Crazy Business Idea 2: Musical Hands

October 17th, 2006

EconomyDuring times of caffeine-induced jitters, I sometimes come up with business ideas that seem great at the time, but probably aren’t. In the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d let some of these concepts loose on this blog for public scrutiny (or ridicule).

The Business: Musical Hands.

Description: Robotic hands programmed to play a musical instrument. The operator holds them in each hand with their real hands covered by long sleeves so it looks like they are playing the musical instrument, when it’s actually the robotic hands doing all the work.

Musical hands are programmed using standard MIDI files that are loaded into the hands via USB. The MIDI library is managed through software on a PC. The software will also allow people to edit MIDI files, allowing them to compose their own songs for the musical hands.

Target Market: People too lazy to learn how to play an instrument on their own. Performers put on the spot to play an unfamiliar instrument or song without enough time to properly prepare. Pranksters and comedians.

Problems: Robotic technology is expensive and probably not advanced enough to perform the motor-control operations necessary to play a musical instrument. The fact that musical hands will be held by a non-musician means the type of instruments playable by musical hands is limited. Wind instruments may need breath training, for example, or an add-on component called musical mouth. May provoke outrage from trained musicians. May provoke outrage from unappreciative audiences.

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