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Lazy Musicians Spawn Robot Ukulele 117

Posted by timothy from the devil-made-them-do-it dept.
densetsu writes: "Three weeks ago, instead of forking over 5 whole bucks for an actual ukelele instruction booklet, I decided to teach myself for free using internet resources. Now that my will (and fingers) have been broken, these guys offer a faustian shortcut. They built a Lego Mindstorms-powered REMOTE CONTROLLED self-playing ukulele. The site has some nice photos and mindstorms code. Rock super-stardom, here I come!"
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Lazy Musicians Spawn Robot Ukulele More

Lazy Musicians Spawn Robot Ukulele

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  • Too bad they haven't provided mp3s. I would love to hear it play...

  • Ah yes... (Score:3, Funny)

    by CoderByBirth ( 585951 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:16AM (#3869992)
    ... all well and good. But the question remains; why would you want to play an ukulele?

    Bah!

    • Re:Ah yes... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by scott1853 ( 194884 )
      Tiny Tim tribute?

      Of course from the article it sounds like the ukulele has easier chord formations than a guitar (add 2 less strings) so it was probably easier to program.

      I want to see a full sized lego drummer though.
      • Less possible chord formations also, iirc. :-)

        I'd like to see a robot bass player...bass players are hard to find these days, particularly half-way decent ones.
      • I want to see a full sized lego drummer though.

        Why stop there? Let's make a Lego Spinal Tap. We could have three guitarists, no, make that bassists playing "Big Bottom."

        The exploding drummer would then be trivial: just dump a pile of Legos on the floor. Setting them on fire would be optional.

    • The Horse Flies, an alternative/bluegrass/whateverthehelltheyare band, has a banjo-uke player. Its an even more unique sound than just a uke. Go find music from "In the Dance Tent" and give it a listen.
    • Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam has been writing some stuff for ukulele. One of my friends who is a huge Pearl Jam fan said that the band is even doing a "fan art" contest where they want people to submit ukulele inspired creations.

  • Look out boy-bands (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tinfoil ( 109794 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:17AM (#3869995) Homepage Journal
    .. and Sum41. The robot ukulele already has more talent than all of them put together.

  • no mp3s? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jflash ( 591249 )
    I think they're lying - why else would they provide no MP3's? It's not like the Late Great Bob is going to file suit under the DMCA. ** Got to work out why these things can LOOK like they may work, but everyone wants to hear 'em!
    • Right. You're going something that looks cool, something that geeks are going to be interested in.... in sort, something that's begging to get slashdotted... and you think "Gee, I want to put up some big fat sound files so that visitors can suck up even more bandwidth!"

      The better to melt your server, my dear...

  • The Secret is out (Score:5, Funny)

    by maynard-lag ( 235813 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:21AM (#3870012)
    So this is where all the Back Street boys/n-sync/Brittany Spears music is coming from.

    Now let's see which is more sexy... Brittany or a Ukelelie playing lego robot...

    hrmmm dilemmas dilemmas.

  • Change in EULA (Score:4, Funny)

    by zipC ( 194873 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:25AM (#3870027)
    Strings We Be, the string manufacturer, hereby announce a change to the EULA. Should our strings be installed in any instrument, they should only be played by human hands. This excludes all chimpanzees, robots, and individuals with prostetic hands. We apologize for any inconvenience.

  • All well and good . . . (Score:5, Informative)

    by micromoog ( 206608 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:38AM (#3870082)
    . . . but not new [guitarbot.net]. And these guys actually have sound samples [guitarbot.net], too . . .
    • Why don't they actually show a detailed picture on their web site (yes, I know they have their patent document, and a fuzzy prototype pic.), or actual songs, just strange audio clips. They also say that they are going into production in December 2000. Where are they?

      'bunch of eerie sounds and a patent application do not a product make! It is enough, however, to raise many $$$ in V.C. funding!

    • That's nothing... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by sadclown ( 303554 )
      Check this [hosei.ac.jp] out.
      Robot saxophonist and trumpeter from Japan.

  • Not even remotely a new idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by No Such Agency ( 136681 ) <abmackay@@@gmail...com> on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:48AM (#3870118)
    Player pianos [demon.co.uk] were made back in Victorian times, and a piano is a "stringed instrument", isn't it? This (very cool) "player ukelele" uses modern computer code, where the pianos used a punch card-like system more akin to older computers. A player piano still had to have a human operator to work foot pedals etc. to give the tune depth and "personality", but in principle this could have been automated too, once the sequence was worked out.

    I *do* wish they'd posted sound samples...

  • Wonderful (Score:3, Interesting)

    by colmore ( 56499 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:49AM (#3870120) Journal
    Sounds cool guys, how about posting some sound files?

    You just have to love stoner geeks.

  • There are a number of really cool robot orchestras and bands and instruments at Ragtime Automated Music [ragtimewest.com]

    None of them were done in Legos though...
  • With this technology, they're well on their way to being the loudest band in the universe. Now we just need a good interplanetary internet backbone, so they can send the robot commands from orbit (preferably around a different planet).
  • ... come with a Lego Tiny Tim??
  • Wow, now we're one step closer to having giant robotic animals sing *AND* play instruments for us at Chuck E. Cheese!
  • My dog has fleas.
    My dog has fleas.
    My dog has fleas.

