Mini-Oramics Medley from Tom Richards on Vimeo.
"Early experiments with Mini-Oramics from composers Ain Bailey, James Bulley and Jo Thomas"
The video above should give you an idea of what it does. In short it reads what is drawn on the transparent sheet and generates audio through hardware. You can see an image of the hardware further below. The implementation reminds me of the ANS.
I spotted this one on the BBC website which has the following to say:
"An electronic sequencer and synthesizer has been built based on designs produced over 40 years ago by electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram.
Daphne Oram who died in 2003, co-founded the BBC Radiophonic workshop and developed a system of creating sounds and compositions using drawings.
The 'Mini Oramics' machine is thought to have remained unfinished in Daphne Oram's own lifetime, but experts argue that its approach to composition and performance would have been influential.
Tom Richards, the researcher who finally constructed the Mini Oramics, told The World At One it helped answer the question "what if this had come to pass in 1973?"
There has been quite a bit posted on Daphne Oram and Oramics here on MATRIXSYNTH over the years, so click through either link to dig deeper. Now would also be a good time to post a reminder on the Kickstarter Campaign to Republish Daphne Oram's "An Individual Note: of Music, Sound and Electronics".
The following images are from John Lely's website, posted on April 8, 2016.
"First full day working with Tom Richards’ Mini-Oramics machine, a device for drawing sound, based on the work of Daphne Oram. Here is a link to Tom’s videos of construction and early trials."
Note the hardware synth engine that is driven by the optical reader.
