Anyone who can read music also knows the challenge of having to turn thepage while playing an instrument. An invention being developed at Iowa StateUniversity could change that though.The musician’s assistant is a computer that displays musical notes on ascreen. The device “listens” to the music and when the bottom of the pagecomes up, it automatically turns the virtual page. I-S-U Computerengineering professor Arun Somani is building it.Somani says he came up with the idea after having his third child go throughpiano lessons, a girl who didn’t like having to stop playing to turn pages.Somani envisions the system helping music students learn to play by”listening” to them practice and displaying the right notes on-screen whenthe wrong ones are played. He forsees the day when entire orchestras areplaying off such computer screens.
