Rhizome article about spectral music and software at USCD, via Tom Erbe

Continuing with my music technology theme:


This article below was shared by Tom Erbe, known for Soundhack,  a powerful spectral effects software that has provided me with many hours of music technology joy off and on for years. Playing around with Soundhack was one of the things that inspired me to take a music technology class several years ago.


How Large an Atom of Music? A Tour through Today's Spectral Music and Software at UCSD
Nat Roe, Rhizome, 4/27/11


FYI:  If you are interested in exploring this topic further, visit Tom Erbe's website, which includes information and resources related to the computer music courses he teaches at USCD.


"RHIZOME is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Read more here."

Musical Multitouch/Gestural Interfaces by Osmosis

I've been pleasantly surprised by the increase of interesting multi-touch and gesture-based applications developed for musical interaction on large displays.  This topic is dear to my heart -  I took a computer music technology class back in 2003, and think it would have been great if this sort of thing was available back then.  Who wants to point and click around a music app for hours on end?!


The video below shows what is new from Osmosis, a company based in NY that focuses on the development of multi-touch and gesture based software for a range of uses, including music applications.


Performance Systems for Stage/Studio from Osmosis on Vimeo.

Transparent Stage System Specs
Design
• Floating, transparent HD displays from 32"
• Haptic surface with tempered glass backing
• High gain image with wide viewing angle
• Rugged aircraft-grade aluminum build
• Enclosed projector and computer
• Minimalist style, compact footprint
• Disassembles for easy transportation


Interactivity
• Projected capacitive foil or IR bezel options
• Up to 32 simultaneous touch points
• Precise, responsive touch tracking (3mm)
• Immune to external light conditions
• Use of fingers, gloves or stylus


Technical
Display:
• DLP portable projector
• 1280×800 HD resolution
• 2500 ANSI-lumen, 1800:1 contrast
Computer:
• Mini-ITX, Core 2 Quad, 4GB RAM
• ATI Radeon X1250 graphics card
• Wireless keyboard and mouse
• Windows 7 Pro

Stuart McClean, the founder of Osmosis, shared the following information about his company:

"Osmosis is a consulting firm based in the NYC area with deep experience in interactive technology. Although we cater to a range of markets, we’re especially passionate about music production and performance. Working closely with artists, we build customized interactive systems for stage and studio. HCI technology is integrated into a range of designs including stands, desktop rigs, tables, carts and vertical screens. Interfaces are tailored to specific artist needs and combine controls, generative audio and visuals, instruments, and gestural input. Our unique and flexible systems take full advantage of multi-touch interaction and offer seamless control of Ableton Live, Traktor, or other DAWs via midi and OSC..."





For more information about the applications developed by the Osmosis team, take a look at their showcase page.  

Touch the Music: Drums, Keyboards, and More on NextWindow Touchscreens Featured in Megan Slankard's Music Video, "Sails"

Megan Slankard and her band performing "Sails", from the album "a little extra sun":

"To put its technology to the artistic test, NextWindow introduced Megan Slankard and her band to the freedom of creating music using touch screens. With 13 touch screens manufactured by NextWindow – seven 46-inch screens and six All-in-One desktop touch computers – Megan and her band set out to create a music video with a touch of technology they’ve never utilized before."-NextWindow


For detailed information about the touch screens and music applications shown in the video below, visit the Music on Touch Screens page of NextWindow's website. The website shows a good "behind the scenes" video of the various band members exploring the touch screens used to create the music in the video.


Applications and Hardware

Drums: EZdrummer’s® DFH® (Drumkit From Hell), Latin Percussion EZX®, Fingertapps Drums and Cakewalk’s Studio Instruments™ Drums.

Bass and Keyboard: Cakewalk’s Studio Instruments™ Bass, Electric Piano and Fingertapps Piano.

Controller/Mixing/Sequencing: FL Studio software.

Touch screen technology:  NextWindow 2550 Profile Touch, NextWindow 2700 Touch  Overlay, NextWindow 1900 Desktop

This technology would be awesome in K-12 music classes!

Calming Technologies research (Stanford University)

Here is the link:
A Brief Overview of Calming Technology (Research group at Stanford University) TechPsych blog, 4/26/11

Resource:
Calming Technology Research Group website (Stanford University)

Multi-touch and Gesture Interaction News and Updates You Might Have Missed (Part I)

Over the past couple of months, I've come across many interesting links related to multi-touch and gesture interaction, but I haven't had time to devote a thoughtful post to each one.  "Part I",  is a nice collection of experimental, commercial, and non-commercial efforts by a variety of creative technologists, with a smattering of industry news that might be of interest to IMT readers. 


Ideum's MT55 HD Multitouch Table 4/19/11

New MT55 HD Multitouch Table Now Shipping,  Jim Spadaccini, Ideum Blog 4/11/11

Smithsonian American Art Museum to Open Education Center  Sara Beladi, NBC Washington News, 4/4/11 (Rumor has it that the Smithsonian American Art might include touch and multi-touch displays in it's plans for a new education center.  The center was funded by an anonymous $8 million dollar gift.)

Some Milestones in Computer Input Devices: An Informal Timeline

Bill Buxton, Microsoft Research, 4/7/11 - Includes lots of pictures, links to videos, and more information of what might be the first touch-screen.  Also see Bill Buxton's companion website, Multi-Touch Systems that I have Known and Loved, updated on 3/21/11.  Bill Buxton knows all (almost!)

