iPad steel drum played with conductive fiber mallets

Jobs told us, "If you see a stylus, they blew it," but what if the stylus is a steel drum mallet? Someone built an iPad app, as you can see above, that is designed to imitate the look and sound of a steel drum. It needed something a little extra, though, ... like actual mallets to play with. So, they made a mallet out of conductive cloth, which is a special fabric that enables the iPad's surface to recognize the touches. Wrap the end of a drumstick in fabric, tie it off, and you're good to start drummin', mon!

That's good stuff. There have to be other great uses for this kind of cloth, too; while a stylus isn't ideal most of the time, there are certain times when specific tool-like metaphors (maybe a brush for a painting app?) would work better than just a finger. What else can we use to control the multi-touch screen?
Share