@Lupison: Oh Man! That is an awsum!

They should wire this into a midi system to use the patterns to create another melody with the same rhythm. Meta-sampling

SpeedyGonzalas

@DaOtter: So, how much do you get?

shamoononon

@Reilaos~: "Also has an aggie as a best friend"

Obviously a bottom.

BasicBlack

What people seem to keep overlooking is that something this clean and well done could easily get them a job that pays double what any of us get.

NOTHING that you learn something new while doing is useless in college. Nothing.

DaOtter

Go Aggies! Whoop!

Anyway, I think most people are missing the point of this creation. They're taking live VIDEO input and have the system setup to react very quickly by strumming and poking the fret buttons. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty amazing for some college students and some NI software!

richard8a

I think what they did was pretty cool. would have loved to actually heard the song playing instead of them yapping the background the whole time.But maybe thats just me.

coolfelix

Ahah, silly Aggies. Can't even get a perfect when they cheat.

*is a Longhorn and is therefore allowed to say unfairly mean or perhaps outright wrong things in the name of school spirit. Also has an aggie as a best friend*

Reilaos~

@hatboysam: taking the fun out of it insomuch that if the machine is playing a game for me, then I don't get to have the fun of playing the game.

Now, it might be amusing to watch the robot play it. I'm sure it was fun and a great learning experience designing and building this machine. But at the end of the day, I'm not having fun playing Guitar Hero anymore.

Geisrud

BEST SONG EVER!!!

hat39

@HeartBurnKid: "That's all that really needs to be said at this point: Douche."

It's always the right time to say "douche".

BasicBlack

jeez why is everyone hating on EEs? there are way geekier subjects out there

daversW

Whoop!

Luke

@gunnk: Douche.

That's all that really needs to be said at this point: Douche.

HeartBurnKid

@jwardell:

No, but it thinks it does.

BasicBlack

Does this system also improve as alcohol is increasingly introduced into its lines?

jwardell

Why play a REAL guitar when you can pretend to play one in a video game?

Better yet, why play a video game when you can get your robot to do it for you?

gunnk

@peterfnet: What about the sexin?

shamoononon

Sorry if this is a double post, but a good aggie joke never gets old.

What else were they supposed to do, reveille was already booked for the night.

soggy_cheerio

I'm training a monkey to do all the things I enjoy, so I don't have to. Of course, I'll have to kill it in a fit of jealous rage when I realize that sex with my wife is one of the things I enjoy.

You see! That's what's wrong with this machine. This kind of thing always ends in monkey sex and death.

BasicBlack

They're also aggies, and reveille was already booked for the night.

soggy_cheerio

"wow, could they be spending their tuition money building something that is useful other than building a 'cheating machine?'"

What do you think engineering is? It's all about making machines and programs to cheat and do things humans can't, or more efficiently and cheaper than humans can. Is a machine in a GM warehouse making a car a cheating machine? yes. This was a fun project for them to do using their skills they're learning in school. I think it's awesome.

benihanagt

I'll never understand why the smartest in our population is not allowed to breed with the most beutiful in our population to create super humans, when will the beutiful people learn!

Lupison

@Geisrud:
This is hardly taking the fun out of it
This was a cool project that was fun for them
You can complain if they take this thing on Xbox live and beat you or sell this thing to the public, but considering that they did this for themselves. why don't you just congratulate them on an impressive achievement.

hatboysam

reminds me of when my brother the EE major appeared on Giz for wall of pong.

he recently got a free trip to Amsterdam just to demo it.

tucker

The function and end result of what was built overshadows the knowledge and work these students put into building the device.

xint

The device works well on the fast stuff but fails miserably on the easier slow stuff that someone good could get with no problem. Kinda defeats the purpose.

Captain Angry

@_Mazza_:
the point is that it was fun for them to build and it was a good exercise of the knowledge they learned in class.

or is there some law i'm unaware of that every single moment of every person's life must be dedicated to the improvement of mankind?

willyolio

As an EE I gotta say, we drank our fair share, putting other majors to shame..... Blasphemy Giz!!

peterfnet

They made a machine that plays video games for them. A great mind is a terrible thing to waste.

loutang82

"We would have suggested these college kids go get drunk and laid instead of spending their time building a Guitar Hero robot, but then we remembered that they're Electrical Engineering majors."

Build a robotic blow up doll instead?

shamoononon

next step, making a robot that can play a real guitar like an expert.

willyolio

I find it funny how even with a cheating device they don't get 100%.

