SofiArt

Musical Glove Evolution

Click to watch demonstration

I recently developed a software instrument in Max for Live (M4L) that enabled me to perform with the musical glove.  The sounds are based on a custom pythagorean tuning.  At the moment the instrument uses three continuous controllers and two digital switches.  It is challenging to establish a steady stream of sensor data, so I programmed the flakiness of the glove into controllers that didn’t mind some randomness.  The result is quite interesting as long as this doesn’t happen with the wrong parameter.  The next step is to integrate interactive visuals with the musical glove.

The latest version of the Musical Glove  uses continuous controllers and switches affecting parameters such as rhythm, pitch, and delay. The gloves went through multiple design variations.  In the current design I am using soft switches made of conductive fabric and tightly sewed the remaining wire wrap onto the surface of the glove.  Other newer variations of the glove using different conductive fabrics have failed to perform better than the original.  As I found out some conductive fabrics, especially stretch fabrics loose their conductivity with heat causing breaks in the lines.  A new iteration of the glove is currently in development.  The musical gloves were shown at a performance with the band Machine 475 at the Gulu-Gulu Cafe, in Salem, MA, March 26th.

Musical Glove Prototype

Click to watch
Prototype

Tags: interactive glove, muical gloves, musical interface, wearable interfaces

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 1:55 am and is filed under Aural Aura, interactive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.