Pete's Sonic Art Research

Fan + Walkman = Turntable

2011-11-23T12:24:00.001Z

Nice idea using a few simple and cheap components. More info on the project homepage.

music box card

2011-11-09T11:49:00.000Z

Nice idea for a business card.

Project homepage: http://richard.ritornell.at/index.php?show=musicbox_cards&w=1

Paper Speakers

2011-11-09T10:57:00.003Z

Paper speakers from the MIT High-Low Tech lab. Great idea!
Project page: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1372

Video link: http://youtu.be/y1F5Gg4bG3o

Tangible Mario

2011-09-13T14:19:00.001+01:00

This is a great idea. I've been considering using the ChronoTape as a scrolling shooter and this provides some inspiration of what can be done with a tangible scrolling platform game...

BeatBearing remake (in case!)

2011-09-12T11:53:00.000+01:00

A video of a really good BeatBearing remake by Levi Czika and Brandon Henderson. They've managed to even fit the whole thing in a portable case!
[on YouTube]

pocopoco tangible sequencer

2011-08-18T13:41:00.000+01:00

Interesting tangible sequencer.

Old Sequencer

2011-08-18T12:50:00.000+01:00

An early computer sequencer. Starts with a bit of Bach, but gets quite chip-tune towards the end.

Culture Lab Visit + Waves VJ

2011-06-16T12:01:00.001+01:00

I visited the Newcastle Culture Lab in Newcastle last week to work on a set of Cultural probes with Madeline Balaam as part of the PATINA project (more info about the probes on the PATINA blog!).
While I was there I was given a demo of the Waves VJ multitouch system by Jon Hook. It's a synthesis based VJ system where multiple generative elements are added and combined to create complex 3D images. I was impressed by the 'jog-roller' on the left of the screen that lets you cue and play the synthesised patterns in time with the music. More info here and on Jon's homepage.

video link: YouTube - Waves - Multi-Touch VJ Interface

Daito Manabe Sculpture

2011-05-26T10:10:00.001+01:00

Interesting lit-up ball sculpture/sound work by Daito Manabe. Full info here:
http://daito.ws/dl/particles_0406.pdf

video link:
YouTube - particles at YCAM

codebending

2011-05-14T12:59:00.001+01:00

CodeBending looks like a lot of fun, especially with the patching and arcade buttons...
[illucia project homepage]

1.5 million hits!

2011-05-09T23:00:00.001+01:00

Yikes - at some point over the weekend the original BeatBearing video hit one and a half million views on YouTube. I'd like to thank the YouTube user "iwouldlikemuffin1" for being 1500000th and pointing this out as I probably wouldn't have spotted otherwise!

Video below!

[BeatBearing on YouTube]

SimCity style music sequencer

2011-04-27T17:38:00.001+01:00

Have a go here: http://isleoftune.com/

[spotted on CreateDigitalMusic]

ball bearing music robot

2011-04-24T09:45:00.001+01:00

Another instrument with ball bearings - this time robotic. Would be great trying to use this as a sequencer. Would make a great actuated BeatBearing!
More info on the project homepage.

[video link: YouTube - NRW2011: RobOrchestra Vibratron]
[spotted on the MAKE blog]

Robin's Euclidean Sequencer

2011-03-04T12:52:00.001Z

Roll up, roll up, get your Euclidean Sequencers over here.

This is Robin's new version of his Euclidean MIDI Sequencer...

(note, Max4Live is required!)

Esper Domino

2011-03-04T12:44:00.001Z

Really nice project with a lot of possibilities. As usual, I'm now pondering how this could be used as a music sequencer...

Project page: http://works.jarashi.tv/

[spotted on CreativeApplications]
[video link: エスパードミノ on Vimeo]

Tape-Synth!

2011-02-19T19:39:00.001Z

I hope these guys win the 555 contest for making this punch-tape synthesiser. I've always though about making something like this during my PhD as it's a great example of the tangible manipulation of music.

A music player like this definitely wouldn't be out of place in A Clockwork Orange burbling away like a portable Wendy Carlos Moog rig.

[spotted on the Make Blog]
[video: YouTube - 555 Contest Entry - Synthanola]

Don Norman Affordances Video

2011-02-16T15:58:00.001Z

A video made in 1994 by Don Norman about affordances. It's interesting to see it explained by in a nice simple way.

[spotted on the Interaction-Design.org FaceBook page]

[video: YouTube - Affordances]

Sifteo Pong

2011-02-15T09:23:00.001Z

Nice 'Pong'-style demo on the Sifteo. Can't wait to see how the Sifteo gets used for music.

