Vint Cerf once wore a shirt that read "IP on Everything," a wry comment on the versatility of the Internet Protocol he helped invent, a protocol that underlies all Internet communication. Now a University of California Berkeley researcher has put Cerf's maxim to the test, running an IP network over a set of xylophones, played by human participants.There's a long history of joke specifications released on April Fool's Day (my favorite was IP over carrier pigeon), but it looks like someone went to the trouble of actually implementing one. This is entirely useless, but made me smile anyway.
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As an LED lights up, the human participant strikes the corresponding key on the xylophone. Piezo sensors are attached to each xylophone, so that they are able to sense when a note is played on the other xylophone. The Arduino for the receiving computer senses the note and then converts it back into hexadecimal code. And when the second computer sends a return packet, the order of operations is reversed.
Characters are issued one every second, giving the network a throughput of one baud. Geiger used a simple pre-broadband legacy protocol called Slip to serialize the data with minimal overhead. Typically, it takes about 15 minutes to transmit a single packet at this rate -- if the volunteer is patient enough to complete a whole packet, and doesn't hit any wrong notes in the process.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Bwana! Talking drums say ...
... Network Unreachable, reason code 0xFE, Xylophone player is on coffee break:
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5 comments:
I would love to see the hexidecimal "translation" of known tunes from the original Xylophone.
Unfortunately for me, the only xylophone solo that comes to my mind is from that 70's Starbuck song, "Moonlight Feels Right." (The folks had that on a K-Tel compmilation, and yes it was an 8-track.)
Maybe they could bejigger one of those beginner keyboards whose keys light up to tell the player what to press. Lots more piano music to choose from.
Someone had a little time on his hands. I better keep this quiet or we'll be implementing it in the enterprise because it's 'green' or something.
The first thing that comes to my mind when you say "Arduino" is "artiste." Nothing is so offbeat that it can't be made more so with the application of computers.
The Arduino has done for kinetic art what the spray can did for frescoes.
Sadly, my search engine katas have proven unworthy of the task I set before them, but I remember seeing an RFC for implementing IP over M1 Abrams tank turret, in which the direction the turret was facing provided the necessary data.
Oh, I forgot to add that the RFC I mentioned involved columns of M1 Abrams tanks, as seen during Operation DESERT STORM....
Sorry for the omission.
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