Seth Goldstein, a mechanical engineer who worked at the National Institutes of Health, has developed a machine that can play a full-sized violin.
Here is how the kinetic sculpture machine works, according to his website:
The horizontally orientated violin is rotated underneath a reciprocating violin bow while four mechanical fingers are moved to make contact, as appropriate, with the (highest) bowed string…When music is played on an electronic keyboard, a MIDI file is generated which is edited, and then used as the input to the violin computer. This computer generates numbers to control the electronics, powering the various motors to perform the prescribed motions which enable the violin to play the same notes as were originally played on the keyboard.
So far “Ro-Bow” can play an Irish jig, “Hello, Dolly,” “Amazing Grace” and Bach’s “Minuet in G Major,” according to a profile of Goldstein in the New York Times over the weekend.
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