The latest issue of Nuts and Volts has featured an article on Therepings.
These devices are created with the use of Ultrasonic robot proximity sensors, buttons, and Basic Stamp Homework boards. The sensors read hand positions and then convert that to preset scales with heavy note quantization. Cheesy electronic drum beats being played live in the background can be seen and heard in these really bad videos: Video1, Video2. The description on the site states that Therepings can be played together to create interesting music without any musical experience on the part of the players…….Well, you be the judge….More info and source code available through the site. I guess the concept of a Thereping Jam band really seems like a very Geeky version of Karaoke to me, except not as fun. My suggestion would be to hook these up to samplers with animal sounds and then go to town.