    I've played the ukelele since I was a little kid. I own a Kamaka ukele whose value has appreciated with time; check out these prices.

    http://www.ukes.com/kamaka.html

  • Urkel? (Score:1)

    by yeoua ( 86835 )
    For a second there i thought it read "Lazy Musicians Spawn Robot Urkel"

    Great, all we need is an automatic "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"

  • They don't say which operating system(s) they're using. Could give new meaning to George Formby's When I'm cleaning windows [freeserve.co.uk].
  • This would be a great addition to Legoland [legoland.com]. They could make one of those big lego statues of Bob Marley (I would recomend the one of Bob smoking the ganja [eyeneer.com])! It could play Marley hits on the hour, and have smoke come out of the joint on the half hour.

    "Mommy hurry! I want to see Bob get stoned!!!"

  • Lego Robots (Score:4, Informative)

    by sosentos ( 410817 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:33AM (#3870330) Homepage
    There was some stuff they didn't really mention on their site that people might be interested in. They used the Handyboard as their microcontroller system. You can learn more about it here.

    http://www.handyboard.com/ [handyboard.com]

    This would also mean they are using Interactive C (a stripped down version of C) for their programming.
    • This would also mean they are using Interactive C (a stripped down version of C) for their programming.
      Nope. Did you read the page (and specifically the code)? Looks to me like LegoLogo [mit.edu] instead.

      Though, yes, handyboard would normally imply something C-like...

  • Wow... For being "lazy," these guys sure put out a lot of effort for their automatic ukelele.

    Now if only someone would "be lazy" and come up with the cure to cancer...

    Seriously, though... I wonder how long til someone comes up with mods for any instrument out there... a piano wouldn't be that hard to do, you'd just need 88 fingers for your robot instead of 4...

  • Now if Legos Held together A little stronger. Then you can make them play Bigger instruments. Like the Double Bass. I dought the Legos will be strong enough to play Larger instruments. That take higher action. To Bad there is no mind erector sets.
    • Why not just krazy glue the bricks together? I remember a post a long while back on some guy who built a lego desk through this method
    • I would recommend you start with a large bucket of Duplos. [lego.com] They're extra-large Legos made for younger kids with less fine-motor skills, but they are quite sturdy, they hold together better than tiny Legos, and they interconnect with the standard-size Legos. Then you could have fun [marshall.edu] like these kids [k12.wv.us].

      Moms like Duplos because they are less likely to step on them in the dark and say bad words.
  • Was this their project for that J-Term Lego Robotics class they linked to? Looks like a cool class.

    For those of you that don't know - Midd (and many other liberal arts colleges) has a special winter term - the whole month of January taking just one class. Most of the classes offered are designed to be somewhat "fun" classes that allow students to get a taste of a field of study not related to their major.

    Generally, you either take a class that has fun activities or one that leaves many daylight hours free during the week for snow-related activities. Ah, gotta love college. ;-)
  • The leggo idea is uh... I just can't find the right word. But the most ambitious auto-musician project ever attempted (to date) has been the mubot [uec.ac.jp]
  • How about a banjo-playing rock star [liquidaudio.com]?
  • Rock super-stardom, here I come!

    ummmmm.... can anyone name a rock superstar who plays the ukelele??? Tiny tim???
    • ummmmm.... can anyone name a rock superstar who plays the ukelele??? Tiny tim???

      George Harrison was a big collector of ukeleles; particularly Gibsons and Martins. He frequently gave them to friends as gifts. I'm told that on his recent tour Paul McCartney regularly performed "Something" on ukelele as a tribute to Harrison. Seems to me that Brian May played some ukelele on a few of the mid-'70s Queen records, too.

    • Duke Of Uke. He covers such songs as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Anarchy in the UK". just him and his Uke, very interesting.

  • Schoolwork. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kafir ( 215091 ) <qaffir@hotmail.com> on Friday July 12, 2002 @09:49AM (#3870801)
    I think it's worth pointing out that both the guys who did this are students at Middlebury College, where for several years now "Lego Robotics" has been offered as a J-term class.

    During the one-month January semester, or "J-term," you take just one class. Some of the classes are frivolous, though physics or foreign language majors tend to have to take things in their fields. Anyway, Lego Robotics has been one of the more sought-after courses. Partly because of the inherent appeal of Lego robots, partly because it has a schedule that allows a lot of days to be devoted to skiing.
  • Q: What's the definition of perfect pitch?
    A: When you throw the accordian in the dumpster and it lands square on the ukulele.
  • I'm amused by the way these kids on this site think they did something "new." They didn't, but this culture we have discourages kids from asking senior members of their community about Prior Art. (After all, what do us seniors know about High-Tech?)

    Here's [bradymusicboxes.com] a robot violin, built over 65 years ago! And here's [aol.com] a "robot" mechanical harp, built in the 1920's.

    Want to see something more recent? [ragtimewest.com] Here's a mechanical MIDI-controlled BANJO and GUITAR, currently being sold by a California company called "Ragtime:".

    Sure, it's mildly interesting that they used their lego toys to get the mechanicals right, but people have been plucking string instruments with robots for at least 80 years.

  • Captured By Robots [capturedbyrobots.com] is this amazing one-man performance with one of the most intricate rigs I've ever seen. He's really impressive to see live, and I recommend checking his tour/shows page especially if you're on the West Coast. At least one regular slashdot poster has taken his /. handle from the guy's act (The Ape With No Name), or I'm assuming that's where it's from. s
  • I wonder if it is Jarvis who fucks Mike, or is it Mike who fucks Jarvis???

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