A blender is an interesting device. Invented over 80 years ago with the purpose of creating mixed malted fountain drinks, the blender has come a long way. It is used for frappeccinos, nourishing jaw surgery patients; it even played a role in the discovery of the polio vaccination. Yes, it is almost impossible in this day and age for a person to be unacquainted with the blender, and it seems that most consequences of the blender's existence are positive and helpful. How could this handy little appliance be disruptive?

Have you ever heard of a little thing referred to as the smoothie industry? Yes, smoothies. Delicious blended mixtures of fruit, yogurt, ice cream, juice, and even wheatgrass! If you haven't been to Jamba Juice or Smoothie King, or an establishment of a similar nature, I know you've at least heard of them. The smoothie industry, and the blenders that power it, are extremely disruptive to the innocent victims that ARE the ingredients of your blended beverages- fruits, yogurt, ice cream, juice, and even wheatgrass!

Popular to contrary belief these foodstuffs DO have thoughts, feelings, and voices that are so cleverly masked by the noisy sound of a blender's motor. How convenient for the conscience's of smoothie industry execs! I decided that this social injustice should be rectified, and I must do so by exposing the voices of the ingredients.

To do this, I successfully created a device that could filter out the sound of the motor, leaving only the horrifying cries and screams of said victims. Housed within the base of the blender, my device could detect the any noises that the fruit and yogurt made, separate them from any other sounds, and then replay it for everyone to hear the devastating crime to humanity that was being committed.

I understand that this is shocking discovery, that the ingredients of your smoothie can not only feel the blades of the blender, but also protest them until their ultimate death. Hopefully this issue will incite a sense of urgency among human (and food) rights activists around the world, and we can once and for all put a stop to this outrageous practice.

But seriously, you ask, how DID I do this project? The creation of my device began at Fry's electronics. I showed up at the customer service counter with an idea and blender. I explained what I wanted to do: I wanted to record my own sound and have that sound play when the blender was turned on. Due to an issue of converting AC to DC in order to power the recording kit that I bought and built, the recorder could not be directly connected to the electronics of the blender. I would have to turn on the recorder externally.

The kit was very intimidating at first because I was inexperienced in any sort of electronic work. Fortunately, the board is clearly labeled with where all of the components belong. After piecing together the board, adding a speaker and six volts worth of battery power, I soldered it all together. Soldering is not nearly as hard as it looks; it is actually quite fun!

By switching the record switch and pressing button, I could record any sound. It could replayed by switching the device to play, and then pressing the blue button again. Pretty simple. Using my active imagination, I made screams similar to what I believe the fruits would actually make- if they could. The blender experience starts off fun, develops into something sickening, and pretty soon becomes a gruesome nightmare, blending the fruit into, literally, a pulp.

I drilled small holes into the bottom and side of the blender in order to route wires from the interior to the exterior so the play button and speaker would be on the outside of the blender. I hide the play button on the bottom so that my pressing of it during the presentation would be as covert as possible.

The final step in my creation was to screw the whole blender back together. Fortunately, my board and the batteries fit nicely into the open space inside the blender. I separated the wires from the blender's electronics from the recorder's electronics with a flexible non-conductive material: a Ziploc baggie. Four screws later, and the blender was finished. One small step for mankind, one giant step for smoothie ingredients alike.

Check out these pics from the process: