Drummers, worry not: Losing part of your arm in a freak accident doesn’t mean you have to play one-handed like Rick Allen.
If you’re lucky enough to know Georgia Tech professor Gil Weinberg, maybe he’ll rig you up a robotic arm that can wield two drumsticks at once. At least that’s what happened for Jason Barnes, who according to the New York Times, lost part of his arm when he was “jolted by an electric charge while cleaning a restaurant oven” two years ago.
With the prosthesis, Barnes uses his bicep muscle to move one of the sticks. The other stick is automated, monitoring Barnes’ timing and rattling off drum hits in sync with the beat.
You can see how it works in a video that Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology posted on YouTube. There’s an undeniably robotic feel to Barnes’ riffs as he solos with a jazz group, but it makes for interesting listening. (And as one YouTube commenter points out, the potential for a genre like drum-and-bass is pretty mind-blowing.)
If you want to see more and live in the Atlanta area, a free concert is scheduled for March 22 at Kennesaw State University.
[via Engadget]
- Essay: The Tyre Nichols Videos Demand Solemnity, Not Sensationalism
- For People With Disabilities, Losing Abortion Access Can Be a Matter of Life or Death
- Inside the Stealth Efforts to Smuggle Starlink Internet Into Iran
- Natasha Lyonne on Poker Face and Creating Characters Who Subvert Leading-Lady Tropes
- How to Help the Victims and Community After the Monterey Park Shooting
- Why Grocery Staples Are So Expensive Right Now
- Quantum Computers Could Solve Countless Problems—and Create a Lot of New Ones
- Where to Watch All of the 2023 Oscar Nominees
- How to Be Mindful if You Hate Meditating
