‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ on robotic vibraphone

Music Robotics Technology

Tim O’Keefe, Michael McIntyre, and Brock Roland of San Francisco State University’s School of Engineering created MARV, here. That’s “MIDI Actuated Robotic Vibraphone,” of course. Which is a nested acronym, really. Crank it all the way out and it’s “Musical Instrument Digital Interface Actuated Robotic Vibraphone,” or MIDIARV, which is not nearly so catchy. Each key has two solenoids–a striker and a damper. Cool stuff. I wonder if you couldn’t make one solenoid do both striking and damping? [via Hack a Day]

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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