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Lazy Musicians Spawn Robot Ukulele
densetsu writes: "Three weeks ago, instead of forking over 5 whole bucks for an actual ukelele instruction booklet, I decided to teach myself for free using internet resources.
Now that my will (and fingers) have been broken, these guys offer a faustian shortcut. They built a Lego Mindstorms-powered REMOTE CONTROLLED self-playing ukulele. The site has some nice photos and mindstorms code. Rock super-stardom, here I come!"
Too bad they haven't provided mp3s. I would love to hear it play...
Can't wait for the tour.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
I'm not a big reggae fan, so correct me if I'm wrong, but since when does reggae music include ukulelies (sp)? Could you imagine "No Woman, No Cry" (the only reggae song I know) played with a ukulele?
Very odd...
"Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling...." - Abraham Simpson
... all well and good. But the question remains; why would you want to play an ukulele?
Bah!
.. and Sum41. The robot ukulele already has more talent than all of them put together.
tinfoilmedia
I think they're lying - why else would they provide no MP3's? It's not like the Late Great Bob is going to file suit under the DMCA. ** Got to work out why these things can LOOK like they may work, but everyone wants to hear 'em!
So this is where all the Back Street boys/n-sync/Brittany Spears music is coming from.
Now let's see which is more sexy... Brittany or a Ukelelie playing lego robot...
hrmmm dilemmas dilemmas.
Have you hugged your Karma Whore today?
Strings We Be, the string manufacturer, hereby announce a change to the EULA. Should our strings be installed in any instrument, they should only be played by human hands. This excludes all chimpanzees, robots, and individuals with prostetic hands. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Madness is only a state of mind
It's Britney, not 'Brittany'.
Now all we need are robots that can sing and sound like our favorite artists and screw the RIAA.
My other sig is an import.
Now let's see which is more sexy... Brittany or a Ukelelie playing lego robot...
Well they're both made of plastic and since Britany makes obnoxious noises from her mouth on her own, while a lego robot has to be programmed for it, I say go with the robot.
>
. . . but not new. And these guys actually have sound samples, too . . .
honestly, the ukelele is a good first step (if it in fact works as mentioned previously) and doing a guitar wouldn't be that much more difficult. Maybe 1 degree. You'd only need 4 "fingers" to do a guitar and maybe a motor to move them up and down the fretboard...You could do a lot of kewl stuff.
:-)
But robot players will NEVER be better human players!
Error: Success
does it come with a remote-controlled campfire?
decades of blood, sweat and tears. Trillions of man hours. Trillions of dollars. Trillions of bugs. And after all that, we get remote controlled musical instruments.. wait a minute...
C001, YEAH BABY!
I want to see a full sized lego drummer though.
Why stop there? Let's make a Lego Spinal Tap. We could have three guitarists, no, make that bassists playing "Big Bottom."
The exploding drummer would then be trivial: just dump a pile of Legos on the floor. Setting them on fire would be optional.
Ad luna, Alicia! Ad luna!
Player pianos were made back in Victorian times, and a piano is a "stringed instrument", isn't it? This (very cool) "player ukelele" uses modern computer code, where the pianos used a punch card-like system more akin to older computers. A player piano still had to have a human operator to work foot pedals etc. to give the tune depth and "personality", but in principle this could have been automated too, once the sequence was worked out.
I *do* wish they'd posted sound samples...
Freedom: "I won't!"
Sounds cool guys, how about posting some sound files?
You just have to love stoner geeks.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
There are a number of really cool robot orchestras and bands and instruments at Ragtime Automated Music
None of them were done in Legos though...O=='=++
With this technology, they're well on their way to being the loudest band in the universe. Now we just need a good interplanetary internet backbone, so they can send the robot commands from orbit (preferably around a different planet).
-- Microsoft is the best becau[INVALID PAGE FAULT IN MODULE Signature.exe AT ADDRESS 0x4353]
... come with a Lego Tiny Tim??
100% Insightful
Wow, now we're one step closer to having giant robotic animals sing *AND* play instruments for us at Chuck E. Cheese!
My dog has fleas.
My dog has fleas.
My dog has fleas.
I've played the ukelele since I was a little kid. I own a Kamaka ukele whose value has appreciated with time; check out these prices.
http://www.ukes.com/kamaka.html
For a second there i thought it read "Lazy Musicians Spawn Robot Urkel"
Great, all we need is an automatic "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"
They don't say which operating system(s) they're using. Could give new meaning to George Formby's When I'm cleaning windows.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
or we could ask them to record one.
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This would be a great addition to Legoland . They could make one of those big lego statues of Bob Marley (I would recomend the one of Bob smoking the ganja )! It could play Marley hits on the hour, and have smoke come out of the joint on the half hour.
