Hi everybody.

There has been some talk of PowerRolls and MIDI going around, so I
decided to add something about what I just came up with. It is an
electronic roll reader. The roll isn't even touched by anything
(i.e. brushes or keys) but instead is read with infrared or electric
eyes.

How it works: You know the garage door openers have a set of electric
eyes, where if something walks into the path of the closing door, it
breaks the beam and reverses the door? Well I have a design that
miniaturizes the receivers (roughly 1/2" high by 1/4" wide by ?" deep)
that will make up the "tracker bar" that never touches the paper. The
sender is a bar as wide as the roll that rests 1/2" from it. The paper
is breaking the beam all the time, only this time when the beam is
restored (by it going through one of the holes) it sounds the
note, by sending the signal to a main circuit board, which in turn
energizes a solenoid which operates a piano key, xylophone or drum
beater, or pipe valve.

I wouldn't have come up with this idea if I hadn't been wanting to
"improve" upon the electric "brush" that has the danger of igniting the
paper on fire! My friend has a Violano-Virtuoso and he keeps a fire
extinguisher next to it! I hope an adventurous MMD'er would like to
adapt this roll reading system.

Best Wishes,
Andrew Barrett