A couple of geeks at the University of Louisana have created a robot drum-set — drums that drum themselves. They hooked up a bunch of actuators to the various components of a kit, then wired it to accept MIDI inputs. There’s information on how it works here, and some mind-melting video of it in action here. They call it PEART — Pneumatic and Electronic Actuated RoboT — in honor of Neil Peart, the histrionically hyperactive drummer for Rush. I’d love to see this thing pulling off some of Peart’s 128th-note high-tom rolls from one of Rush’s barely-listenable albums, like Grace Under Pressure.

Maybe for their next project they could design a virtual Geddy Lee, using some ultrahighpitched acoustic device that emits notes seven octaves above high C and knocks sparrows dead out of the air.

(Thanks to Incoming Signals for this one!)