ENCOUNTERING a self-playing piano for the first time is enough to blow a 6-year-old’s mind. But as Mark Rober demonstrates, Chopstix, a self-playing piano featuring more modern upgrades, can do things like actually speak words just like a human can, which is enough to blow an adult’s mind too. Chopstix is a self-playing upright piano from Edelweiss that has been further upgraded so that the electromagnetic solenoid actuators that activate every key can all be triggered at the same time. Normally it’s limited to around 30 keys at any one time, which is already well beyond the capabilities of a human player. That simple upgrade gives Chopstix some especially impressive capabilities. “Rush E” is considered to be one of the most complex songs for piano ever composed, and it’s entirely impossible for a ten-fingered human pianist to play without having the ability to slow-down time, but Chopstix handles it with ease. Where Chopstix gets even more impressive is that its ability to play all of its keys at the same time — or large groups of keys with 127 different levels of force and intensity thanks to the solenoids — also allows it to perform more than just the notes and chords of an incredibly complex song. Using Fourier transforms the soundwaves of a human voice recording can be broken down and reproduced by playing several piano keys at once. The results aren’t as crystal clear as a real recorded human voice and Rober admits to cheating in the video and using subtitles to make Chopstix’s voice more comprehensible, but it’s no less impressive a feat. (SD-Agencies) | 