Tod Machover: Hyper-instruments, Robotic Operas, and Guitar Hero

Tod Machover, an American composer and inventor, works in cutting-edge music technology at MIT's Media Lab  and it was recently profiled by The Economist. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles was the inspiration behind his work on hyperinstruments, which are 'smart' instruments that interpret and enhance the music played on them. The album was too complex to play live and hyperinstruments, like the one he built for Prince, enable musicians to more fully realize their musical vision live.

In his 20 years in the Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group, Machover has also worked on developing technology that enables non-musicians and disabled persons to compose and perform music through physical gestures and vocalizations. As you may have guessed, he's been a speaker at TED on his inventive work. His latest project is a robotic opera that visualizes the sound and movement of performers on robotic walls that move and display animated visuals.

Perhaps Machover's most widely-used technology is the one that was instrumental to the development of Guitar Hero.  BP

Digital game do-gooders

The idea of using digital gaming to help activists, organizations, and policy makers to solve our many pressing social and environmental challenges is not a new one. But things seem to be heating up as there are many new efforts to develop the field in a strategic an cohesive way. Take Games for Change for example, a New York-based nonprofit that provides information and resources to change agents in areas such as human rights, economics, public policy, public health, poverty, the environment, and global conflict. One of G4C's tool kits appears above. These 'serious games' as they are called can take the shape of true video games, simulations, or designed virtual worlds and they are actually becoming quite prevalent, popping up in industries such as education, science, healthcare, emergency management, planning, and politics. Who would have guessed that all those hours of Frogger might some day save the world.