Wearable Drum Set

Posted: April 14, 2013

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Now man can beat his chest and sound even badder than a silverback gorilla*. Drop the Beat, Wesley Chau's wearable drum set concept, was inspired by Laurie Anderson's 1986 concert film Home of the Brave. Yeah, I don't know what that is either, but I heard one of the guys from Fleetwood Mac always comes out beating on his drum kit vest during their live performances as a means of generating instant crowd pleasure, so there's a point of reference for you too.

Chau fashioned the drummable breast plate out of neoprene, velcro, piezo sensors, arduino, hookup wire, acetate, and fabric. The sensors sit inside each drum pad, which attach to the vest with velcro. Chau recorded the demo video with Drop the Beat, GarageBand, and what looks to be one normal person and one mime with Tourette's.

*A member of my immediate family is bald and apparently looks threatening to a silverback gorilla--perhaps the gorilla sees some of himself in this person--and one time he was at the zoo observing the gorillas behind a wall of glass, and after giving him the stink eye for a minute or two, the gorilla turned, beat its chest, and stormed the glass directly in front of him. Like, rammed it. Like, possibly put to the test the glass' maximum impact load for remaining shatterproof. While I didn't witness this event myself, my guess is that having a 1,200 pound humanlike primate charge a thin piece of human-made material whose strength you have no knowledge of would incite a sudden loss of bowel control and instill a lifelong fear of gorillas. Also, I think animals are great judges of character.

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