Categories
Connected Objects Music

Point Motion motion-based MIDI controller gives your beats pyramid power

As technology advances, new and exciting ways to interact with the programs available continue to emerge. Music is no exception: at no other time in history has there been such a democratization of the art. Purists may deride the ease and apparent lack of skill needed to make music today, but the fact remains that anyone with a creative soul can express themselves without having to jump through hoops first.

A product further lowering and innovating the bar is the Point Motion, a camera-equipped device that tracks movements and gestures to allow for music control and creation. The open platform works with the built-in cameras in computers to recognize gestures and use those gestures to control or trigger over 1500 instrument and vocal effect. These gestures can be chosen from what’s pre-loaded or customized by a user, each of which can be used to trigger things like guitar pedals, piano chords, or DJ scratches.

Two applications are also available, too. PuppetMaster lets users create music freely and control acoustic effects, and Point Wellness integrates music into health and wellness practices. Any music created with Point Motion can be transferred via MIDI or OSC to major digital audio workstations like Logic or Ableton Live, and a companion iOS/Android app can offer remote control of Point Motion’s features. Point Motion is going for $175 and is expected to ship in August 2016 should its Indiegogo campaign raise $50,000 by July 2017.

Alternative forms of music interaction are becoming increasingly common, a promising trend for music aficionados everywhere who like to be experimental. Point Motion follows the trend and innovates with a Kinect-like interface, perfect for younger creatives, those who are health conscious and want to use it as an exercise aid, or for older people and their physical therapy needs. Music-wise, it’s similar to the Remidi T8 glove in that it’s a novel, but still practical, way to explore music creation — and more tools to do never hurt.

Categories
Imaging Sensors/IoT

Flail your arms to control apps in-home with ZKOO gesture camera

Leap Motion made a splash a few years ago when it debuted a fascinating add-on product for Macs and PCs that allowed anyone to interface with their devices via gestures. But since it only worked for Macs and PC, the number of situations in which it was truly useful was limited.

Exvision’s ZKOO gesture-tracking camera is touted as the most advanced in the world, but truth be told it doesn’t do much more the Leap Motion can. Using a camera that tracks motion at 100 frames per second it is able to deliver a gesture-tracking experience that boast low latency for both PCs and Android devices, working with hundreds of existing apps out of the box.