[spotted on the Sifteo Blog]

[video: YouTube - Sifteo Pong Experiments]

Book of Stamps

2011-02-10T18:00:00.001Z

The "Book of Stamps" is a travel guide between sonic landscapes fromcities to urban cultures. The sheets of the book provide a recordingsurface and the ink stamps provide the ability to place sounds in the book.Together they act as an interactive tangible interface for a variety of time based musical tasks that form a collaborative composition by its users. When the user turns the pages to other already stamped pages, it lends him or her the impression that they are actually traveling between different places.

Quote from YouTube: BookOfStamps PageTurning

Printable Instruments

2011-01-12T23:10:00.001Z

I really like the idea of 3D printing an instrument...
Spotted here:
A Flute Made on a 3D Printer, and the Possibilities to Come

PhD Thesis!

2011-01-03T11:41:00.001Z

Here's a late christmas present for you all... I've finally got around to
putting the PhD thesis up on my website! If you're interested, or just need a quick and surefire method of sending yourself to sleep, then you can either visit my website here:
www.peteinfo.com/phd

or you can download it directly from here:
Pete's PhD Thesis

...the title is "The Control and Representation of Time in Tangible User Interfaces"

Enjoy!

(photo credits go to Gus Sutherland for the pic above)

shocking video

2010-12-30T11:50:00.001Z

Seems like a fairly painful way to make a music video (well at least for Daito Manabe's friends!).

video link:YouTube - electric stimulus to face -test4 ( Daito Manabe 's friends )

more balls and beats!

2010-11-30T18:11:00.001Z

Just spotted this tangible step sequencer on Synthtopia, I like the way that the webcam is underneath so that it avoids occlusion problems. Nicely done - shame that the webcam isn't also used to track different colours in the same way as the bubblegum or skittle sequencers though. The project was built using SensoMusic Usine.

YouTube - "UTS-1" - Tangible Step Sequencer powered by Sensomusic Usine

Zork Automated Typewriter

2010-11-01T10:46:00.001Z

This project, by Jonathan Guberman, is interesting from the Tangible User Interface perspective as it physically types the words onto the same piece of paper as you are typing on. In short, this means that the input (your typing) occurs through the same physical means as the output (the computers typing)... this is in contrast to the laptop, where there is a disconnect between the users input (on the keyboard) and the computers output (on the screen).
Anyway, in addition to being interested in the project from the TUI perspective, it also happens to play Zork as shown in the video below:

More info on the project homepage.
[via: Make]

Hackvision

2010-10-27T16:25:00.001+01:00

I'm liking the look of this DIY Arduino-based video game system. Looks simple to program and fun to use... and at not much more in price than an Arduino. More info on the Hackvision project site.

YouTube - Hackvision Demo
[spotted on MAKEblog]

cubelets

2010-10-19T10:06:00.001+01:00

I first saw this project a year or so ago at the Tangible & Embedded Interfaces conference in Cambridge (TEI'09). The Cubelets are a modular robot construction kit that looks like a lot of fun to play with... and are now apparently available for pre-order. Although aimed for use by children I can already think of some great ways to use this for physical sketching.

Ball Bearing Synth

2010-09-29T11:09:00.000+01:00

An interesting piezo-triggered analogue synth setup... Another instrument to add to the inevitable ball-bearing synth orchestra!
More information on the project's homepage (if your Japanese is good!) http://www.denhaku.com/
[via: Synthtopia]

Rec/Play Pen

2010-09-06T15:04:00.001+01:00

I like the simplicity of this project by Oscar Diaz and Yuri Suzuki. One pen is filled with magnetic ink and has a record head that trails the line you draw. A second pen has a play head, that can play sounds from the magnetic lines. I spotted this project on the PixelSumo blog. More information and pictures can be found on the project page: here. Video below:

Font-Synth

2010-09-04T16:00:00.000+01:00

Really liking the look of the MeekFM font-synth. It gives you hands on control of a fonts parameters, in a similar manner to an analogue synthesiser. The fonts also create sounds dependent on the shape, so allow audiovisual performance. Video of it's operation below:

Ferromagnetic Input Device (with ball bearings!)

2010-08-13T11:08:00.001+01:00

An interesting project from Microsoft Research that uses an array of magnetic sensors to allow the detection of "any ferrous object placed on or near its surface". The BeatBearing is referenced (in the paper below) as a possible future application, which would allow the sensing of object above the surface, and other properties such as rotation of the ball bearings. Both of these features would open up a whole lot of new possibilities!

Paper link: A Reconfigurable Ferromagnetic Input Device - Microsoft Research

Video link: YouTube

Collapsable Interface

2010-07-19T22:51:00.001+01:00

Had heard of this before, but hadn't seen the video. Looks like an interesting direction for tangibly interacting with screen media. Would be great to see a selection of different collapsable tools (particularly ones for manipulating sounds!)
[via: Make]

Velosynth!

2010-07-12T09:07:00.001+01:00

This project combines two things I love - synths and bikes. Awesome idea!
More info at velosynth.com

Programmable Origami

2010-06-29T13:16:00.001+01:00

"One step closer to a world of programmable matter"

A paper detailing the work can be found here.

