Music to, and for, our engineering ears!

If you’re like me, and love music, then some recent engineering innovations geared toward the music lover will surely delight you! 
While we all can’t be Tchaikovsky or Mozart, that doesn’t mean our level of enjoying – and in some cases creating – music can’t be magnified, literally.
Take the O-Bow, created by UK-based technology lecturer Dylan Menzies which translates data from an optical sensor and keyboard into violin music. Specifically, he notes, the optical flow sensor monitors the speed and angle of a (real) bow when it is moved across indented grooves on the top of it. The keyboardist turned violinist uses a keyboard to choose the notes to be played. So, in theory, any competent keyboard player can “virtually” become a violin prodigy in an instant!

Maybe classical music isn’t for everyone though.  Maybe some prefer hard-driving heavy metal.
Well some industrious engineers started a real heavy metal band called Compressorhead which play all the hits, from “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead, “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash. (What no “Mr. Roboto” by Styx?)

What separates Compressorhead is that the group is truly made of heavy metal – six tons to be exact. Stickboy, Bones and Fingers, as they are named, are robots wired to jam on all the classic metal songs we love – and still have a rather modest concert hospitality rider, including assorted nuts, ample hydraulic fluid and three liters of engine oil. True.

All jokes aside, the ingenuity of Compressorhead highlights the advances in robotics we are seeing here at Electronic Products, such as in our feature on gyroscopes upcoming in our June issue. Also, our June issue features our new section called “Industry Innovators,” to meet Marcus Ryle, who – as the co-founder of Line 6, created the first digital modeling guitar amplifier. 

Furthermore, printed prototypes are now becoming actual products, including, yes robots, such as InMoov, and – in keeping with the musical theme – 13:30 printable headphones, which can by created on a MakerBot Replicator and combined with some off-the-shelf components for a unique look.

If all this doesn’t excite the music – and robotics – lover in you, there’s always headphones that feature an electroencephalograph sensor, which allows the headphones to analyze the wearer's brain patterns and determine their mood – and select appropriate music from a listing of 100 choices.

When we here at Electronic Products see innovations like these, it’s definitely music to, and for, our ears!