> temp > à-trier > hacking-my-arm-prosthesis-so-that-it-plugs-into-my-synth-thought-controlled-music-bertolt-meyer

Hacking my arm prosthesis to output CV so that it plugs into my synth: Thought-controlled music!

Bertolt Meyer - 2020-02-13

*** EDIT: Update/part 2: https://youtu.be/9tRjeoTb3RQ

Together with Chrisi from KOMA Elektronik and my husband Daniel, I am in the process of building a device (the "SynLimb") that attaches to my arm prosthesis instead of the prosthetic hand. The SynLimb converts the electrode signals that my prosthesis picks up from my residual limb into control voltages (CV) for controlling my modular synthesizer. The SynLimb thus allows me to plug my prosthesis directly into my snythesizer so that I can control its parameters with the signals from my body that normally control the hand. For me, this feels like controlling the synth with my thoughts. I show the prototype(s), explain how we put it together and how it works, and do a little demo. 

My Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bertolt-meyer  
KOMA Elektronik: https://www.youtube.com/user/KOMAelektronik  
Daniel's Art: https://danieltheiler.de  

The inspiration to just try this despite not being an engineer came from wonderful Sam aka lookmumnocomputer: https://www.youtube.com/lookmumnocomputer
The inspiration to venture into modular synthesis in the first place came from the wonderful mylarmelodies: https://www.youtube.com/user/hello6am 

#prosthesis #bodyhacking #bionics #modularsynth #eurorack #armprosthesis #amputee #limbdifference

hlaf - 2020-02-22

Imagine that you're so dedicated to playing synth, you actually became a synth.

Floris Stornebrink - 2020-03-03

cyborg! :D

CARNY 666 - 2020-03-07

this comment wins.

Gani Gavara - 2020-04-11

Diamond city police are coming enjoy them health bars with stars on them

UsernameNotDefined - 2020-08-10

Why play the synth when you can connect your arm to the synth?

neuromonkey - 2021-06-29

I wonder if that arm supports VST3?

Different Name - 2020-02-28

"Man, this song Is sick! Where'd you get the inspiration?"

"Oh, I had a headache."

MarkusPl4y - 2020-03-01

Lmaoo

Kubic - 2020-03-15

I mean, depression is what fuels every musician...

DisThoughts - 2020-02-27

"Hey, one of our DJs cancelled last minute. Know someone who could give us a hand?"
"I know just the guy."

Ganne Chaitanya - 2020-03-01

Pun intended!

Matthew Kreider - 2020-03-03

"Get me a 3.5" jack."

Meditation with Holly - 2020-03-03

Comment perfection 👌hilarious 😂

Steven Ewald - 2020-03-04

omg.

Teletubbies on PlayStation - 2020-03-14

Come to Brazil now

Random Guy - 2020-02-26

Today: disability
Tomorrow: Upgrades, people! Upgrades!

Pp Poo poo - 2020-03-01

@Jonesy Films anprim go ooga booga

fl00fydragon - 2020-03-01

The day after tomorrow: full body upgrade beyond natural performance and beauty.

Ryan Baggett - 2020-03-03

fl00fydragon - When we truly consider the boiling, burning, freezing, radioactive environment that’s waiting for us in space, we should gain a frightful understanding how necessary it will become to “upgrade” our human bodies with not only limbs to make us faster and stronger but with secondary snd tertiary processors to augment our mathematics calculation skill. The sort of split-second reactions that will afford such an augmented human will be absolutely critical to survival in space - even just the short trips to bases we will establish on Europa and Titan.

DJ Floofy - 2020-04-17

@Arch Iron within, iron without.

Dorvuzak Uzn - 2020-05-26

@DJ Floofy shut it you trench mongrel, the Sons of Dorn demand passage.

Jake Belcher - 2020-02-28

The gay dj with a bionic arm. This is the brightest timeline

Gusteau - 2020-10-11

And the arm make a music

Szczepan Hołyszewski - 2020-11-22

@Fernando Gigabyte "Real"??? Man this is the best worst sci-fi double entendre I've seen in years. Take my guilty upvote.

