Posts from — September 2009

The summer is over, and Gabi Weinreich, Joseph Curtin, John Bell, and I have Returned from our various summer hideaways to reconvene in Ann Arbor. Our early fall meetings have yielded some stimulating new ideas, and a clearer, more exciting vision of our digital violin’s form and function has crystallized. One development in particular shows tremendous research potential: a method to include active feedback, which will allow us to alter the instrument’s feel and playability on the fly. Implementing such a mechanism could produce many innovative practical applications as well as valuable research opportunities, and we are excited to explore these in the coming months.

Creating an electric violin capable of sounding like a high-quality acoustic instrument (e.g. Stradvarius, Guarneri del Gesu, or Amati) is a difficult task, one which has not yet been achieved on a marketable scale. Over the summer, John Bell has worked hard to program a proof of concept which will test our approach to synthesizing the sound of an acoustic violin. He is using an FPGA board to prototype and will design custom hardware once programming is finalized.

My efforts have been divided among several areas. While creating production-quality 3D models of certain essential areas of the violin, I have also worked to design more efficient bridges. Moreover, I have devoted substantial energy to the visualization and development of numerous design concepts for the digital violin. The recent evolution of the project has dramatically altered the technical requirements of the instrument, however, so most of these designs will need to be scrapped or greatly adapted. All in all, though, things are coming together well. I look forward to our continued progress on the project.

Above, left: the team (left to right: Joseph Curtin, John Bell, Alex Sobolev, Gabi Weinreich); right: the FPGA board.

A few months ago I discovered a new bike shop in Ann Arbor that specializes in restoring old steel frame bikes, converting fixed gears, and performing bike maintenance. The owners, Michael Firn and Joe Bollinger, are great guys and we bartered a service exchange: a poster for their shop in exchange for a tune up for an old bike that I had inherited. This poster was designed in collaboration with my good friend Alex Lee. We based the design on badges that you find on many bikes incorporating the company’s existing chainring/tree logo. The poster also gave me an opportunity to finally use a bicycle themed paisley pattern I had designed the summer before. There is also a chance to continue the project by turning this design into a physical sign for the shop.

Since Sic-Transit Cycles does not yet have an official website, here are a few links to them elsewhere on the web:

Facebook

Flicker

Yelp

Their phone number is (734) 327-6900, and the shop is open every day from 11 am until 4 pm, and located at 1033 Broadway Road, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105. Please visit them if you have a chance.