When teacher Jean Noël showed his students a record player upgraded with an Arduino to read RFID tags on record sleeves, we can only imagine their befuddlement. Kids these days don’t use physical media; they don’t even download anymore. At least, that’s what we’re told. We don’t actually know any kids.

The students in question – Ibrahima, Scott, Antoine, and Arthur – did recognise that the underlying technology is RFID, and they’re working on making their teacher’s project even better, upgrading the user interface to make it easier to use. Most significantly, instead of uploading a new Arduino sketch to update the playlist (something that requires coding skills), the user will be able to do it by renaming MP3 files on the SD card (something that does not require coding skills).

The students eventually plan to make the improvements scalable as a kit form that they will be able to sell on Tindie. Bonne chance!