The Lord Of Nothing - 2021-01-14

@Fernando Gigabyte shut up

neuromonkey - 2021-06-29

@Kelvin R Unfortunately, even smart people can be mean, ignorant, and bigoted. Ironically, if we did take children from real racist, sexist, homophonic, xenophobic couples, the population of hateful, nasty shitheads would start to decline significantly. Take 'em before they break 'em! YEEHAW!

neuromonkey - 2021-06-29

​@Szczepan Hołyszewski Plot twist: Fernando Gigabyte was virtual the whole time.

Daniel Mainville - 2020-02-19

This guy: "yo pass the aux"
"Aight you better not play trash"
This guy: plugs the cord into his arm

Trevor Moore - 2020-02-28

“Fool, I AM the aux”

Vin A. - 2020-02-29

Plays HeArTbEaT

Facundo Quevedo - 2020-02-29

[Plays Flamingo]

Chance - 2020-03-01

Nobody has passed an aux since 2013

Akiro Ai - 2020-05-30

“wait no stop”

Neland Duncan - 2020-02-28

I love this. I love how people have helped you develop this and how you've used a 'disadvantage' to your advantage. Not only is it inspiring, it's badass.

craig moore - 2020-02-26

*controls synthesizer with mind. Turns to the camera. “So I obviously still need practice”

Etherion - 2020-02-26

"i've hacked my arm"... THAT is one hell of a start for a title:D

PyroAvok - 2020-06-06

Pulled a BL2 Gaige there. Now he needs to put a hard-light robot buddy in it.

NahKnee - 2020-02-27

This dude wins, he's officially the coolest guy on the planet and no one can convince me otherwise.

Tin Tim - 2020-03-01

NahKnee you don’t know that

You don’t know...

Pv - 2020-03-03

@ishimura no u

Supersonic Tumbleweed - 2020-03-03

@Primus Fager Elon Musk is a close second

BlackOps Link - 2020-03-04

Haha, well my friend. Ever heard of hitler?

Ky Games - 2020-03-07

But have you heard of the guy who did this, but with a nerf gun instead?

MovieLounge - 2020-02-20

Elton John: Plays Piano
Paul McCartney: Plays Bass
Dave Grohl: Plays Drums
This guy: "Hold my hand"

Mr Dream - 2020-02-23

i never tought someone will say that :" hold my hands

Aleks Krakoew - 2020-02-23

I wanna hold you hand

MovieLounge - 2020-02-23

@Aleks Krakoew hahaha

Okutank! - 2020-02-23

pull my finger

Greg OfCanada - 2020-02-25

His Wife: I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAAAAND!

Jake Tvister - 2020-02-27

"Everyone, a round of applause to the transhuman beatmachine, MC AUX"

Ky Games - 2020-03-07

and his partner in cyber crime, DJ WAVEFORM! - airhorn sounds -

Ryder - 2020-02-28

Everyone:
Bertolt: Plugs in
Everyone: Why are we hearing boss music?

Ky Games - 2020-03-07

"Oh it's the cool cyborg guy playin' it, don't worry."

M1nde - 2020-02-27

He has now become:
Synth-man
And he is part of a greater universe he JUST doesnt know it

diarykeeper - 2020-02-28

This. is.. actually pretty cool.

*Imagines headline: "Composer gets banned, because thought controlling his synths puts his competition out of business"

eggmoe - 2020-02-21

A gay cyborg DJ. We really are living in the future.

Dolphinboi - Play Monster Rancher - 2020-03-03

@Matheus Rocha A car can only work if all the moving parts work. One of those parts has been repeatedly observed and doesn't work.

Dolphinboi - Play Monster Rancher - 2020-03-03

@STM Gayness doesn't make you cool, just like having skin doesn't make you cool. A lot of people have skin, but who actually pays attention to skin? Only the people who care about race and the people who pretend not to.

Dolphinboi - Play Monster Rancher - 2020-03-03

@R. P. Pretty sure they fucked young boys, so not exactly the type of LGBT allies you would be wanting.

