This can in principle help people with a certain kind of handicap. Many other animated activities linking particular pictures and sound have been created, some of which appear in a design role in the video. Freed from the constraints of real materials, yet based on the laws of physics which underpin music, they have opened up a new world of musical possibilities. Networks can be built up by repeating such units in different architectures and physical parameters to model real, or entirely novel instruments. One such novel instrument is called a serpent in which the strings and the plucking system are both freed from any fixed holding structure.
Virtual microphones attached to two of the masses transform the virtual vibrations into real sound.
One benefit of such a system is that it allows investigation of how real instruments work, such as illustrating the sympathy vibrations in the other five strings when a single guitar string is plucked. These sympathy vibrations form an essential part of the sound of a guitar note.