During a recent night out, a small detail of restaurant decor really caught my attention and presented itself as a fun computer vision problem. Here, let me show you some pictures. Do you see what I see?
It’s right there, see? From this angle, perhaps? How about a close-up?
The bar lighting! The shades are made from repurposed player piano rolls! I spoke with the barkeep who confirmed my observations, but confessed not to know which tunes had been sacrificed for the sake of our ambiance!

Most patrons have been happy to write this off as a cool detail, a fun little mystery, but not I! I’m not satisfied with not knowing! I’m an FRL nerd who knows a thing or two about computer vision. (Virtual) reality bends to my will!
And so, to both the barkeep and to our FRL blog readers, I’m challenging myself to write an app to scan, decode, and play back player piano rolls on my phone. I’ve got a reservation set for a month from now; will it be enough time? And more interestingly, what songs might we uncover hiding in plain sight?
‘Til next writing!
P.S. Restaurant is The Dessert Bar at Patisserie Chanson on 23rd Street (click for map). Pictures (shamelessly) taken from Google Image Search.
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