STM - 2020-03-03

@Dolphinboi - Play Monster Rancher ew, who has skin, that's gross, I am proud to just wear my fleshy armour.

Ju - 2020-06-21

@Paulo PLUS very good-looking

Reece Taylor - 2020-02-26

This guy
"You fool, I've been trained in your jedi arts by count Dooku"

Starts spinning lightsaber around on arm

The Rachelos - 2020-02-28

@Reece Taylor This is getting out of hand now there are two of them

Reece Taylor - 2020-02-28

@The Rachelos we are unstoppable now there is two of us

1SDAN - 2020-02-29

Don't sleep on General Grievous. Dude won a 6 v 1 battle against 3 Jedi Masters, 2 Jedi Knights, and Shaggy Rogers, killing 2, mortally wounding 1, and heavily injuring 2 more. Not only that, but he personally kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine from under the care of 3 Jedi Masters, two of whom he killed and the third he captured and left behind as a threat to any who would give pursuit.

Dude constantly had fear, surprise, and intimidation on his side until that fateful day over Saleucami

YO MUMMA - 2020-02-29

@1SDAN yes, however, that is no longer canon, what a shame!

1SDAN - 2020-03-01

@YO MUMMA Correction, it's no longer part of the primary Canon. Star Wars is weird in that it has two official Canons, and while Legends is technically a "Legacy" canon, it doesn't make it any less Official.


Interesting, one could make an argument that Canons only exist to those who believe in them. If I made a Darth Jar Jar fanfic so good that half of the entire Star Wars community unanimously agrees that it's canon, it will almost if not just as official of a Canon as Disney's canon. Even if Disney sued me and shut it down, that would only embolden those who believe in it. People will take the new unofficial Darth Jar Jar Canon and proseletize it more fervently, spreading it, copying it, and adding to this new Canon. Disney will start adopting parts of the Darth Star Wars canon into its own to try to win back their former fans, and while it will succeed in part, other parts of the community will refuse to return to the Official Canon, some on the principle of the matter, others because their favourite parts haven't yet been adopted. Some people will point out that the current reformation is very similar to the Great Schism between Disney Star Wars and George Lucas Star Wars that created the Division between Western Star Wars Nations and Eastern Star Wars Nations. Eventually, you will realize that this is a thinly veiled allegory for Christianity, the Protestant Reformation, and the invention of the Printing Press.

Alex Jones - 2020-03-01

"not an engineer"
Boi you learned in one email what they're supposed to teach engineers in an entire semester. You are an engineer now

Jack Johnston - 2020-03-11

You're not wrong lol

Alex Jones - 2020-03-11

Jack Johnston can't remember a time I was ever gotdam wrong

Skankhunt42 - 2020-02-28

So basically DJ's in 50 years will just skip all their limbs and wire themselves straightly up to the speakers

Sleeping Melons - 2020-02-26

When you finally reach level 100 crafting.

Ulrich d'Arth - 2020-03-02

[Runescape level up music intensifies]

obrecht72 - 2020-02-24

Someone at club says "oh no the DJ here is horrible. The night is ruined"
This guy "hold my hand".

Dapper 4 - 2020-02-27

B-but that's lewd!

Gav Art - 2020-02-28

obrecht72
“I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand”

DireNeeds - 2020-02-28

Dapper 4 yikes

MehdiGlz - 2020-02-29

It's all fun and games until someone yells "hang the dj!", because the music he plays says nothing about his life

AVA _ - 2020-02-29

Lost hard on this comment, good job

Cyber One - 2020-02-26

This is one of the occasions ARM processors are useful.

Marco Bonera - 2020-08-14

until he sees a SPECTRE
:)

Luke O'Connell - 2021-07-14

I don't know, seems RISCy

CaptainClipy - 2020-03-01

You know he’s about to play some fire when he starts unscrewing his hand

ChriZ GaGuRoShoMo - 2020-02-26

Imagine that live gig:
Sam tours with his GameBoy Megamachine and lets you plug your prosthesis in to control part of it.

