Heartbeat symphony.

• Author: Goethals, Henry
• Position: Biomuse machine

Imagine that your muscles emitted sweet musical tones every time you stretched--with a few simple movements you could learn to write a symphony.

Two U.S. researchers say that they have invented a machine which transforms muscular contractions into musical tones. This means, simply, that everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to a paraplegic may one day have the chance to compose his or her own symphonies. And instructors will no longer have to provide music for aerobic dance classes--the class will compose its own cacaphonous clash of sounds.

The machine, called the biomuse, was created by Dr. Hugh Lusted, a neurologist on the Faculty of Medicine of Stanford University, and Benjamin Knapp, an engineer. According to the American Physics Institute, which announced the invention, muscles create electrical impulses when they contract. These electric impulses are then transmitted by computer to a synthesizer to create musical tones. The computer, furthermore, is programmed to register tone...