Divyanshu Sharma
Member • Mar 6, 2014
Amputee Turned To Cyborg Drummer By Robotic Prosthesis
Have you ever heard of a robot that plays music? If yes, then how about a robot that 'creates' music? This is sure to raise some brows there. Professor Gil Weinberg of Georgia Tech has come up with something similar. It is a robot that teams up with a man to literally assist him in making music. While working on a robotic arm for a human amputee drummer, Weinberg came up with an advanced prosthetic that has two motor powered drum sticks.
Jason Barnes, a drummer and a student of Atlanta Institute of music and media, had lost his right arm two years ago. He built a prosthetic arm for himself but that did not work because it did not provide him the grip and flexibility that is achieved through fingers and wrist otherwise for a complete body. Weinberg could develop an advanced arm which can be controlled physically and electronically by the drummers arm and electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors respectively. The two drum sticks attached to the prosthetic are both controlled separately. While one works as per the will of the drummer, the other has a brain of its own. The second stick first listens to the music being played and then improvises accordingly. Barnes cannot directly control it, but can move it away as and when he wants to. The drummer feels happy as the new arm gives him the flexibility to play his music. At the same time he is rendered astonished by one created by the beats of 'the stick with musical brain'.
Professor Gil Weinberg, who has virtually turned a human drummer into a cyborg drummer, wants to take it one step further by introducing the sensors that will take commands from Jason's brain. So that, the sticks will become intelligent enough to know as to when the drummer wants to hit the drum. Weinberg emphasizes that these robots with some tweaks could prove vital in extremely time sensitive and complex activities of astronauts and surgeons. However, it is a thing of future but the researcher has surely gone one notch higher in achieving the synchronization in robotic prosthesis.
Listen to the music here:
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#
Jason Barnes, a drummer and a student of Atlanta Institute of music and media, had lost his right arm two years ago. He built a prosthetic arm for himself but that did not work because it did not provide him the grip and flexibility that is achieved through fingers and wrist otherwise for a complete body. Weinberg could develop an advanced arm which can be controlled physically and electronically by the drummers arm and electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors respectively. The two drum sticks attached to the prosthetic are both controlled separately. While one works as per the will of the drummer, the other has a brain of its own. The second stick first listens to the music being played and then improvises accordingly. Barnes cannot directly control it, but can move it away as and when he wants to. The drummer feels happy as the new arm gives him the flexibility to play his music. At the same time he is rendered astonished by one created by the beats of 'the stick with musical brain'.
Professor Gil Weinberg, who has virtually turned a human drummer into a cyborg drummer, wants to take it one step further by introducing the sensors that will take commands from Jason's brain. So that, the sticks will become intelligent enough to know as to when the drummer wants to hit the drum. Weinberg emphasizes that these robots with some tweaks could prove vital in extremely time sensitive and complex activities of astronauts and surgeons. However, it is a thing of future but the researcher has surely gone one notch higher in achieving the synchronization in robotic prosthesis.
Listen to the music here: