Perfect Pitch

It won't change the world, but it will change your voice. Canda-based IVL Technologies' On-Key Karaoke Hand Held Player looks like a simple microphone, but as you warble into it, a microprocessor "corrects" your pitch.

The idea came to IVL's president Phil Scott in 1983 when he took up the flute. Frustrated by his own tin ear, he conceived an instrument-pitch detector that transformed musical notes into digital format. It didn't sell well, but it spurred Scott to search for other applications, including pitch detectors and harmonizers for commercial karaoke systems.

"Karaoke's the modern equivalent of the family singing around the piano," says Scott.