Avocado - 2020-02-28

oh god OH YES

Dovahgatr - 2020-02-28

This was cool, glad youtube recommended this to me now instead of 5 years later :P

Cat - 2020-02-27

The way he looked at his camera while unscrewing his arm... Truly a sight to behold

Jav - 2020-03-01

This blows my mind
Imagine one day instead of people getting impulse tattoos, they get impulse prosthetic upgrades

Cesar Gonzalez - 2020-02-27

Yo my guy this is literally the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while wow

Jesse Graves - 2020-03-01

When you do this, do you think of moving your arm to control it, or do you just think of the control changing?

Cab Callaway - 2020-02-14

"I'm not an engineer". Maybe not by profession, but dude you are 100% an engineer to pull this off! Even just being able to understand the circuits and build a prototype makes you an engineer. Actually, the second you realized you wanted to do something where no solution existed and then decided you were going to find/create that solution - you are an engineer my friend :)

Cab Callaway - 2020-02-25

@Sambenmoser Feel free to read all the responses on here clearing up this misconception

Ericmyrs - 2020-02-26

" Actually, the second you realized you wanted to do something where no solution existed and then decided you were going to find/create that solution - you are an engineer" Perhaps the best definition of Engineer I've ever heard. Formal training is all well and good, but you need that "I'll just make one then" spirit.

MMROX - 2020-02-28

Needs birth invention.

MehdiGlz - 2020-02-29

@Sambenmoser I have an engineering degree, but fuck if I've ever done any real engineering. Getting a degree is easy

HarryIII - 2020-02-29

Jackson Wildman seriously? Do you not spend much time in the lab or something? We produced a circuit close in difficulty to this in our first year. Someone close to getting their engineering degree should be capable of following these schematics, they're not that complex.

Jaykstah - 2020-03-04

This is truly amazing, I'm blown away. I've been getting into synths over the past handful of months and seeing something like this serves to remind me of the endless inspiration that is out there to do cool things with electronic music equipment. Can't wait to see more with this and how it evolves in the future.

Matias Colela - 2020-02-28

This guy in a party: I bet you 50 dollars so you can't do this...

Start spinning his hand 360 degrees

Cthul-who - 2020-03-04

just make sure to wear a glove so he doesn't know when he bets against you

Ky Games - 2020-03-07

@F.U.N Double Plot Twist: The other guy's arm isn't prosthetic.

Patrick Cunningham - 2020-03-01

This is absolutely amazing, it's this passion that makes technology truly helpful.

AdmiralTrout - 2020-02-28

this is amazing dude, you are so gifted to be making the best out of life, and using what some would see as ahandicap to be a addition that allows you to improve your life in a way someone normally couldnt

Austin Noak - 2020-02-14

transhumanist EDM, maybe the future really will be cyberpunk. This is incredibly awesome.

C G - 2020-02-23

@Love Bunny stop blaming capitalism, too much technology is our real problem!
We live in a world where the economy can boom while wages stagnate, billionaires can give themselves million dollar raises while refusing to adjust their workers wages with the cost of living, companies like Cineplex, Disney and Amazon can effectively choke out competition and reduce the "free" market to an effective monopoly and the right to live is held behind a paywall while access to enough wealth to breach it is increasingly restricted.

This isn't the fault of the system that created these problems! It's technology's fault! Tens of thousands of people die in the richest nation in human history due to lack of access to healthcare, if only there wasn't so much technology there would be no problem! Darn technology! If only we had less!!

Colin Kohlbeck - 2020-02-25

C G Yo, you realize you just said “stop blaming capitalism.” And then went on explaining why we should blame capitalism.

C G - 2020-02-26

@Colin Kohlbeck yes

korbitr - 2020-02-29

@Sebastian Biller At the rate we're going, that probably won't be the case...

fl00fydragon - 2020-03-01

The future will definitely be cyber, it doesn't have to be cyberpunk.

This means that we can have the technology, and even the aesthetics but how we use it will determine if we become the dystopias of deus ex and blade runner or a society that uses the technology to build a genuinely better world.


If you look at most good cyberpunk fiction the dystopia is a result of advanced technology being managed under primitive economic and/or social structures.