[via: Make]

45s BeatBearing Demo

2010-06-21T10:28:00.001+01:00

A quick (45 second) BeatBearing demonstration I put together for use in my viva presentation.

Carbon Turntable Sequencer

2010-06-18T14:21:00.001+01:00

Liking the look of this turntable sequencer by Daniel Skoglund. There's some more of his music on his myspace page ("kretsar" has a nice pops'n'clicks ambient vibe).
[via: Synthtopia]

LuminAR

2010-06-11T10:58:00.000+01:00

An interesting update of the I/O bulb & Luminous Room concept.
[via: Make]

PhD studentship in SARC

2010-05-31T11:04:00.001+01:00

There's a PhD studentship available in SARC, and is so far untaken. So if you have an interest in physical modelling, microprocessors and design new musical instruments then have a look at the description below (only 2 weeks left to apply!).
[link to full info]

Principal Supervisor: Professor Roger Woods

Project Description:
Considerable interest exists in creating new types of musical instruments, particularly those that can accurately model existing instruments; in principle, it is possible to model a mechanical system such as drum skin or a string using “physical modelling”. This physical model can then be used as the basis to create a new, acoustic-sounding musical instrument for highly nuanced performance that, through the physicality of the control parameters, affords a learnability and virtuosity that is similar to that of traditional acoustic instruments.

The principal aspect is the extended range of design and control options, such as the adjustment of material and geometrical properties that are now available to the player to exploit. To fully exploit the musical potential, crude simplifications should be avoided but at the same time the instrument must run in real-time.

Whilst processor architectures, e.g. microprocessor DSP processors, give high performance, it is only by deriving application-specific processor solutions using for example, field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology that these performance requirements can start to be met. However it is not just a case of implementing these models but also about ensuring an effective design process, which involves close interaction and requires programming flexibilities that can be effectuated by designing tools for mapping algorithms to hardware architectures.

Objectives:
• To investigate the development of programmable architectures for physical models.
• To research architectures and tools that will enable rapid realisation of a range of physical modelling algorithms.
• To undertake the design and implementation of such models in close collaboration with performers and other researchers in order to fine-tune the control specificities of the instruments.
• To deliver and explore novel, working instruments.

Academic Requirements:
A minimum of a 2.1 honours degree or equivalent in Electrical and Electronic Engineering or relevant
degree is required.
Start Date: 1 October 2010
Duration: 3 years

DEADLINE: Monday 14 June 2010

Simple hand tracking

2010-05-23T10:58:00.001+01:00

Simple and colourful hand-gesture tracking...
A project by Robert Wang and Jovan Popović
[via wired]

OHP Sequencer

2010-05-14T12:05:00.001+01:00

Always liked the idea of using an overhead projector for a sequencer, glad to see one in action!
Project by Blair Neal
[via: MAKE]

EARS circuit bending

2010-05-09T09:41:00.001+01:00

The Electronic Art Research Society (EARS) are holding a circuit bending workshop at Lawrence St Studios, 17:30-19:30 this Tuesday (11th May). If you're in Belfast and have an old keyboard/toy/noisemaker to take apart then come along!
(I also used this as an excuse to illustrate a speak & spell for the poster above)

Resounding Rivers

2010-05-07T10:13:00.001+01:00

Went to the opening Matt's 'resounding rivers' project last night. I recommend going along to some of the sites while it's on!
Theres a BBC article about the project, and the full blurb is below:

At PLACE and sites across Belfast City Centre
Launching Thursday 6th May, 6-9pm
Runs until Saturday 5th June 2010
Belfast’s forgotten rivers, waterways and associated industries have been given a renewed presence within the city. Six sound installations have been assembled at six different sites across the city. Each installation can be heard out in the street, presented as an enhancement of the everyday sound space. Each site has been selected because it is situated upon, or by, the previous route of one of Belfast’s three central rivers. Two of these rivers, the Farset and Blackstaff, no longer flow over ground – they are constricted to large pipes running beneath the city. The third river, the Lagan, is still a prominent feature in Belfast but was once much wider. By deepening the Lagan’s channel, a great deal of land has been reclaimed and built upon.
The sound that is presented by each installation is a re-imagining of what the city’s buried and constricted rivers and waterways might once have sounded like. Each of the six sites would have had a different relationship with its respective water source, and this is reflected in the delivered sound. In order to achieve this re-imagining, locations in Northern Ireland with similar water features to those previously found in Belfast have been visited and recorded.
Pick up a map at PLACE!
Listen at the venues below, 9.30am – 5.30pm every day, and Thursdays until 9pm:
PLACE, 40 Fountain Street
Kelly’s Cellars, 30-32 Bank Street
Bittles Bar, 103 Victoria Street
Cloth Ear, 35 Waring Street
Waterfront Hall, 2 Lanyon Place
BBC Broadcasting House, 25 Ormeau Avenue
Project conception, audio production and installation by Matt Green.
Graphic design and video installation by Ryan O’Reilly.
Advice and guidance by Ruairí Ó Baoill.
Resounding Rivers was made possible by funding from Belfast City Council.

