I was watching my family play Guitar Hero last night and they wanted me to join in. NO FRIGGEN WAY!

I have no hand/Eye quordination what so ever.
But I do have mad skills at building electronics and mechanical devices. So while watching them duke it out over a game I thought about how I could build a "Skill Inhancement Device" for the gaming system.

I figured why cant I just take several photo sensors and use them to read the display on the screen then use the signal from them to drive electric solonoid actuators to do the button pushing for me!

Perhaps some level of microprocessor controls would be needed for the interface to be reliable too.

What do you think? Could it be done? I know its a totaly pointless waste of my time, money and effort, but so is gaming!

Got any practical or not so practical ways you think it could be done?

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"Issue a general safety warning. Then look the other way and allow stupidity the chance to eliminate itself." -- tcmtech
"Those who can, Will. Those who can't, will achieve positions of power over those who can and then promptly stop them." -- tcmtech
"Your impossibility may just be my day to day routine." -- tcmtech

 

It's been done a couple of times, dig around on the net, here's a good one -
Make: Online : Guitar Hero "Slashbot" shreds meatbot players

 

SO are they using an audio tone referance, did they hack the program or is it all preprogramed and just timing synced to the song?

But yea thats sort of what I was going for!

__________________
"Issue a general safety warning. Then look the other way and allow stupidity the chance to eliminate itself." -- tcmtech
"Those who can, Will. Those who can't, will achieve positions of power over those who can and then promptly stop them." -- tcmtech
"Your impossibility may just be my day to day routine." -- tcmtech

 

Why they used such an ungodly bulky solenoid and relay setup instead of just wiring a micro controller to the guitar I don't know.

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Thats what I was thinking. If they use a tone sensing microprossesor system it could consievably be mounted in the guitar itself. Then have it directly feed the control circiuts it.
If it went one stage further I woud have it disconect the actual buttons and make the whole thing steath mode operation.
Just fake playing and let the actual micropressesor do the work for me!

I know its a compleatly pointless idea and waste of time and money but how cool would it be to have a beat all guitar hero device!

__________________
"Issue a general safety warning. Then look the other way and allow stupidity the chance to eliminate itself." -- tcmtech
"Those who can, Will. Those who can't, will achieve positions of power over those who can and then promptly stop them." -- tcmtech
"Your impossibility may just be my day to day routine." -- tcmtech

 

I don't think tone sensing will work tcmtech the music is too complex and it's not directly related to the controller buttons either. I have no idea what method they used to determine the notes on the screen. But it's more about rhythm than tone.

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Thats why I posted it! just to find out how its done. My idea was to use photo sensors that were attached to the video screen and watch for the notes to move by. The one in the video does not show how they are detecting them.

Hense my wondering if it was tone based or just some very long and precise programing that time referances every single solonoid actuation to the coresponding note.

__________________
"Issue a general safety warning. Then look the other way and allow stupidity the chance to eliminate itself." -- tcmtech
"Those who can, Will. Those who can't, will achieve positions of power over those who can and then promptly stop them." -- tcmtech
"Your impossibility may just be my day to day routine." -- tcmtech

 

The Q&A on the project's home page (linked from the Make video page) explains most of it, although not in a huge amount of detail: Q&A Slashbot: The Guitar Hero Robot


Torben

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Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.

 

I've seen it done this way, on a web page somewhere. Guy had a bank of photosensors stuck to the screen on a certain spot.

Why not put your creative talents towards an automated bird-spotter for windmills or something? The camera could see the birds coming, and flash a light or something to scare them away.