[Extreme Kits] asks the question: “What the hell is a luminiferous theremin?” We have to admit, we know what a thermin is, but that’s as far as we got. You’ve surely seen and heard a theremin, the musical instrument developed by Leon Theremin that makes swoopy music often associated with science fiction movies. The luminiferous variation is a similar instrument that uses modern time of flight sensors to pick up your hand positions.

The traditional instrument uses coils, and your hands alter the frequency of oscillators. Some versions use light sensors to avoid the problems associated with coils. While the time of flight sensors also use light, they are immune to many false readings caused by stray light.

While there is a kit for sale, you can find the schematic and source code on
GitHub with a BSD-3-Clause license. We had hoped for a video of the device, but we didn’t see one.

One nice thing about the device is you can easily swap the “handedness.” That is, you can switch the function of the virtual coils easily if you prefer to use your dominant hand for pitch.

We talk about theremins around here more than you’d think. You can build a classic one quite easily, and we’ve seen plenty of more complex designs, too.