Tired of the same old Christmas lights displays? Bored by animatronic Santas waving listlessly? Not impressed with the giant inflated snowman on the lawn? Maybe you should take a musical cue from Ric Turner.
Turner, a contract worker with Disney Imagineering, decided to take on a cool hacking project. He coupled his love of the holidays with his interest in engineering to create a new twist on the Christmas light display.
Christmas light displays coupled with music aren't a new fad. There have been many impressive displays designed over the last several years. Some of them required thousands of dollars worth of equipment to construct. To avoid annoying the neighbors (and inviting visits from the local constabulary), many of these displays use a weak FM transmitter to broadcast a radio signal. People who drive by can tune their radios to the proper frequency to get the full effect of the display.
Perhaps you've seen videos of Christmas displays timed with holiday songs like this one:
Along with the FM transmitter, this display required thousands of LED lights and multiple channel sequencers to control them. But Turner decided to go one step further -- he decided to go interactive.
Turner set up his light display and hooked it up to a Wii video game console running Guitar Hero. By standing in front of Turner's garage door and holding a Guitar Hero guitar, you can play Turner's Christmas lights. The game is set on Easy mode, which only requires the use of three of the five buttons on the guitar's neck. Here's what it looks like in action:
You can read about the equipment Turner used over at Make.
Indulge your inner rock star over at HowStuffWorks.com:
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Stuff, LEDs, Music, Video Game Systems
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