[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UYMnzXQEtw[/youtube]

We know that Muse don’t necessarily fall within the realm of metal, but this is too cool not to share. James McVay, an engineering student at  New Zealand’s Victoria University at Wellington, created MechBass, a robotic machine that plays bass. Essentially, a unit with four separate devices, one for each string, is hooked up via MIDI, and a “pick wheel” strikes each string. This was programmed to play Muse’s “Hysteria,” and it does a more than adequate job. While this isn’t necessarily the future of (non) live performance, it’s absolutely amazing to watch. If you want more information about how it works, you can read about it in this 19-page document, but really, you’ll probably just want to watch the video above.