MeFi Projects

The citizen science project that was previously posted here has now become an officially launched Zooniverse project! Last February, the Steelpan Vibrations project was in pre-beta testing, but over the summer a student worked really hard to streamline the process for volunteers. Our project is attempting to better understand the complex vibrations of a Caribbean steelpan which give the instrument such a unique sound. In addition to the improved classification process we now have a regularly updated blog, an education page, and a quick video tutorial to show how you can help us out. We know there are many science and music fans here on metafilter - we would love to have you come and help us do some science with us!
posted by achmorrison on Aug 30, 2017 - 1 comment

I have used a TV holography system equipped with a high-speed camera to capture the motion of waves on a Caribbean steelpan (also called a steel drum) at over 10,000 frames per second. The movies that come out of the measurements are really interesting to watch, because they show the build up of energy in the different notes of the steelpan. What we need is help in classifying the images, because this is something that cannot easily be done algorithmically right now. We would love to have people who are interested in science, music, or especially the science of music come help us out!
posted by achmorrison on Feb 14, 2017 - 0 comments