CYBORG OF THE WEEK: THE DRUMMER WITH THE ROBOTIC ARM
by Hazed
Jason Barnes dreamed of becoming a professional drummer, but two years ago he lost an arm in an industrial accident which seemed to be the end of his ambitions. But now he’s been fitted with a robotic arm that allows him to manipulate drumsticks again.
The accident happened when he was cleaning out a vent hood in a restaurant and was electrocuted. His right arm was amputated below the elbow.
Now his new prosthesis has been developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology. It gives him drumming abilities that are not available to most two-armed humans, as demonstrated in the video at the source link below.
“The drummer essentially becomes a cyborg,” said Gil Weinberg, the professor who created the robot. “The second drumstick has a mind of its own. It’s interesting to see him playing and improvising with part of his arm that he doesn’t totally control.”
After his accident, Barnes built himself a basic contraption that would allow him to drum, using some springs and a brace to hold a drumsticks with his truncated right arm. While this limited his playing ability considerably, it enabled him to gain admission to the Atlanta Institute of Music and Media, where a drum teacher introduced him to Gil Weinberg.
Weinberg’s lab was already well-known for its musical robots, such as a marimba-playing jazzbot (there’s a link on the source page below so you can see it in action). They collaborated with Barnes to produce his robotic arm – turning him into a true cyborg.
This reminds me of Rick Allen, the drummer with British heavy metal band Def Leppard. He was in a car accident and lost his arm back in 1984, after which he was able to continue drumming with the band by using a sophisticated electronic drumkit which he could play using one arm and his feet. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Allen_(drummer) for more details.)
Source: http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/new-robotic-arm-opens-up-musical-worlds-for-cyborg-drummer/
