Pipe screams

Thefamous i9th century pipe organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has gone hi-tech. The French ministry of culture has spent US $2.2 million to digitise the organ. Now, a system of microprocessors and sensors interprets how the keys and pedals have been pressed. The system, once perfected, will allow the players to instantly access any one of the unlimited number of combinations of the organ's 140 registers (Communications ofACM, Vol 38, No 6).