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These instruments illustrate how to greatly simplify construction of string instruments by substituting rods, motors and resistive touch strips for strings and using a cheap Sparkfun microcontroller to control music synthesizers. A monochord and 12 string version are currently in use by professional cellists; new 2 string and 4 string versions are under construction. A new guitar variant will be ready next month that substitutes rigid rods for the rotating rods of the bowed instruments.
Video URL: http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/user/john_maccallum/blog/2008/12/08/duotouch_fsr
Adrian Freed
Adrian Freed is research director at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technogies. He developed the popular OSC protocol built into numerous software packages and hardware gesture controllers. He developed the first audio plugin standard. He is developing fiber and fabric music controllers, new guitar controllers and resonance sound synthesizers. His etextile work was recently featured at the Exploratorium
http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/people/adrian_freed