MaggotManfred - 2020-02-27

Truly amazing what technology is capable to do...just imagine playing music with your mind!

Kalicrowa - 2020-02-28

This is exactly the kind of stuff I would LOVE to get into and it's very very exciting to see this be successful!

I've just started getting into electronics and I already am familiar with programming. I have a lot to go to be able to do stuff like this but I'm really excited for it!

Hunter Milam - 2020-02-27

Holy shit, this is legitimately amazing. I hope you decide to keep doing progress updates on this, as it's really intriguing to me and hopefully others.

Arro3 - 2020-02-28

That’s pretty awesome! Hopefully someday I can plug my brain into my computer to draw the images in my head

Tyson Q - 2020-02-23

50 years later:
So I've figured out how to read peoples' minds

InnerEagle - 2020-02-26

Actually, we are halfway to that.
Not Mind reading as if they were speaking, but with the help of Body Language, micro expressions and stuff like that you are halfway to understand if a person is lying to your or he's truthful, you can even mix all the knowledge you might find on youtube to findout what and how people thinks, and that's the closest thing, which for me is even better than reading minds, cause it bypasses the mind, let's say the person is even trying to lie to himself, and you notice that, you can react accordingly, there are lot of good audiobooks about body language and lie detectors

Parishna - 2020-02-26

@InnerEagle They have been able to reconstruct a persons thoughts based on specific regions of the brain that light up, but it needs training to understand what they are thinking in order to do so.. but with that training, they can 'see' what someone is thinking. And that was almost a decade ago. Given the advent of AI and deep learning, it won't be long before they will be able to read minds..

Kinda scary...

Isaac Asad - 2020-02-26

also when you think with a "voice" inside your head, you are actually speaking, just so quietly that you can't hear it. there are tiny movements in your vocal cords when you think inside your head, so if those can be read this could also be a way to read minds. it probably could also be counteracted though by humming while thinking or something like that

Parishna - 2020-02-27

@Isaac Asad not me. I'm a trained ventriloquist. I make other people silently speak with my thoughts.

Kenny Clobers - 2020-02-27

10 years later his arm is the synth

HuntersOA - 2020-02-29

This was one of the coolest projects I've seen in a fair while :D

MinE CrafT - 2020-03-03

You‘re so cool man! You turn your handycap litterally into a benefit! I always dreamed of people doing this! Keep going like this and think about a modular socket so you can change the tools guickly. That whould be GREAT to see!

Dade - 2020-02-27

The compassion from the engineers, the accessibility and novelty of your ability to control this synths, your style and personality - all top notch.

Christopher Gronhagen - 2020-02-28

That is so amazing. Definitely subbing, I want to see where this goes.

Youtubeisbroken - 2020-02-26

90s: check out my sick beat boxing skills

2020: I am music

Walter Bell - 2020-03-01

Samuel Jackson outta nowhere Not, yet.

Critical Damage - 2020-03-04

Thats freaking amazing!!! Can you do a live set with your band using this? :) Would be like gazing into the future! Thumbs up!

churcho - 2020-02-27

do a venom snake cosplay and just play the entire metal gear solid soundtrack in a show

malibu - 2020-08-15

better do grey fox fighting rex

RandomLiquidSnake - 2020-02-26

People in the future: Hacking my arm

Will - 2020-02-28

This is lowkey the coolest thing I think I’ve seen in years. This is freaking incredible man

Alex - 2020-02-23

It's like they say:
"When life gives you lemons, plant the seeds, grow orchard, sell fruits, take money, buy more modular synths, make neuro-interface, plug arm into internet, take over world"

InnerEagle - 2020-02-26

You forgot the important part, conquering the universe and all the parallel ones

Blue Saber - 2020-02-27

Plugs arm into the Earth

InnerEagle - 2020-02-27

@Tikoblocks Nah, you just ask others about schematics about lemons so you can still build a combustible lemon

Brendon P - 2020-02-27

Hey, we haven’t looked at our lemon tree in a few minutes...

Holy Bun - 2020-02-28

Technically we bio engineered those lemons as well