Uploaded June 2013 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Full Details : dscript.org/electro-bubble-laser-light
Ok, so remember the AWE(aqua wave effect) lights.. if not they were a new type of "VJ equipment" that reads water waves to control light bulb arrays. The water waves are generated by pounding music into a pool of water, this way the waves, and thus the lights, "dance to the music".
I recently met a cool guy named Ben, who showed me some stuff he was doing with lasers and bottles. we got along great and he even gave me cool laser pen. I played with it all last night and this is what I came up with for a way to make the laser light "dance to music".
So here it is.. simple, use only a single pair of contacts, submerged. A high concentration of salt in the water (over saturated). Amp up the music signal and dump it into the water.
***Warnings***
The bubbles are Chlorine Gas, and the water will fill up with caustic soda.. both quite bad for you. make sure the room is ventilated(although chlorine gas is not very stable wont last long, best to not use it in a small closed space without ventilation).. and of course do NOT drink the water.. asides from the caustic soda the copper also degrades into the water.
Shoot a laser through the glass, just above the contacts, and magnify it on its way out of the glass. a few meters away it will have spread out to be a microscope-like view of the currents, particles, and bubbles(although the bubble itself is not very visible, its trail to the top is).. the glass also adds detail, but in this case we want to minimize this.. the pyrex cup I am using seems pretty good.. and the jewelers magnifying glass is pretty pure as well.
The more I play with water and electricity, the more I realize we will most likely be using water in computing and electronics, as analog and digital components, in the not to distant future.. thought I doubt i will live to see a "water computer" or "electro-chemical-machine-organisms" or "bio-chemical-mechanical-hybrids".
After all.. nature chose water for the base of its living computer(at least here on earth).
**cool side note: it is also a new type of audio speaker. If you place the contacts all the way at the bottom of the container, and really lay on the salt, the gas forming in the super thick brine causes small popping as surface tensions snap. The bubbles start forming as a electrical wave begins and "snap shut" and escape as the wave reverses. I was able to get it to produce a mild noisy sound that matched the music. (it is also possible the bubbles were vibrating the wire.. I have yet to find conclusive evidence of the mechanism producing the sound)
Perhaps it is also possible to refine that process and build a "water audio speaker" that actually using bubbles and surface tension to play music :)
Full Details : dscript.org/electro-bubble-laser-light
Ok, so remember the AWE(aqua wave effect) lights.. if not they were a new type of "VJ equipment" that reads water waves to control light bulb arrays. The water waves are generated by pounding music into a pool of water, this way the waves, and thus the lights, "dance to the music".
I recently met a cool guy named Ben, who showed me some stuff he was doing with lasers and bottles. we got along great and he even gave me cool laser pen. I played with it all last night and this is what I came up with for a way to make the laser light "dance to music".
So here it is.. simple, use only a single pair of contacts, submerged. A high concentration of salt in the water (over saturated). Amp up the music signal and dump it into the water.
***Warnings***
The bubbles are Chlorine Gas, and the water will fill up with caustic soda.. both quite bad for you. make sure the room is ventilated(although chlorine gas is not very stable wont last long, best to not use it in a small closed space without ventilation).. and of course do NOT drink the water.. asides from the caustic soda the copper also degrades into the water.
Shoot a laser through the glass, just above the contacts, and magnify it on its way out of the glass. a few meters away it will have spread out to be a microscope-like view of the currents, particles, and bubbles(although the bubble itself is not very visible, its trail to the top is).. the glass also adds detail, but in this case we want to minimize this.. the pyrex cup I am using seems pretty good.. and the jewelers magnifying glass is pretty pure as well.
The more I play with water and electricity, the more I realize we will most likely be using water in computing and electronics, as analog and digital components, in the not to distant future.. thought I doubt i will live to see a "water computer" or "electro-chemical-machine-organisms" or "bio-chemical-mechanical-hybrids".
After all.. nature chose water for the base of its living computer(at least here on earth).
**cool side note: it is also a new type of audio speaker. If you place the contacts all the way at the bottom of the container, and really lay on the salt, the gas forming in the super thick brine causes small popping as surface tensions snap. The bubbles start forming as a electrical wave begins and "snap shut" and escape as the wave reverses. I was able to get it to produce a mild noisy sound that matched the music. (it is also possible the bubbles were vibrating the wire.. I have yet to find conclusive evidence of the mechanism producing the sound)
Perhaps it is also possible to refine that process and build a "water audio speaker" that actually using bubbles and surface tension to play music :)
