Using a water surface as a controller
This very cool project.The idea is pretty damn simple- a laser beam from one of those annoying pen pointers is projected diagonally through a glass vase containing some water, so that it hits the surface and also comes out on the other side.A basic receiver directly translates movement of the laser (via changes in the water surface) to a wave that can be read on an audio line on on the computer.

More detail on Using a water surface as a controller
Go to Using a water surface as a controller
little-scale.blogspot.com