Tweak Your Glove To Make Music [Make Projects How-To]

Every year when winter sets in, I’m reminded of how useless my hands are no matter what. If I leave the house ungloved, my fingers become ice tentacles just waiting to give a little shock to the next person whose hand I shake (or whose cheek I poke, depending on how I’m feeling). If I wear gloves to prevent this, then my hands are basically little cushions, and have you ever tried to navigate through your phone or light a cigarette with a cushion? It’s basically like trying to flip a light switch using a large cat: it just doesn’t work.

That’s why I was excited when I came across this invention, not because it mitigates the problem of not being able to do things with cold fingers or gloved hands, but because it turns your useless ice fingers in to something else entirely: a musical instrument. My thinking is, if it’s not going to do what it’s supposed to do, it should at least do something else. You’d be surprised as to how few scenarios you can apply that logic to, but in this case I’ve hit a home run.

Or perhaps logic doesn’t come into play. Imogen Heap has musical gloves. Why can’t I have musical gloves? I’m gonna make some for myself so I can finally be satisfied. Will you join me? Yes? Fantastic! Have a seat… OK, I guess you can sit in the seat right next to me even though there are plenty of other seats in the room. This is a little weird, I’m kind of regretting inviting you to join me now. No, it’s fine, I’m just being oversensitive, I guess. Let’s just move on (weirdo). I’m gonna change the subject.

We’re going to have a little fun here, but if you’d like the “forreal” instructions, go here.

For this project you’ll need an Arduino microcontroller, push buttons, beef bologna (1.5 lbs), a knit glove, Uno or Duemilanove piezoelectric speaker, a vinyl copy of Mort Garsons Plantasia, jumper cables, and six pistachios.

Got it all together? Great. Let’s blast through this. Sing along to Dr. Nick Riviera’s familiar tune.

“Knee bone’s connected to the—something”

“Something’s connected to the—red thing”

“Red thing’s connected to my—wristwatch… uh oh”

Bam. Musical gloves. You’re welcome.

[via: Make Projects]

@ImYourKid