Sound Engineer Simon Britton was born in Newcastle, but moved to New York in the late 1980s. He invented the Ceremonial Bugle, a little electronic insert which slips into a real bugle. Press the red play button, wait 5 seconds, and it will play 'Taps'. The sound is generated by a speaker and a 40 watt amp. It resonates through the horn, apparently sounding reasonably realistic. Despite costing $525, business is good. Every day, 1,800 former US service personnel die. They all have the right to a military funeral, and the 500-odd military buglers are completely overworked. In 1999, Congress passed a law allowing a recorded version of Taps to be played at military funerals, but families were dismayed to see a boombox instead of a bugler. The Ceremonial Bugle solves the problem, and the Pentagon has ordered 700. Despite irritated real buglers and reports of people buying a Ceremonial Bugle then charging $50 to play at funerals, they've been generally successful. His updated version contains a chip which can play 10 different calls. The full story is in this fantastic article from the St Petersburg (Florida) Times.