Open-Jack!

2010-04-17T16:31:00.001+01:00

EARS are putting on an open-jack night on Thursday 29th April at the Ad-Hoc Gallery. I designed/illustrated the poster to pair up with the style of the VJ workshop (see previous post). Was a good night last time, and now the PhD is submitted I think I'll get something together for it... I recommend going if you're in Belfast!

EARS VJ/Visuals Workshop

2010-04-17T16:24:00.001+01:00

I designed this poster for the Electronic Arts Research Society (EARS) workshop being held on Wednesday 21st April in SARC. Looks like an interesting workshop and I recommend going along if you're in the vicinity!

BBC radio interview

2010-04-16T16:30:00.000+01:00

Was interviewed this afternoon by BBC radio Ulster about the BeatBearing project. Apparently it should be appearing in tomorrows `What's Next' program at noon (with a repeat on Monday at 19:30). One benefit of the interview was that in preparing the demo I've managed to get the BeatBearing to sync fairly reliably with Ableton Live - a feature that's always been a little shaky before. I'll attempt to get the video evidence of this up soon!

PhD thesis printed-on-demand

2010-04-13T12:53:00.001+01:00

I decided to try out Lulu's print-on-demand service as a cheap way of binding the (undefended) PhD thesis, and just got the books through, about one week later. I'm really pleased with the result, especially given each one only cost £3.75. I used the `Crown Quarto' size stock to get maximum width for the margin notes, and the LaTex typesetting seems to have done the trick at keeping everything neat and well-spaced.
Will have to investigate hardback binding for doing the final version after the viva (and inevitable corrections).

Mapping Time

2010-04-08T09:27:00.001+01:00

Cartographies of Time - Daniel Rosenberg , Anthony Grafton

What does history look like? How do you draw time?

From the most ancient images to the contemporary, the line has served as the central figure in the representation of time. The linear metaphor is ubiquitous in everyday visual representations of time—in almanacs, calendars, charts, and graphs of all sorts. Even our everyday speech is filled with talk of time having a "before" and an "after" or being "long" and "short." The timeline is such a familiar part of our mental furniture that it is sometimes hard to remember that we invented it in the first place. And yet, in its modern form, the timeline is not even 250 years old. The story of what came before has never been fully told, until now.

This looks like an interesting book on the visual representation of time. It will be interested to find out (when it's available) whether it has many examples of the tangible representation of time hidden in there. Either way, I'm sure it will provide inspiration for designing new temporal-TUIs.
For a similar look at the visualisation of time (in HCI), Marilyn Mitchell has a number of interesting papers including "Representations of time in computer interface design" [pdf direct link].

Bounce-Bearing

2010-03-20T22:46:00.001Z

Just been tipped off about this flying ball-bearing music machine (thanks Ben!). Would be great to combine this with the BeatBearing somehow, there's a lot of possible design variations...

BEARINGS GLOCKEN is a musical instrument that automatically performs a glockenspiel using steel ball for bearings, said to be the world's most perfect sphere on earth.
The steel ball is finished into a nearly perfect sphere, and has the property of uninformly bouncing back, over and over.
BEARINGS GLOCKEN uses this property in a musical instrument.

Project website: http://www.bearings-glocken.jp/en/about/
[video link: YouTube - "etude" BEARINGS GLOCKEN II - IN PROGRESS]

Framing Tangible Interaction Frameworks

2010-03-19T11:52:00.001Z

I'm not sure how I missed this, only finding it at the last minute of writing up the thesis. An interesting paper giving an overview of TUI frameworks up to April 2009 (by Ali Mazelek and Elise Van Den Hoven).

[direct PDF link from SynLab]

[published here]

Clavilux 2000

2010-03-16T16:10:00.001Z

Nice method of visualising notes in time and the resulting temporal structure of the music. Blurb from the video below:

For every note played on the keyboard a new visual element appears in form of a stripe, which follows in its dimensions, position and speed the way the particular key was stroke. Colours give the viewer and listener an impression of the harmonic relations: Each key has it's own color scheme and "wrong" notes stand out in contrasting colors.
All stripes stay and overlap each other in an additive way, so at the end a kind of pattern remains – a summary of the music – which will be always unique since the notes of the composition aswell as the interpretation of the piano player are influencing the outcome. Furthermore the piano player can switch between the standart 2d view and an additional 3d view of the visualization while playing.

[via: Create Digital Music] (follow this link for a comparison of this project to Toshio Iwai's similar project)

Skin Communication Tangibles

2010-03-16T14:00:00.001Z

Here's an idea: Tangible interfaces where data is transferred between the tangible object via the users skin. No need for wireless communication, and there may be a way of using this technology for sensing which tangibles the user is holding. Interesting stuff.

