Klarinet Archive - Posting 000128.txt from 2008/07

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] Article: Linux-Powered, Clarinet-Playing Robot Wins Prize
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:55:12 -0400

Amusing news item for everyone...

Linux-Powered, Clarinet-Playing Robot Wins Prize
Computerworld Australia (06/19/08) Hendry, Andrew

Researchers at National ICT Australia (NICTA) and the University of
New South Wales (UNSW) have developed a Linux-based robot that plays
the clarinet. Project leader John Judge of NICTA says the robot is an
embedded computer system that uses specially constructed electronics
to manipulate actuators that control the keys and mouthpiece of the
clarinet. Judge says two CPUs control the robot, one that runs Linux
to process the music and set up a series of events, and a
microcontroller that determines how much pressure to exert on the
mouthpiece and what keys to depress. "We're actually sending a stream
of midi-events to the microcontroller and it just reacts to each
event as a node-on/node-off type thing," Judge says. "The software
running on the microcontroller is our code written in C." Controlling
the reed and air pressure flowing through the clarinet was
accomplished by collaborating with students and professor Joe Wolfe
from UNSW's music acoustics lab. Playing a clarinet requires the
right air pressure and the right dampening at the same time,
otherwise the instrument will create an unpleasant squeak. The robot
is not as good as a human player, and has difficulty jumping from a
very low note to a very high note. It also has trouble playing notes
cold or creating the warmth a human player can. Still, it beat a
Dutch-built robot-playing guitar to win the Artermis Orchestra
competition. In the competition, the robot was able to play
Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" and Ravel's "Bolero,"
both of which avoid large octave jumps and other difficult notes.

--
Jonathan Cohler
Artistic & General Director
International Woodwind Festival
http://iwwf.org/
cohler@-----.org

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