"Mommy hurry! I want to see Bob get stoned!!!"
There was some stuff they didn't really mention on their site that people might be interested in. They used the Handyboard as their microcontroller system. You can learn more about it here.
http://www.handyboard.com/
This would also mean they are using Interactive C (a stripped down version of C) for their programming.
Now if only someone would "be lazy" and come up with the cure to cancer...
Seriously, though... I wonder how long til someone comes up with mods for any instrument out there... a piano wouldn't be that hard to do, you'd just need 88 fingers for your robot instead of 4...
Does Mikefucks Jarvis, or is it Jarvis who fucks Mike???
Now if Legos Held together A little stronger. Then you can make them play Bigger instruments. Like the Double Bass. I dought the Legos will be strong enough to play Larger instruments. That take higher action. To Bad there is no mind erector sets.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Does Jarvis fucks Mike, or is it Mike who fucks Jarvis???
Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull flutist fame, credits Eric Clapton with his success. He was just thinking about starting the band, and being the guitarist when he went to see Clapton (Cream maybe, I can't remember) in concert.
He realized he'd never be as good of a guitarist as Clapton, so decided to take up the flute as a gimmick, and it rocketted him to stardom.
Learn that Ukulele well, and you could be the greatest band since Tull. Who, you might remember, one the first Best Rock Band grammy. They have to be a great band.
Was this their project for that J-Term Lego Robotics class they linked to? Looks like a cool class.
;-)
For those of you that don't know - Midd (and many other liberal arts colleges) has a special winter term - the whole month of January taking just one class. Most of the classes offered are designed to be somewhat "fun" classes that allow students to get a taste of a field of study not related to their major.
Generally, you either take a class that has fun activities or one that leaves many daylight hours free during the week for snow-related activities. Ah, gotta love college.
final projects for the class
Of course, this means they actually did this back in January, and "the internet" is just finding out about it now. Maybe they have a full band at this point.
The leggo idea is uh... I just can't find the right word. But the most ambitious auto-musician project ever attempted (to date) has been the mubot
damn, i guess potheads DO have some type of motivation in this world.
How about a banjo-playing rock star?
Who am I to blow against the wind? -- Paul Simon
Kids these days....
Rock super-stardom, here I come!
ummmmm.... can anyone name a rock superstar who plays the ukelele??? Tiny tim???
.....
I think it's worth pointing out that both the guys who did this are students at Middlebury College, where for several years now "Lego Robotics" has been offered as a J-term class.
During the one-month January semester, or "J-term," you take just one class. Some of the classes are frivolous, though physics or foreign language majors tend to have to take things in their fields. Anyway, Lego Robotics has been one of the more sought-after courses. Partly because of the inherent appeal of Lego robots, partly because it has a schedule that allows a lot of days to be devoted to skiing.
Q: What's the definition of perfect pitch?
A: When you throw the accordian in the dumpster and it lands square on the ukulele.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Okay, so he's not a robot, but this thing is pretty cool anyway. He plays the guitar using mechanics controlled by his feet (one strumming, one chording) and then plays dobro & banjo to accompany himself. I've seen him around Cambridge, MA on the streets & have been much impressed.
http://www.guitarmachine.com/machine.phtml
Check this out.
Robot saxophonist and trumpeter from Japan.
Today most any piano can be converted to a player piano using similar tech as the lego player. It even uses CD-ROMS for its song data.
I could not find a site but I have also seen full size pianos with sytems like this actually inside the piano and the CD-ROM mounted under the keyboard so that one could accompany a song running from the CD.
"Don't mess with him, he taunts the happy fun ball."
she has done some pretty amazing mechanical things.
l
http://www.dialnsa.edu/iat97/Sculpture/horn.htm
Here's a robot violin, built over 65 years ago! And here's a "robot" mechanical harp, built in the 1920's.
Want to see something more recent? Here's a mechanical MIDI-controlled BANJO and GUITAR, currently being sold by a California company called "Ragtime:".
Sure, it's mildly interesting that they used their lego toys to get the mechanicals right, but people have been plucking string instruments with robots for at least 80 years.
...the one-hole skin flute?
...to live without a remote controlled self-playing ukulele?
Now our lives are complete!
Captured By Robots is this amazing one-man performance with one of the most intricate rigs I've ever seen. He's really impressive to see live, and I recommend checking his tour/shows page especially if you're on the West Coast. At least one regular slashdot poster has taken his /. handle from the guy's act (The Ape With No Name), or I'm assuming that's where it's from. s
You used single quotes in your submission, buddy... that breaks buggy slashcode.
I wonder if it is Jarvis who fucks Mike, or is it Mike who fucks Jarvis???