"Gadget geeks, prepare to get wired in a whole new way — researchers at Korea University in Seoul recently discovered a way to transmit data directly through the human body at broadband speeds by using the arm as a conduit. The researchers placed two electrodes 12 inches apart on a subject’s skin and were able to clock data transmission rates of 10 megabits per second."

[via: Inhabitat]

Thesis Word-Cloud

2010-03-15T23:15:00.001Z

The 500 most common words in my thesis (excluding very common words and numbers)... 30 seconds looking over this and you should be half way to understanding what my thesis is about!

[click on the cloud for HUGE version]

Rotary Tangible Sequencer

2010-03-15T13:41:00.001Z

This is a great project. Sticking magnets on to a baked-ban can allows you to program beats and arpeggios. I was thinking of making a rotary version of the BeatBearing at one point. Glad to see that something similar has been made! Blurb from youtube video below:

One empty baked bean tin, some lego and a stack of little magnets... stick magnets on the tin and slide them about to 'program' the sequencer, then grab hold of the 'transport control' and crank away.... The breadboard contains 5 hall-effect switches and a PIC16F688 to generate MIDI note on/off information. This is piped to Reason in the first half of the clip and to a Dave Smith Mopho synth in the second half.
I reckon with a baked bean tin about 16ft in diameter and about 25,000 magnets you could dump your sequencer software.. and you'd be getting some good aerobic exercise to boot :o)

[via:Synthtopia]

Tape-Glove

2010-03-12T22:27:00.001Z

Great way of directly connecting with sound.

"This interactive sound installation deals with exploring the physical connection between people and technology. A tangible user interface, taking the form of a glove is worn by the participant as they are invited to interact with an analogue tape surface. As the glove comes in contact with the tape, sound is generated and can be manipulated via touch and movement."

More info and photos here: http://signaltonoise1.blogspot.com/
[via: Synthtopia]

Two augmented perspective projects

2010-03-08T14:31:00.001Z

Two interesting ways of using user-tracking to create a shifting perspective. Great thing is that no 3D glasses are required!

[via: CreativeApplications.Net]

[via: TAT]

Brian's Video Work

2010-02-19T11:17:00.001Z

Audio-visual work from Brian Cullen, check out his YouTube channel for more videos. This one is a little like Autechre's Gantz Graf with creatures.

Jazari

2010-02-19T10:49:00.001Z

It would be interesting to know the controller mapping between the Wiimotes and the drums... looks like a combination of direct triggering and automatic rhythms.

[via: Create Digital Music]

Relief Project at TEI'10

2010-02-18T12:36:00.001Z

Saw this project, called Relief at the TEI conference, but didn't have chance to take a video as I was busy at my poster (so was glad to spot this one). It Looks like an interesting take on 3D-terrain tangibles.

Relief is an actuated tabletop display, which is able to render and animate three-dimensional shapes with a malleable surface. It allows users to experience and form digital models like geographical terrain in an intuitive manner. The tabletop surface is actuated by an array of 120 motorized pins, which are controlled with a platform built upon open-source hardware and software tools. Each pin can be addressed individually and senses user input like pulling and pushing.

If you like this project, it's also worth looking at another project from the MIT media lab called Sandscape.

[via: Make: Online : Relief: 3D interactive maps]

Tenori-on Illustration

2010-02-12T23:39:00.001Z

Getting quicker at using illustrator for the thesis illustrations... Still, at half an hour per illustration this is going to take a while for the whole thesis.

iProcessing

2010-02-11T15:54:00.001Z

Yesterday I posted about a MaxMSP-iPhone bridge, now it seems you can run Processing applications on the iPhone too...
more info here: http://luckybite.com/iprocessing/

[via: Interaction Design Umeå]

AR possibilities

2010-02-10T10:41:00.001Z

Augmented (hyper)Reality by Keiichi Matsuda

[via: Timo Arnall | Design, media & research]

MaxMSP-iPhone bridge

2010-02-09T13:34:00.001Z

This looks like an interesting app. Wonder if it works inside of MaxForLive?
[via: CreativeApplications.Net]

OrbiTone

2010-02-05T21:54:00.001Z

Nice large-scale tangible sequencer called the OrbiTone.
[via: CreativeApplications]

Dubious Tangible Interface Equation (#1)

2010-02-05T20:48:00.001Z

I just bought 50 real cardboard folders to organise my PhD thesis. This has led me to wonder how much it would cost to physically replace all the digital folders currently in the 'PhD' folder on my laptop (whilst also providing a short procrastination exercise to avoid doing writing).

