Gulbransen Virtuoso Violin

The Gulbransen Virtuoso Violin is a self-playing violin developed by film scorer Fred Paroutaud and the late Dr. Thomas Paine, administrator of NASA during the Apollo moon flights. Virtuoso has claimed to be the world’s first self-playing violin. What looks like an invisible hand playing the violin is actually a programmed automation without the use of any digitally sampled sounds. The Virtuosa gets even better as it comes with the Pianomation, a programmable controller, which allows acoustic piano accompaniment. To top it all off, piano accompaniment can actually come from any MIDI source, which will allow users to program and play an entire symphony with the violin. Virtuosoa wears a price tag of $17,500 and with purchase you will recieve a pianomation controller, black display cabinet, and 40-watt acoustic research speaker.

Virtuoso [Engadget]