Consumer Electronics Make Music

metoikos writes "Forget about hacking your Gameboy -- what about cat toys or Teddy Ruxpins? Any of these is fair game to a circuit bending hobbyist. Essentially, circuit bending is the art of making interesting noises come out of re-engineered consumer electronics, mostly toys. Bending recently came into the spotlight when a number of news organizations discovered the 2004 Bent Festival at New York's Tank. Derek Sajbel, a bender from California, is writing a book/doing a documentary on it." BishopBerkeley writes "Circuit bending has apparently been going on long enough among a large enough contingent of benders to merit a weeklong festival dedicated to bending circuits. The art is largely a process of making musical instruments by 'bending' the circuits of fairly common electronic instruments and gadgets. According to this article in the New York Times people have been making rather interesting music by modifying the strange toys with which a lot of us grew up. If you're near Manhattan, and you didn't know about the Bent Festival, then think about going. You can find more info at the official circuit bending web site."

Comments

PS2 disc loader

[PoprocksCk]

I should probably take my Playstation 2 into one of those geeky bending festivals -- maybe they could get that darned DVD tray to open and shut faster!

I hope they don't get sued?

[Xenographic]

In one of the more unusual corners of the annals of copyright law, I seem to remember there being something about the "Teddy Ruxpin" which might well deter you from hacking it.

For those of you who don't remember that device (and I have only vague recollections of seeing it on TV myself), the Teddy Ruxpin was a stuffed bear which moved its mouth in sync (more or less), to the words of any cassete placed in the device. When packaged with a book & tape, it would, in effect, read the book to the child.
Now I imagine that by now you're wondering what on earth this could possibly have to do with copyright law, right? Allow me to quote from this:

As an example of copyright law, Zittrain cited a case that involving the manufacturer of the Teddy Ruxpin talking teddy bear. The company sued when someone created a "new" Teddy Ruxpin doll by removing the tape inside the doll that simulates its speech, re-recording the tape and inserting it back into the doll. The judge found that the individual had in fact created a derivative work that infringed on Teddy Ruxpin's copyright.

And we had best get used to unusual decisions like this. Unless you live to be over 70 (and barring a change in the law), absolutely nothing copyrighted during your lifetime will ever pass into the public domain.

Of course, if you're a US voter, and you would like to help end some of the copyright inanity (the DMCA, the NET Act, etc.), feel free to petition your representatives. You can call them for free via this 1-800 number (they will help transfer you to the proper representative): 1 (800) 839-5276

Re:Obligatory...

[Anonymous Coward]

did anybody else read your joke as "bended boys"?

Come on, admit it, you're a gay pedophile!

-- Luther