PhD folder on the laptop contains 3834 folders (and a total of 47,578 items)
Cardboard folders are 20p each.
Total to replace virtual folders with real ones = £766.80

This is rather expensive, and shows that even tangible user interfaces that use paper and card for the tangible objects (such as the D-Touch system) aren't really scalable to the same degree as a purely digital systems if used in a one-to-one manner. I think a big problem for tangible interfaces if they are going to become regularly used is the scalability of the interface and importantly the cost of each tangible. However, it would be great if something like the Siftables only cost 20p each!

Quick terminal tip from here on how to count folders in a hierarchy:
find "PhD/" \! -name "*.*" | wc -l

TEI workshop video

2010-02-03T20:52:00.001Z

A video summary of the TEI'10 workshops held around the MIT media lab. I make a short appearance soldering a wooden breadboard at 0:37...

TEI'10 GSC Slides

2010-02-02T15:46:00.001Z

Slides from my presentation at the graduate student consortium at TEI'10

Ultrasound Holography

2010-02-02T14:31:00.001Z

Interesting use of ultrasound to add a form of haptic feedback to a holographic display. The raindrop demo looks interesting, shame there doesn't seem to be any sound!
Spotted on: TAT - Mobile User Interface Blog: Touchable Holography

Photos from TEI'10

2010-02-02T13:35:00.001Z

Some photos taken over the week at TEI'10. Both on Picassa & Flickr.

Demos at TEI - Drawdio

2010-02-02T12:42:00.001Z

Unfortunately didn't get chance to have a play, but this was being demo'd during the MIT media lab open house. A really simple (in a good way) tangible interface that lets you turn pencil tracks or water into a theremin-like instrument.
link: drawdio - a pencil that lets you draw music

TEI'10 roundup

2010-02-01T13:17:00.001Z

Back in Belfast from the TEI'10 conference in Cambridge (Boston) last week. There were a lot of interesting projects, posters and talks this year, and it was great to meet everyone. I'll be posting pictures, videos and links over the next few days!

TEI'10 poster

2010-01-20T16:39:00.001Z

I'll be attending TEI'10 this weekend and next week (the 4th international conference on tangible, embedded and embodied interaction), and taking part in the graduate student consortium. As well as the GSC day I'll be taking part in the poster session. A copy of the poster I'll be presenting is above (and a full un-pixellated pdf here). I'll hopefully have chance over the next week to keep the blog updated with interesting projects from the conference.

Augmented Reality Thursday

2010-01-14T09:25:00.001Z

Two interesting AR posts:

Augmented Reality Roundup from PixelSumo
ARDJ MIDI tool via AudioLemon

I particularly like the LevelHead project shown in the AR roundup. Here's the video:

2 Projected Augmented Reality Projects

2009-12-07T11:02:00.001Z

Two videos of Augmented Reality (AR) projection projects. I'd seen Johnny Lee's projects (top video) before, but Marco Tempest's video is interesting because it shows how the technology can be taken to the street (bottom video).
Spotted on: Create Digital Motion

Chris Corsano and Profound Sound Trio

2009-11-26T21:54:00.001Z

Couple of videos from gigs in the last two weeks at SARC. Chris Corsano, and the Profound Sound Trio...

Novation Launchpad Patches

2009-11-26T12:30:00.001Z

A couple of patches by Sebastian Tomczak (LittleScale) show how Novation's Launchpad can be used for other purposes. I'm looking forward to getting one to try these out!

little-scale: Novation Launchpad: Waveform Editor

little-scale: Novation Launchpad: Linear Sequencer

Hawtin's Traktor Setup

2009-11-23T21:28:00.001Z

Richie Hawtin' Traktor setup

via ResidentAdvisor

Interesting video of how Richie Hawtin sets up a four-deck mix. This is relevant to the mapping problem in tangible interface research, and how to use physical controls without ending up with a complex mess.

paper, animation, sound

2009-11-23T12:38:00.001Z

Really nice animation where each frame has been printed out on paper. I like the way that the virtual graphics have been made more tangible. Hopefully it won't be long until e-ink looks this good!
Made by Benjamin Ducroz (....>>>ducroz.com)
Spotted on: CreativeApplications.Net

Tangible Interface Vimeo Collection

2009-11-03T23:07:00.001Z

Good collection of tangible user interfaces on Vimeo...

DataTiles

2009-11-03T22:34:00.001Z

Just been writing up on the DataTiles in the background section of my thesis, and realised I'd never seen them in action. A quick search found this video. A very modular tangible interface with lots of possible design possibilities.

Laser Cave

2009-09-17T21:58:00.001+01:00

Wow. Tangible interfaces need to be able to light up objects like this!
Video by Emmett Feldman / Suryummy.
Spotted on Create Digital Motion.

Tangible Tadpole

2009-09-11T19:18:00.001+01:00

Although a simple musical instrument, this has a really interesting tangible method of shaping the sound. The 'Otamatone' is made by Maywa Denki. See the video for a thorough explanation!

