If you’ve ever had to move around in a dark room before, you know how frustrating it can be. This is especially true if you are in an unfamiliar place. [Brian] has attempted to help solve this problem by building a vibrating distance sensor that is intuitive to use.

The main circuit is rather simple. An Arduino is hooked up to both an ultrasonic distance sensor and a vibrating motor. The distance sensor uses sound to determine the distance of an object by calculating how long it takes for an emitted sound to return to the sensor. The sensor uses sounds that are above the range of human hearing, so no one in the vicinity will hear it. The Arduino then vibrates a motor quickly if the object is very close, or slowly if it is far away. The whole circuit is powered by a 9V battery.

The real trick to this project is that the entire thing is housed inside of an old flashlight. [Brian] used OpenSCAD to design a custom plastic mount. This mount replaces the flashlight lens and allows the ultrasonic sensor to be secured to the front of the flashlight. The flashlight housing makes the device very intuitive to use. You simply point the flashlight in front of you and press the button. Instead of shining a bright light, the flashlight vibrates to let you know if the way ahead is clear. This way the user can more easily navigate around in the dark without the risk of being seen or waking up people in the area.

This reminds us of project Tacit, which used two of these ultrasonic sensors mounted on a fingerless glove.

How about a new way to make music? [cpeckmusic] has it’s way to do it, with is project Sharpy.

Sharpy is an electronic instrument that was designed and built by composer Charles Peck. The instrument utilizes three infrared distance sensors to control the sound, which is produced digitally with an Arduino board and GinSing shield. So as users interact with these sensors, there is a clear auditory connection to their physical actions.

Despite having only three sensors, the instrument is capable of a variety of sounds. This is because Sharpy has three possible operating states, each of which assigns a different set of parameters to the three sensors. State 1 is initiated by covering the sensor on the user’s left first. The instrument will then stay in State 1 until no sensors are being covered. Therefore, the user must completely remove their hands form the instrument in order to change states. Concordantly, State 2 is initiated using the middle sensor and State 3 using the sensor on the right. The short improvisation in this video demonstrates a few of these sonic possibilities.

I suggest you to watch the [video] of the live performance. If you’re interested in more works check his official [website]