X MUSCLE SYNTH X

anyone remember that gimpy midi controller which was basically a weird exoskeleton you 'raved' with?

i think this guy has produced a somewhat more direct and awesome idea:

would love to see this done properly as some kind of epic art installation. like the different soundscapes that would be made by people playing tennis, running, fucking etc...

  Idrn said:

fucking etc...

Nymphomatriarc! Bwaha.

Fucking crazy idea. Interesting results.

Though it's not like you'd get some kind of unique soundscape by doing various activities... I mean you'd have to set up all that shit what you want to tweak in the sound, you'd have the same results turning a few knobs randomly, right?

yeah but that thing is fucking horribly made, and horribly sparatic. no matter what you do it sounds about the same.

It's no Beamz

  Glass Plate said:

yeah but that thing is fucking horribly made, and horribly sparatic. no matter what you do it sounds about the same.

you what? this is just an experiment. if developed you could have all sorts going on - seperate occilators for each individual muscle or lots of crazy filters etc... the ability and idea is there to turn muscle movement into (for example) midi. the possibilities are endless.

i actually find it quite depressing that you saw the video and instead of thinking about what could potentially be done and developed you thought "oh well you can only make a high-pitched warbling". preset mentality.

Plus I checked and sparatic is NOT a word.

he might have meant 'sporadic'?

edit: i'm guessing

  Idrn said:

would love to see this done properly

what, you mean like this?

http://www.immersionmusic.org/HTMLThesis/2.6.htm

  Quote

The BodySynth has been used by performance artists Laurie Anderson on a European tour in 1992

or perhaps like this one

  Quote

the BioMuse contained sensors for eye control (electrooculogram, or EOG), muscle tension signals (EMG), and brain waves (electroencephalogram, or EEG). Lusted and Knapp formed a company, BioControl Systems, in 1989, and introduced the BioMuse as a commercial product in 1992

how about these? designed in 1984

ok now thats just wicked. shouldve thought though - if some guy is doing that for a uni piss about, its probably been done a decade ago. the science has been there for much longer, its just the application of it!

whilst were on the subject: a while back this robotics grad at my uni hooked all his muscles up to a program that ran through the internet. users could log on and control his muscles so making him a sort of human puppet you could watch via webcam. a naked puppet.

  Idrn said:

the science has been there for much longer, its just the application of it!

really though, there are already loads of applications. the only thing missing, in almost all cases, is musical use. to make a really expressive instrument (or whatever the cliché goes like), that seems to be real hard because it appears you have to have a clear goal/application BEFORE you start designing. i've heard (of) very few effective interfaces like this even though the potential should be huge.

i think part of the problem is that music is mathematical enough to require a structured input.

as soon as you start introducing random input devices, you start getting random music.