Every DJ knows the pain of having their favourite record scratched, broken or warped so badly you can no longer play it, and it's even more painful to try and bring yourself to throw it away. Short of turning it into a fruit bowl there hasn't been many options up until now, but physicist Carl Haber has come up with a new way to recover those records without ever needing a needle to touch it's surface.

This turntable doesn't spin like a normal record player. And there's no needle hovering over the record. Instead, there's a camera linked to a computer. It snaps detailed images of the groove cut into the disc, and uses the images to reconstruct the sound without ever touching the record.

The technology was initially developed for the recovery of archived records that would be destroyed by a needle touching the surface and with digital music being so prevalent today it's unlikely it will ever find common use in the home, but it's nice to know that you will still be able to play your limited edition white labels even if your turntables don't last the distance.

Source.