based on these two parameters and the sound can then be heard when the bananas are touched.
See the Bananaphone in action in the short video clip below: