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violin

Can technology improve the sound of 300-year-old violins?

David Segal Violins is located just a few blocks from Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School in New York City. I stopped by the showroom to learn how the technology of violin making has changed, but that wasn't the main story. Today's violins may look similar to the ones made 300 years ago by Stradivarius or Guarneri, but they get used in different ways. Where before violins were only played in concerts, now they're also recorded. Segal tells me that a great concert violin might not work all that well to accompany a vocalist.

The "technology&… Read more

PayPal dispute ends in destruction of violin

Quite the donnybrook is brewing on the Internet over PayPal's decision to order a customer to destroy a purportedly rare violin.

A Regretsy.com reader named Erica related yesterday how she sold an old French violin "that made it through WWII" to a buyer in Canada for $2,500. However, the buyer disputed the authenticity of the label and demanded his money back. When the buyer contacted PayPal with his concerns, the payment processor instructed him to destroy it and refunded the purchase price.

"Rather than have the violin returned to me, PayPal made the buyer … Read more

Toyota bot says no to violence, yes to violins

Honda's Asimo may be Crave's reigning top-ranked nonviolent robot, but it now has some new, (un)fierce competition from Toyota.

Three big competitors, actually. Toyota demoed all of them during a press event in Tokyo today. CNET News.com has a photo gallery of the robots here.

The most visually impressive is its smooth, eponymous violin-playing robot. According to The Sun, the robot has 17 joints in its arms and hands alone, powered by some serious servomotor action.

Also on display were the Mobina, a wheelchair-like robot equipped with independent suspension for each wheel, and Robina, a three-fingered &… Read more