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| Glove Drum | ||
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| Author(s): | Jeffrey LeBlanc Christopher Kairalla |
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| Instructor: | Igoe, Tom | |
| Class: | Introduction to Physical Computing | |
| URL: | http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~jl2515/physcomp/project2/ | |
| Documents: |
drum_glove(JPEG)
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| Documents: | (JPEG) | |
| Keywords: | physical computing, music, instrument, drum, tapping, MIDI | |
| Transform the act of tapping your fingers into the rhythms and sounds of drumming. | ||
| Our project is a pair of gloves that let people play the drums simply by tapping their fingers. Each finger of the glove is associated with a drum sound, and we have a menu system which allows the user to change which sound each finger makes if they wish. The harder a user taps on a finger, the louder that drum sound is. The project lets the user explore the rhythms that tapping their fingers create. It is meant to be both for novices and experts, as many actual drummers practice and compose pieces by tapping their fingers. The project is built around force sensing resistors secured to the glove finger tips that control MIDI commands to a synthesizer. We are working on this as our final project for pcomp, and work is still underway. | ||
| Background: | We were interested in amplifying the act of tapping, something everyone does at some point or another. We felt that often people do it because some rhythm gets into their bodies and they have to let it out and express themselves. Or perhaps its just nervousness! But often the sounds tapping makes are not as powerful as the feelings behind them, and so this device lets anyone explore and express these feelings and desire to create music and rhythm. | |
| Audience: | We have two target audiences: The real drummer, and the person who just likes to tap their fingers. Real drummers use tapping as a way to practice and compose, and from our discussions with some drummers, it is clear they would love a portable and small system that lets them make "real" drum sounds to simulate compositions more realistically. As for the people who just like to tap, that is us (and maybe you too). Everyone who has had a chance to try the system to this point has enjoyed the pleasure of transforming a simple tap into the CRASHHHHHH of a cymbal or the BOOOOOM of a big bass drum. The project is about amplifying small movements into what we traditionally regard as big sounds. | |
| User Scenario: | A person who loves drumming or the sounds of drumming, but doesn't have the money or space for a real drum kit can take these pairs of gloves, go over to the kitchen counter, plug it in, and and start jamming with their friend who is playing the guitar. Or a person who is traveling but wants to keep up with their drumming can use this device to help give life to their practice tapping. We want your grandmother and your five year old cousin to each put on one of the gloves and duel it out, Seeing who can tap out a faster beat, or one person creates a beat and the other must imitate it... This can be a very social instrument as well. | |
| Technical System Description: | The system is based on ten force sensing resistors attached to the glove's fingers. The measurements from these sensors are sent to a PIC which is programmed to send MIDI signals to a sythesizer. Ideally the system would be self contained, but our focus has been on the user interaction with the device thus far, making sure that the act of a tap translates naturally to a drum sound so that using the device is intuitive. | |
| Project References, Research and Literature: | We started this project as a midterm with Tikva Morowati and Matt Burton. Thanks to them for all their help, and to Tom Igoe and the other ITPers who have test-driven the system thus far. Also, a big thank you to Chris's friend Alex, who has been our official "actually a drummer guy" tester. | |
| Conclusions: | We learned how to hack FSRs by putting our own leads into them, How to create a way to make the sensors not make a mess of the MIDI signals (so that if you held down a finger a million NOTEON messages wouldn't just shoot out and deafen everyone). We are wokring on a variety of different ways to let people switch which sound comes from each finger in the most simple way possible. Most of all it was taking something we had always wished exsisted and starting to make it so. | |