O-Bow repurposes a mouse sensor for artificial bow tracking

O-Bow repurposes a mouse sensor for artificial bow tracking

By Paul Miller posted Nov 22nd 2010 10:51PM

Here at the Engadget HQ we're very serious about articulating the noise and action of a bow when it comes to our synthesized string instruments, and the O-Bow looks like it could be the low cost solution we were dreaming of. (No, Smule Magic Fiddle doesn't count, it's a devil "instrument" and it lies). Hacker / musician Dylan Menzies has devised a method using the optical sensor from a mouse for tracking anything with a grained surface, like a wooden stick, and using it to make a single sample synthesizer "sing" like a real bowed instrument. Unfortunately, that single sample sounds pretty terrible right now, but Dylan is working on a more sophisticated method of modeling the instrument. Until then, we'll just have to resort to giving Smule dirty looks and messing around with our Korg joystick. There's a video after the break, but don't say we didn't warn you about that sample.

via engadget.com

Love how good this sounds. And it's just an upside-down mouse and a stick?!

“Opting out of Google Maps’ Street View in Germany... - Fresser.

“Opting out of Google Maps’ Street View in Germany will blur the image of your building on the photographic map, and make you hideously uncool. So says a group of vandals who egged homes in Essen that appear pixelated on the search engine’s map, leaving notes that say “Google’s cool” (in English) on the privacy-lovers’ doors and mailboxes. The victims are part of the 3 percent of German residents, totaling almost 250,000 people, who chose to have images of their homes blurred from Google’s Street View map feature. Google uncharacteristically offered Germans the chance to opt out of the system before it launched after German government officials voiced concerns about privacy rights and Google’s data-collection method.” (German Vandals Throw Eggs At Houses That Opt Out Of Google Street View | Popular Science)

“Opting out of Google Maps’ Street View in Germany will blur the image of your building on the photographic map, and make you hideously uncool. So says a group of vandals who egged homes in Essen that appear pixelated on the search engine’s map, leaving notes that say “Google’s cool” (in English) on the privacy-lovers’ doors and mailboxes.

The victims are part of the 3 percent of German residents, totaling almost 250,000 people, who chose to have images of their homes blurred from Google’s Street View map feature. Google uncharacteristically offered Germans the chance to opt out of the system before it launched after German government officials voiced concerns about privacy rights and Google’s data-collection method.”

(German Vandals Throw Eggs At Houses That Opt Out Of Google Street View | Popular Science)

via slavin.tumblr.com

I like to think that these buildings just look like this in real life.

"Threnody for Carlos Chavez" by Lou Harrison

This performance is by the William Winant Percussion Group from November 5, 2010, at the Berkeley Art Museum for the L@TE series.

From the program notes:

Threnody for Carlos Chávez (1978) by Lou Harrison

Harrison began composing for traditional Javanese and Sundanese gamelan instruments in 1976, soon using the gamelan as a backup orchestra for Western solo instruments. Among the earliest pieces to call for this type of cross-cultural mixture was the 1978 Threnody for Carlos Chávez for viola and Sundanese gamelan. Harrison's gamelan compositions always bear a personal stamp. In this case, he applied a metric system characteristic of medieval Western music to a Javanese form, the ketawang. Traditional gamelan music is always in duple meter, characteristically featuring several layers with various degrees of elaboration over a basic melody. In the Threnody for Carlos Chávez, however, Harrison drew on his knowledge of Western medieval music to explore multiple layers of triple meter.

"Threnody for Carlos Chavez" by Lou Harrison

This performance is by the William Winant Percussion Group from November 5, 2010, at the Berkeley Art Museum for the L@TE series.

From the program notes:

Threnody for Carlos Chávez (1978) by Lou Harrison

Harrison began composing for traditional Javanese and Sundanese gamelan instruments in 1976, soon using the gamelan as a backup orchestra for Western solo instruments. Among the earliest pieces to call for this type of cross-cultural mixture was the 1978 Threnody for Carlos Chávez for viola and Sundanese gamelan. Harrison's gamelan compositions always bear a personal stamp. In this case, he applied a metric system characteristic of medieval Western music to a Javanese form, the ketawang. Traditional gamelan music is always in duple meter, characteristically featuring several layers with various degrees of elaboration over a basic melody. In the Threnody for Carlos Chávez, however, Harrison drew on his knowledge of Western medieval music to explore multiple layers of triple meter.