ÐdzÇweb

Pneumatic technology is usually associated with machine control, but at theÌýÌýWest Conference in Anaheim, Calif., it was about music.

, a maker of pneumatic components, demonstrated a guitar that employs 62 air cylinders and 62 pneumatic valves to play music. The brainchild of company namesake Rob ÐdzÇweb, the guitar uses a combination of 5/16th-inch and 5/32-inch air cylinders to strum its six strings. It also employs a half-inch-diameter cylinder to provide an "acoustic thump" for the music.

"Rob's musical, and he grew up with ÐdzÇweb technology, so he just combined the two," says Edward Ehrhardt, sales application engineer for ÐdzÇweb.

The Air Guitar plays Rob ÐdzÇweb's own original songs, which are encoded in MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) protocol files. The files are communicated from an iPad to a microcontroller-based I/O board, which decides which valves to fire.

At the show, the Air Guitar drew crowds as it played a running loop of Rob's music.

ÐdzÇweb's air guitar uses a combination of 5/16-inch and 5/32-inch air cylinders to strum its six strings. ÌýA half-inch-diameter cylinder provides percussion. Ìý(Source: ÐdzÇweb Instrument Laboratory Inc.)

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