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Lazy Musicians Spawn Robot Ukulele

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the devil-made-them-do-it dept.

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!"

11 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Ah yes... by CoderByBirth · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... all well and good. But the question remains; why would you want to play an ukulele?

    Bah!

    1. Re:Ah yes... by scott1853 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Tiny Tim tribute?

      Of course from the article it sounds like the ukulele has easier chord formations than a guitar (add 2 less strings) so it was probably easier to program.

      I want to see a full sized lego drummer though.

  2. Look out boy-bands by Tinfoil · · Score: 4, Funny

    .. and Sum41. The robot ukulele already has more talent than all of them put together.

    --

    tinfoilmedia
  3. The Secret is out by maynard-lag · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?
    1. Re:The Secret is out by scott1853 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nothing that advanced is creating their music.

  4. Change in EULA by zipC · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  5. All well and good . . . by micromoog · · Score: 5, Informative

    . . . but not new. And these guys actually have sound samples, too . . .

  6. Not even remotely a new idea by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!"
  7. Wonderful by colmore · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sounds cool guys, how about posting some sound files?

    You just have to love stoner geeks.

    --
    In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
  8. Lego Robots by sosentos · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  9. Schoolwork. by Kafir · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.