Spotted on the Create Digital Music blog.

Paper and Pen Instrument

2009-09-07T21:41:00.001+01:00

Nice video by Charlie North that combines some of the main elements of my PhD - Sketching, Interaction Design, Tangible Interfaces and Music. I particularly like the way that the scrunching up of the paper relates to the low-pass filter... would be great to see a fully functional version of this type of interface!
Spotted on: Create Digital Music

Metal Drone Instrument

2009-09-04T23:28:00.001+01:00

Nice video on a very physical musical interface. We were aiming for this kind of thing when we designed the DAMPER (also known as the Edgetrimmer).
via: Make: Online : Tristan Shone's Dub and Drone Machines

BeatBearing Outside ISEA

2009-08-26T09:47:00.001+01:00

Short performance on the BeatBearing today in a container Outside ISEA, accompanying Robin Price's installation. Installation will run from 1pm-2pm. Performance will likely happen for about ten minutes towards the end.

Interesting temporal interaction

2009-08-11T22:42:00.001+01:00

This seems an interesting way to manipulate temporal media, it would be great to see something like this implemented with a tangible interface. I imagine the result would be similar to the wobbly time-lines in Donnie Darko that show the future movement of people and objects... I guess.

More info here:
http://hci.rwth-aachen.de/dragon

Laser Tangibles

2009-08-04T14:03:00.001+01:00

Wow. Anyone fancy building this into the BeatBearing mkII?
[via synthtopia]

Virtual Gravity

2009-07-19T20:48:00.001+01:00

virtual gravity - the physical weight of data from Sillenet on Vimeo.

It's been over a month since the last post due to concentrating on the thesis write-up, so I thought I'd get back into the swing of things with a few quick posts. Here's an interesting project by Silke Hilsing that uses 'virtual gravity' to weigh two data sets. Would be great to see this system used in a musical context. [via Creative Applications]. More info can be seen on the project blog: http://www.silkehilsing.de/diplomblog/

Robin Price's "Journey Through a Burning Brain"

2009-05-26T17:58:00.003+01:00

The video above documents Robin Price's "Journey Through a Burning Brain" installation, as shown at the TWO thousand + NINE symposium held in SARC last week. The simple exterior appearance of an old TV and oversized remote control hides a complex two-laptop system that harvests YouTube video's based around a keyword, before segmenting the videos and rearranging them with a Euclidean rhythm generator, finally spitting out the visuals through a Rutt Etra video synth. Using the remote, you can select different videos which in turn influences which videos are being downloaded in real-time during the installation. For more info visit the original post by Robin.

video of first BeatBearing MAKE project

2009-05-21T09:54:00.005+01:00

This is the first video I've seen of a completed MAKEzine BeatBearing. Many thanks to 'awolfe63' for putting this up. Another BeatBearing build is being documented in this blog: http://jsavaglio.wordpress.com/.If anyone has any other BeatBearing videos (including unfinished projects) please send me the link!
Also, if anyone is looking for tips, or has some of their own to share, then please have a look in the forum: www.beatbearing.co.uk/make.html

Calling all Makers!

2009-03-29T17:46:00.007+01:00

The MAKE magazine article showing how to build your own BeatBearing is now out digitally and on the news racks. You can have a look at a digital preview here. Here's the blurb:

"MAKE Volume 17 goes really old school with the Lost Knowledge issue, featuring projects and articles covering the steampunk scene, makers creating their own alternative Victorian world through modified computers, phones, cars, costumes, and other fantastic creations. Projects will include an elegant Wimshurst Influence Machine, an electrostatic generator built entirely from Home Depot parts, a "Florentine Flask" siphon coffee brewer, and a tea cup-powered Stirling Engine. The section will also cover watchmaking, letterpress, the early multimedia art of William Blake, and other wondrous and lost (or fading) pre-20th century technologies."

If you or anyone you know ends up making a BeatBearing it would be great to see some photos of the results. I'm trying to gather together as many examples as possible to use as design cases for my PhD thesis. This is a chance for your project to immortalised and documented in the same thesis as the original BeatBearing, so please get in contact with me at: pete [at] petecube [dot] com.
An alternate method is to add your project to the relevant section of the BeatBearing forum. This forum may also be useful for finding tips and revisions to the design. Please post in the forum first before directly emailing me with questions, as this will benefit all other makers with the same problem!

