Well that was "interesting."  I think the students thought of a neat
project, put it together and then got the grade.  After that I think they
either lost interest or ran out of time, perhaps.  The idea of the player
bagpipes is intriguing.  Too bad this robot lacked any expression whatso-
ever.  I don't think I have ever heard bagpipes played with such mechani-
cal precision.  In fact I think it would be a real challenge for a human
to play them in such a way.

Certainty one challenge in a project like this (in addition to adding
expression) is how to execute the "in-between" notes on a bagpipe derived
from the "real" notes in a MIDI file.  Bagpipes don't have a complete
scale, there are some notes missing here and there.  To fill in the
missing notes the bagpipe player quickly alternates between the two
adjacent notes.  This "fills in" the missing notes and gives the bagpipe
its unique sound.  Unfortunately in this project all of these notes were
simply filled in with the same timing each time, regardless of what was
in the MIDI file.  In fact all the notes, in-between or otherwise, sounded
evenly spaced.  Too bad really, such an interesting idea poorly executed.
But for a first effort, I have to give them credit; this is a very cool
project idea.

Ray Finch
Albuquerque, N.M.