Hacker deploys iPhone 4S with Siri to play a Yamaha piano

Can an iPhone 4S play a piano? Yes, a clever hack from Craig Knudsen has enabled an iPhone 4S to play a Yamaha Disklavier. What Mr. Knudsen calls an unusual capability of Siri, plays the Yamaha piano completely using MIDI commands from an iPhone 4S. The hacker uses some MIDI converted song files and an Apple Airport Express to make the iPhone 4S play the piano.

Player Piano

The MIDI files played on the iPhone 4S are streamed over Wi-Fi to the Airport Express, which sends the music to the Yamaha piano via a cable. The outcome is that the piano plays the song as an invisible musician is playing the instrument. Mr. Knudsen shows up how the tech works in detail in a video clip (watch it below the article).

As the MIDI files reach to the piano from the iPhone, its keys and pedals make real life movements. The original purpose behind the ‘player piano’ project is to help a music student play piano. Playing a particular song on the iPhone, music students can now learn how to play a piano just looking at the key movements.

The player piano is touted as one of innovative capabilities of the Siri voice recognition feature of iPhone 4S. In fact, more than Siri, the piano is played by MIDI files. Siri just initiates the music in the library on the handset. Mr. Knudsen makes use of Siri to play the music files on his iPhone. The piano works as the MIDI files come to it through the Airport Express from an iPhone 4S. In the video below, the hacker plays Jon Schmidt’s Waterfall, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and As Times Goes By on the piano.

Via: Wired/NewsDiscovery