written by: fzzzy
That's awesome that the alpha already has accelerometers. Guess I have even more reason to get an alpha now :-) it would be really nice if the pico had them, since it's so small and light and swinging it around would be very expressive.Has Eigenlabs considered adding accelerometers to the Eigenharps? They would really add some cool possibilities for the customization of this device.
I'm considering strapping a small board with some accelerometers and a Bluetooth module to the bottom of my pico. It's a shame the data couldn't go over the pico's wired connection, though.
I've wondered about this several times already, thinking it might be useful. My theory though is that they wanted to have similar components across the whole instrument line and while the accelerometer would be easy to use with the Pico ... the Alpha wouldn't make this a convenient controller.
The Alpha and Tau do actually already have accelerometers fitted, the signal is just not yet available as an output Port on the keyboard Agent. We plan to add this at some point this year (we've already had a play with it in test). In the Alpha's case it's not as useful as it would seem right now as the actual device is rather too near the middle of the instrument which reduces it's sensitivity to shaking when worn on a strap (it was fitted originally for vibration and shock monitoring in test, not as a performance feature) but in the case of the Tau it's at the bottom of the instrument and should be nicely useful when we enable it. We're going to move it on the Alpha to make it more sensitive when we respin the main processor board early next year.
We don't have any plans to add one to the Pico at the moment. There are several reasons for this, mainly that the internal electronics architecture doesn't have the capacity and needs some redesign to accommodate it., redesign that would mean changing one of the main silicon components which is often a costly exercise.
John
Hah, funny, so I had it completely the wrong way around in my head :-)
That's got me wondering as to what else might be in the pipeline for the next version for the Alpha ;)
well.. you can attach a wiimote to the back of the pico and use one of the myriad of available programs available to get the accelerometer input and transform it to OSC-MIDI, then use live or any other DAW to map those messages to anything you like.
I remember that I did a test like the one I describe above some months ago... let me tell you... very cool, but I couldn't find any advantage at that time ... I will try it again...Makes me wonder, this setup could be one cool addition to Stu's super instrument..
cheers.
Carlos
Thanks for the wiimote suggestion Carlos! I'm going to look into it :)
Depending on how sensitive the accelerometers are in the Alpha/Tau, it would be great to be able to map these to Midi. Imagine hitting a power chord on an electric guitar setting, and shaking the Eigenharp to simulate the 'wobble' that you'd get on a strat. There are so many possibilities!
We've been using wiimotes with my band to trigger vocal effects live on stage and modify them according to the wiimote orientation ... this provides some nice visuals for the audience also.
Had an idea for how to use the IR camera on the wiimote to build a theremin - you attach the wiimote to something (like Stu's Eitar), and then make something you hold in your hand that has a battery and two IR leds (a very short 'scanner bar'). If you hold the bar in line of sight of the wiimote, then with the right software you can measure the proximity of your hand based on the distance between the IR spots in the visual field of the camera. With 2 wiimotes you could map one to volume and the other to pitch for the tru theremin experience.
Combine one wii theremin with a breath controller and you have a wii trombone....
0beron, I saw something similar where people just put reflective dots on their palm/fingers, and attached an IR led to the Wiimote (pointing towards the person). The wiimote camera picked up the reflection from the dots (so no need for batteries/wires in-hand).
Actually I just found the video I was thinking of here.
In fact if you put one reflective dot on your thumb and one on your finger, you could control a filter (perhaps) just by pinching them together or moving them apart.
Here is the link to the code and some other experiements by Johnny Chung
Wiimote projects
At work, we've been doing some experiments in C++ for different User interaction paradigms.
I would like to share also this... it is a simple way of making a multi touch table, the software is only for windows though.... works like a charm and for 5 bucks is nothing!! once again... a possible idea for Stu?
Make your own multi-touch table
Cheers.
Carlos
That's awesome that the alpha already has accelerometers. Guess I have even more reason to get an alpha now :-) it would be really nice if the pico had them, since it's so small and light and swinging it around would be very expressive.
I have already strapped a wiimote on to the pico, but it's a bit heavy and bulky. I like the ideas about using the ir sensors for expressivity, though!
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