Comments on: Entrepreneur makes fire dance to the beat

A Bay Area fire artist has created a $15,000 fire pit designed to make flames react to the beat of music. Las Vegas hot spots are lining up to buy it.

[ccr07]

I don't know when this guy developed this, but they have had one of these machines at the Physics Department at Florida State University for a number of years now. A professor created and developed it. I'm pretty sure this guy is not the first to create these although good for him for making some money off the idea.

[monkeyfun14]

Its really such a simple concept probably pretty cheap to produce I don't even think its worth $15,000 from a technical standpoint.

[AeroJonesy]

This was on an episode of Mythbusters, too.

[Bytrat]

I beleive the Mythbusters episode dealt with a different way of using fire - a speaker inside a propane supplied tube with numerous holes drilled into the tube. Where as this uses individually controlled valves supplying the gas fueled flames.

[ikramerica--2008]

Yeah, watching the video, this is really, really not very difficult. It's all about the precision controlled valve. But otherwise, each valve is just hooked up to a controller chip that would translate either a digital or analog scale to a level of valve opening operating at 60Hz (read once, rest once, thirty times a second) rather than a number LEDs or LCD bars on a meter. Beyond that, it's simply like any other graphic equalizer display, splitting sound waves into frequency bands, fed with a microphone.

My guess is there is already a patent for this out there...

[trimeta]

Using separate valves for each jet of flame, rather than a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben%27s_Tube">Ruben's tube</a> to exploit physics to do your job for you? Weak.

[gapeJawed]

Nothing new here. Search youtube for Ruben's Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnMDrv8Mx3E

[mrobmsu]

"Fire art"? Isn't this just dancing flames? Art. . .hmmm. . . .

[MoonlitKnight]

Daniel Terdiman is mistaken in asserting that Austin, Texas based Arc Attack synchronizes its music with the output of giant Tesla Coils. The Coils are used to create sound and are used as musical instruments.

[cidman2001]

Daniel...are you New England-phobic? You should visit....we have lots of cool stuff!

[walshie69]

WHO CARES REALLY???

[play7]

agreed! what you expect from the writer of this? He not the smartest around let alone the knowing of what good and what is not.

[Michichael]

/golfclap

I propose instead that you give me funding to make a micro black-hole version of this. Wouldn't be too hard, just a magnetic containment particle accelerator...