The fastest drummer in the world is a cyborg
Big Think x Freethink
At Big Think, we share actionable lessons from the world’s greatest thinkers and doers. This week, we’re partnering with Freethink to bring you amazing stories of the people and technologies that are shaping our future, from neuroscience breakthroughs to bionics and justice. Catch Freethink’s documentary-style videos right here on our channel all this week.
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Meet the world's first bionic drummer. Rock musician Jason Barnes lost his arm in a terrible accident... and then he became the fastest drummer in the world.

With the help of Gil Weinberg, a Georgia Tech professor and inventor of musical robots, the pair utilized electromyography and ultrasound technology to break musical records.

Weinberg and Barnes hope to perfect the technology so that it can one day be used to help other people with disabilities realize that "they're not only not disabled, they're actually super-able."
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GIL WEINBERG:

Gil Weinberg is a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Music and the founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, where he leads the Robotic Musicianship group. His research focuses on developing artificial creativity and musical expression for robots and augmented humans. His music has been performed with orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the National Irish Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish BBC Symphony while his research has been disseminated through numerous journal articles and patents. Weinberg received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and his B.A. from the interdisciplinary program for fostering excellence in Tel Aviv University.
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JASON BARNES:

Jason Barnes is known as the "Bionic Drummer." Barnes began drumming at age 14, but lost his arm in an electrocution accident in 2011. After learning that he could tape a drumstick to his stump, Barnes continued to pursue his passion and eventually met and began collaborating with Gil Weinberg, a researcher and professor at Georgia Tech's School of Music. Barnes holds the world record for most drumbeats in one minute (2400) using a drumstick prosthetic.
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TRANSCRIPT:

NARRATOR: This is the world's first bionic drummer. He's the fastest drummer in the world. He's also a pioneer of prosthetics. He's trying to control these robotic fingers with his mind.

JASON BARNES: Come on, dude. (beep) you.

ZACH: You're not doing that. I am.

BARNES: Come on, Zach.

ZACH: I'm working on it, man.

BARNES: What's going on, dude?

ZACH: I'm working on it.

NARRATOR: That dude helping is Zach, a grad student at Georgia Tech.

BARNES: It's working now.

NARRATOR: The goal of all this? To close the gap between man and machine. That is pretty cool.

NARRATOR: For Jason Barnes, music is life.

BARNES: What music does for me, I guess, is what drugs do for the everyday person. It's kind of an escape and a release for me. I've been a musician from a young age. I grew up watching my dad play guitar. Ever since then, drums have been my passion.

Unfortunately, when I was 22, I was involved in an electrical accident at work.

NARRATOR: A transformer exploded and shocked him with 22,000 volts of electricity, burning him badly. He and his doctors made the tough decision to amputate his arm.

BARNES: I felt at the time that I had lost everything I have, as far as being a musician goes. It's completely devastating, especially when that is your whole life and it's taken from you. Something like that could potentially be the end of your world.

NARRATOR: But in a way, Jason was just getting started.

BARNES: I drug my drum kit out of the garage and taped the drum stick to my stump. Still had bandages on it and everything, and proceeded to start playing the drums. That moment right there was a push point for me to accept what had happened and try and do something with it.

NARRATOR: He was on his way to becoming a bionic musician, so the next thing Jason did was build a custom prosthetic to play the drums. And they worked pretty well, but then he found out about this. This robot musician is actually improvising. It's listening and responding in real time, just like a human.

GIL WEINBERG: I've always been excited about creating something new, that will inspire and surprise me.

NARRATOR: That's the robot's creator, Gil Weinberg.

WEINBERG: I'm trying to create robots that will actually make you cry, that will blow your mind, send shivers down your spine.

NARRATOR: Gil heard about Jason.

WEINBERG: I received...

Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/bionic-pr...