MIDI3D will map and track rotations and movement in 3D space of the hand, forearm, wrist and elbow for body infused MIDI and OSC control. MIDI3D Not this old chestnut again? Velcro on some sensors and start waving and gesticulating at your computer or synthesizer to get it to do stuff you could have probably done easier with a mouse or knob. We’ve had rings and balls, gloves and strap-ons aplenty over the years all trying to involve our movements in the control of sound. And while it is a genuinely fabulous idea it inevitably ends up with you looking a bit foolish. However, if I put my awkwardness and cynicism aside for a moment I’m sure MIDI3D has something truly revolutionary that’s going to blow this game wide open.
To start off this is not a concept or a Kickstarter, MIDI3D is working and available now. It works in the space around the user where the position and rotation of all the arm joints can be mapped along with hand and fingers. You can assign actions to knuckles, triggers to wrists, notes to elbows, filter sweeps to flexes of the fingers for as long as the muscles in your arms can handle it. It also has its own effects engine to manipulate the data being generated. MIDI3D can detect momentum and speeds and interpret those through to modulation and rhythms.
The app is certainly very groovy. MIDIGLOVE The MIDI3D system actually comes in two parts. The MIDI3D part uses the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. If you want to involve the fingers then you’ll need the full MIDIGLOVE. This is an awesome bit of cyber tech that has knuckle connectors with fabulous sci-fi wires coming off them. You also have a choice of tethered or wireless depending on your needs. If I understand this right the tethered version has a higher resolution. Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed the potential of these sorts of products but it’s also quite a hard sell. There’s no doubt that musicians enjoy being away from the mouse but floating your arm around in a 3D space is not the same as grabbing hold of some hardware. However, with some decent and enthusiastic demos it could get exciting.
It will need to be exciting because the MIDIGLOVE package starts at ￡649 tethered and ￡1,049 wireless. The basic MIDI3D pack starts at ￡288. |