Radio Interviews

2009-03-15T23:10:00.000Z

A couple of new radio interviews with me talking about the BeatBearing:

"Morning Ireland" on RTE. This interview also includes my PhD supervisor Sile O'Modhrain and SARC colleague Mark McKeague. Mark talks about his Twitter radio project - I'll include the video below. Thanks to Eimear Lowe for doing the interview. You can download/listen to the interview here: [mp3] or [stream]
"Phantom Daily" on Dublin's Phantom 105.2 fm. In this interview I get to waffle on about the Tenori-on, acid house and free jazz amongst other things BeatBearing related. Thanks to Róisín O'Dea and Simon Maher for the interview. You can listen/download the interview from here: [mp3]

p.s. More info on Mark's Twitter Radio in this BBC story

www.beatbearing.co.uk

2009-03-03T22:42:00.001Z

Have set up a project site for the BeatBearing:

www.beatbearing.co.uk

The main feature is a forum for sharing tips on making your own BeatBearing. The aim is to add more content over the next month including links to academic papers, similar projects, and hopefully details of other peoples BeatBearing projects now that MAKEzine vol.17 is out!

Physical Sketching Slides

2009-02-26T23:08:00.000Z

I've given this talk a few times now. It started with an introduction to physical sketching for a workshop on stylistic interaction at the Tweak festival in Limerick, and then has been modified slightly for presentation to MA students in SARC. This is the most recent version, and contains a short exercise at the end for using physical sketching in the explorative design stage of a novel musical instrument.

The talk is based upon Bill Buxton's book "Sketching User Experiences".

The BeatBearing is used as a design example, to help illustrate the difference between sketching and prototyping in the design process.

David Merrill's Siftables

2009-02-26T10:24:00.003Z

Spotted David Merrill's Siftables project in the New Scientist yesterday, then came across this talk he gave at TED. I like the idea of using the Siftables as a music controller/instrument, but I think too much functionality is being packed into each device. Perhaps the music-Siftables will get really interesting when each block is smaller and cheaper, so that you could use a few hundred of them at the same time.
Below is a video of just the music application:
Siftables Music Sequencer from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.

Gus' BeatBearing Interview

2009-02-09T12:10:00.003Z

Here's the interview of me talking about the BeatBearing project recorded, directed, and edited by Gus Sutherland. The interview was made as coursework for Gus' film MA at Queens University Belfast. The interview was made just before Christmas, and preceded (and perhaps indirectly triggered) the recent publicity of the BeatBearing.

Kugeliger Klangcomputer

2009-01-29T16:43:00.005Z

I had a telephone interview last week with Deutschlandfunk, a German national radio station, for their science and technology program. There is an accompanying online article, and there is also an mp3 of the interview. Google translate comes in handy for a translated version of the article.
I like the translation of BeatBearing to "Kugeliger Klangcomputer" or "spherical sound-computer". It's definitely got a good onomatopoeic ring to it.
Thanks goes to Frank Groteluschen for the interview.

BeatBearing on BBC newsline

2009-01-29T10:30:00.006Z

The BeatBearing appeared on BBC newsline (Northern Ireland) on Tuesday. The online article contains a streamable clip of the extended feature, or you can download it from here:
Download small version - 6MB (same video as above)
Download large version - 40MB

Thanks to Chris Page (shown above) for organising, filming and editing the interview!

BeatBearing on BBC newsline at 6:30 tonight

2009-01-26T16:57:00.005Z

The BeatBearing (and myself) will be on BBC Newsline Northern Ireland tonight at 6:30pm. You can watch the full extended interview here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7852209.stm
And the online article is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7784669.stm

BeatBearing in the Times Online

2009-01-26T11:33:00.005Z

An article on the BeatBearing is in the Times Online. Thanks to David Sharrock for the interview, and Alan Lewis for the photos (which I think are only going to appear in the print version, which should be out in the next couple of days). You can view the article here:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5574138.ece

BeatBearing on UTV

2009-01-26T11:13:00.011Z

I had an interview on UTV last Thursday where I talked about the BeatBearing project and gave a brief demonstration. You can watch it above, or download it here:
Download small version - same as above (9MB)
Download full size version - (65MB)
There is also an online article.

Thanks to the UTV crew (shown above) for doing the interview - Sinead Johnson, Gary Mawhinney, Ashley Harris and Brian Newman. This was my first interview for television, and they did a great job of making it less nervewracking than I thought it may be!

BeatBearing on BBC Radio Ulster

2009-01-19T15:13:00.007Z

Last Friday, after the BeatBearing was shown in the Irish News newspaper, I was invited onto the 'Arts Extra' show on BBC Radio Ulster. This experience has made me realise quite how difficult it is explaining a tangible interface to a radio audience. I'm also glad it wasn't a live broadcast, as the BeatBearing decided to stop working half way through the interview and needed some coaxing (and a reboot of Ableton Live) to work again.

If you're quick, you can catch the whole show using 'listen again' on the BBC iPlayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gnrcr/Arts_Extra_16_01_2009/
The BeatBearing section starts around 10 minutes into the program. Otherwise you can listen to just the section on the BeatBearing here:
http://www.sarc.qub.ac.uk/~pbennett/audio/BeatBearingRadioUlster.mp3

Many thanks to Conor McKay for organising the interview, and to Kim Lenaghan (pictured above) for the interview itself.