Musical roads

November 29, 2007

Developers from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute in Japan have built three “melody roads” in central and northern Japan, which act as tuning forks to play music as they travel along the road. “The concept works by using grooves, which are cut at very specific intervals in the road surface. Just as travelling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes.” The pitch of the notes differs depending on how fast or slow the car drives over them and they last for around 30 seconds. The roads are highlighted through coloured musical notes painted onto it.

The concept was discovered by Shizuo Shinoda, who accidentally scraped some markings into a road with a bulldozer before driving back over them then realising that they helped to produce a variety of tones.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Bizarre, Blog, Community, Creativity, Innovation, Music, Video, newsRight  | Post a comment

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