Miyaoka Hitchcock's Automatic Playing Piano and Morse Code Factory

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Oh, those wacky guys over at the SoftBank sim. Physics are their playthings and they have been playing... a lot!

Molly Montale is one serious explorer and consequently, she is always discovering cool stuff. This morning she pinged me with news of further developments over at Softbank.

Softbank Slim Japan is an amusement park sponsored by Samsung and Softbank, the Japanese mobile phone company. It is also home to that giant avatar-tossing bar-tilting 3-axis accelerometer and robot that Tori Teatime and a couple of others put together.

Now Miyaoka Hitchcock (aka Masaya Kazama) has joined the mix of creators there with several installations. Two among them are the Automatic Playing Piano that hurls balls onto piano keys to play the song Scarborough Fair, and then there is his Morse Code Factory, wherein the visitor uses a light or heavy touch on a small platform to input Morse Code that goes into an extruder and then issues the letters the visitor manufactured. Teleport directly from here.

Music composer, sound designer, machinimator and all-around nice guy Dizzy Banjo created this video to demonstrate what happens. Thank you, as always, Dizzy!


Miyaoka Hitchcock Interactive Installations inSL from Dizzy Banjo on Vimeo.

I first learned about Miyaoka through his involvement with the COM Fun Club. Manbo! With a rez day of 1/27/2007, he is one day younger than I am, which puts me completely to shame. He's accomplished so much!

Miyaoka is also the owner of the School for Tinies, and the creator of Miyaoka HomeElectronics, which must have been founded on a hot day. The two items for sale there are the Tiny Electric Fan avatar (3-speed oscillating fan with ribbons blowing in the wind), and the Tiny Refrigerator avatar, with a door that opens and shuts, and enough food enclosed to get you by over a weekend. You can pick those up by teleporting here.