This is a demo of an Arduino-based spaceship-themed synthesizer for kids, designed for the Kearney Area Children’s Museum.

The spaceship synth was created by Nebraska-based interaction designer Jason Webb.

Here’s what he has to say about the spaceship synth:

Several months ago I volunteered my skills to create a large, interactive control panel for an upcoming space-themed exhibit for the Kearney Area Children’s Museum. The project is multi-faceted and took quite a bit of time and energy to create, but in the end it came together very well!

Using the Auduino synth sketch for Arduino as a starting point, I created a synthesizer that uses two rotary potentiometers, two linear potentiometers and one infrared rangefinder to generate fun, interactive music.

The sketch works best when multiple inputs are being used at once (i.e., moving your hand while moving a slider), but will generate some sort of tone regardless.

The circuit board on the back is a simple class A amplifier and parallel 3.5mm audio jack to allow for more control over the volume of the synth.

Now let’s just hope those kids don’t destroy the thing the first chance they get!