What's the point of a cheating device like this though?

I can understand unlocking guns in a game or unlimited ammo, but with this do you just turn it on and sit back waiting for those oh so pretty digital achievement trophys?

_Mazza_

wow, could they be spending their tuition money building something that is useful other than building a "cheating machine?"

MFlick

Way to take the fun out of a game, Texas A&M.

Geisrud

Thanks for reminding everyone that electrical engineers are excluded from any possibility of reproducing. They, in fact, sacrifice this for the good of a society that refuses to let them procreate. We salute you.

Darrone

dont fool yourself into thinking you wouldnt love one of these things just so you could say you had completed GH on expert....

hired_geek

I joke

shamoononon

@Shai: Yea, but us CS people had time to get laid. :)

shamoononon

This is why EEs run the world. You CS and Software Engineers have some serious chops, but we can make shit move.

I built a hydraulic flight simulator and a laser microphone, but I like the guitar hero robot way more.

Shai

I don't see how this is wasting time; this is something they wanted to do, probably had fun doing, and they probably learned a lot while doing it. It doesn't have to have a "point" in terms of gaming and/or "cheating," it's just cool.

karmaghost

@DaOtter: "NOTHING that you learn something new while doing is useless in college. Nothing."

Yes. I learned a great deal during my "experimental phase." Most of it was about antibiotics.

BasicBlack

I agree that EEs might not be always be looking to get laid, but they ALWAYS allocate time for alcohol.

Some EE hate in here! But why do anything at all? Why build a GH playing robot? Why write a short story? Why knit scarves? It's not always about the end product - sometimes it's the journey.

For anyone who can understand how to build a robot like this, this would be a fun project. Anything you build that winds up working deserves a helping of kudos.

dbc

so does that mean this is not legit?

+ Watch video

roflwaffles

MIDI in reverse. So, I can now sit on my couch and watch my computer play Guitar Hero on it's own.

DeadWriter

As long as I get to be the one who sells out after the sex and drugs party....

ILikeMacsWhatAboutIT

@dbc: Exactly! I know several guys who build wooden boats, use them once, then move on to the next boat project. It's all about the journey, not the destination (Unless your name is Clark Griswold).

Bos'un's Mate

Thank God, now I can use the robot to play Guitar Hero so I can leave the house and get on with my life!

kaneshadow

It's not about cheating, or sitting back enjoying Guitar Hero while a machine plays it. It's about the concept of having a little dumb machine play Guitar Hero and get a good score. It's about the journey like Bos'un's Mate said, the fact that you can actually build something that can play Guitar Hero that makes this article a worthwhile read.
I don't see why people need to be such haters, just because you didn't make it doesn't mean you have to hate it.

doublekay

That's actually the PS2 version. So, no achievements for them.

CarbonFalcon

+ Watch video

mechfluff

lol @ nerds on gizmodo making fun of other nerds.

This is a cool project and I applaud the guys for doing it. To you guys it may just be a dumb useless machine, but working on such projects can be a good experience for future work...a good experience on both the hardware and software side.

reddevil

@dbc: Dude. this is trivial. I must be a God to you people. Most of what you see here, I've either done, or can do in an evening.

soggy_cheerio

They are playing on a PS2 you can tell from the guitar and the fact there is a PS2 sitting next to the screen.

No Achievments on PS2.

TwiggLe

Ummm... I wouldn't call this a cheating device...

If you watch the video they are playing this on a PS2... You can tell from the guitar itself also that there's a PS2 sitting next to the TV...

So no achievments = not cheating?
I think they did it just for the fun of it and to see if they could.

TwiggLe

"Congratulations, you played enough Guitar Hero to score one million points! You!...are!...FAGS!!"

ybseigel

One day I'm going to make a robotmachine that watches movies for me.

Once I accomplish that I'll make one that raises my kids and smells the spring flowers for me.

xcharliemx

That is really cool! I have always thought about something like that but never envisioned a video analyzer. My idea was a small PIC with 6 transistors on it. The card would be slid into a slot that would then electronicaly hit the buttons and strum bar. But theirs is a little more complex.

dannydutton

Shows that GH and RB are not games, but merely memorization/execution exercises.

RaepGoblin

I see a "deep blue kasparov" like challenge coming soon.

I, for one, welcome our guitar playing overloaaads.

Navin R Johnson

@mechfluff: Data?

Shai