No sooner did we build computers than we realized we had to find ways to get our stuff into them. Keyboards, stacks of cards, paper tapes, actually attaching wires to circuits and then moving them around–we’ve come a long way.
Then, of course, we have to get the good stuff back out. Monitors, printers, speakers, even computerized fabricating devices, there are more choices arriving each day.
Musicians seem to be especially adept at inventing unique instruments, and these days that often means ones that can also be connected to a computer. Here’s a recent novel MIDI device: the MusicPole.
Apparently you strap contact strips to your thumbs, then to hit the notes you slide your thumbs over live areas, the “keys,” arrayed on a tube in a unique way to improve usability.
It costs about $400, and is lightweight, festive looking, and versatile, since it can serve as keyboard, percussion, or other synth instrument. It is being sold by the muscian-inventor.
The cool thing about having more and more such alternate devices is that there will be something to suit every kind of dexterity, or lack of it.
