A Sort-Of-Theremin - Another Project?

Yep, even before getting anywhere near completing my first project I've got an idea for a second. In my defence, they're both related.

The idea is to construct a Theremin-like instrument. Theremin-like because my idea uses a slightly different principle to control it.

So, what's a real Theremin? Briefly it's an instrument that uses radio waves to deduce the proximity of the player's hands to two aerials: one that controls pitch and another that controls volume. It uses the capacitance of the human body to determine the hand's position relative to the aerials. There's much more info on howstuffworks.

My idea is to use the same capacitive sensing as is planned for my first project, the Electro Tongue Drum. But, instead of detecting an actual touch on a key I'm hoping to use the fact that the metal sensor can detect the proximity of a finger or hand.

While a real Theremin uses radio waves to detect the position of the player's hand mine will use capacitive sensing and passive metal sensors. In theory.

Will it work. Dunno. Worth a go though, eh? But not until I'm well on the way with the Tongue Drum.

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