How to make a Multitouch Biggie (Seth Sandler)

"The MTbiggie uses the "Front Diffused Illumination" multitouch technique, with ambient infrared light and a DIY infrared webcam. The MTbiggie is similar to the MTmini, but includes a projected image and infrared webcam (rather than a normal webcam)...The MTbiggie isn’t the most stable and robust setup, but it is the easiest to build. To see other methods of building more stable multitouch displays, view the full multitouch display list." -Seth Sandler

(Also check out NodeBeat, a multi-touch music/audio sequencer/generator app by Seth Sandler and Justin Windle)

IntuiLab announces support for Microsoft Kinect interactive software solutions

Intuilab, 4/13/11

"IntuiLab, a global leader in surface computing software applications, today announced support for the revolutionary Microsoft Kinect device across its full line of IntuiFace products and solutions including IntuiFace Presentation and IntuiFace Commerce...Microsoft Kinect brings distant gesture control to interactive solutions. These gesture controls allow users to interact with displayed digital assets from a distance at their own pace and path – for example, browsing through a large quantity of products in a store catalog or manipulating 3D models (such as a mobile phone) – all without having to actually touch the screen..."  -IntuiLab (Take a look at the IntuiLab team- an interactive page!)

EON Reality Launches EON Interact - Interact with 3D Data by Using Your Bare Hands Animation xPress, 3/31/11

Sparkon:  Videos and links related to multi-touch and gesture-based applications

Official Kinect SDK to be Open Source, Josh Blake, Deconstructing the NUI, 4/18/11  

9 This bit of news excited me, but don't get your hopes up. If anyone knows what will happen with the Kinect SDK, please leave a comment.)

"Update 4/18 7:34pm: Mary Jo Foley picks up this story, but the Microsoft spokesperson she talked to denied that the Kinect SDK will be open source. As she notes, Microsoft has pulled 180’s before regarding Kinect. After spokespeople initially were hostile to the idea of Kinect hacking, Xbox executives later embraced the idea that people are using Kinect for non-gaming purposes on the PC. Let’s hope Microsoft stays open to this idea." -Josh Blake

New Channel 9 Video:  Josh Blake on NaturalShow Multi-touch in WPF, Pete Brown, 10rem.net, 4/22/11

Eden: A Professional Multitouch Tool for Constructing Virtual Environments (pdf)

Kenrick Kin, Tom Miller, Bjoern Bollensdorff, Tony DeRose, Bjoern Hartmann, Manees Agrawala (Pixar Online Library)

Flight Race Game on 3DFeel lm3Labs, 4/18/11


JazzMutant Lemure Version 2 : "The only multi-touch and modular controller for sequencers, synthesizers, virtual instruments, vjing and lights, now even better."


Harry van der Veen's Multitouch Blog (NUITEQ)


Stantum "Unlimited Multi-Touch" Latest News

At Immersive Labs, Ads Watch Who Looks at Them Amy Lee, Huffington Post, 4/26/11 

Immersive Labs

Hard Rock Cafe International Using NextWindow Touch Screens:  "Rock Wall Solo displays enhance music lovers' experience in Seattle, Dallas, Detroit and Berlin" 4/12/11 (Full press release pdf)
Music on Touch Screens (NextWindow)

Razorfish: Thoughts on MIX 11 ,James Ashley, Razorfish Blog, 4/20/11  Also see: Razorfish Lab's Prototypes

"The multitouch microscope brings new dimensions into teaching and research. Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) and Multitouch Ltd have created a hand and finger gesture controlled microscope. The method is a combination between two technologies: web-based virtual microscopy and a giant size multitouch display."
"The result is an entirely new way of performing microscopy: by touching a table- or wall-sized screen the user can navigate and zoom within a microscope sample in the same way as in a conventional microscope. Using the touch control it is possible to move from the natural size of the sample to a 1000-fold magnification, at which cells and even subcellular details can be seen."  -Multitouchfi  Also see the Multitouch website.


Big Size Multitouch Display Turned into a Microscope, Microscopy-News, 3/28/11

Mac OX 10.7 Lion: new multi-touch gestures, Dock integration for Expose, Launchpad, Mission Control Appleinsider, 4/14/11


Vectorform App featured in Royal Caribbean's Video Promotion: James Brolin, Dean Cain get hands-on with Vectorform app Alison Weber, Vectorform Blog, 3/3/11


3M Touch Systems's YouTube Channel

Social Mirror 3D Gestural Display, Now Using Kinnect:  SnibbeInteractive

Algodoo physics app. for the SMART Board 800 series, supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction!

A few years ago, I came across "Phun", a free, hands-on application designed for use in science education.  I was impressed, and had the chance to use it with a few students.    Phun was Emil Ernerfeldt's MSc Computer Science project, created at the VR lab at Umeå Universityin Sweden, under the supervision of Kenneth Bodin. 


Phun is now known as Algodoo, and is part of the family of applications offered by Algoryx, a company that develops multi-physics and 3D simulation software.  As you can see from the recent video below, it has improved over the years.  The most recent news is that the application was transformed for use on the SMART Board 800 series, and supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.  


One of the reasons that I like Algodoo is that it supports social interaction during learning activities, something that can enhance deeper learning among students.  It allows students to move and work in a "hands-on" fashion.  In schools that have invested stimulus money on technology and now have limited funds for upgrading traditional science equipment, applications such as Algodoo will most likely provide a good "bang for the buck".


Algodoo: Science education for a new generation

"Algodoo is a totally unique program. A program that gives you the opportunity to play with physics - using your own hands. Apply a constructionists learning paradigm, learning by doing. Use simple drawing tools to design, construct and explore with. Sounds like an interesting idea? Watch this video and learn how!" -Algoryx


Algodoo demonstration on a SMART Board 800 multi-touch/multiuser interactive whiteboards:





RELATED
Alogryx Simulation integrates Algodoo application with the SMART Board 800 series Smart Technologies
Algodoo website
Algoryx Multiphsyics and 3D Simulation website


Information about Phun, an earlier version of Algodoo:

You can download the music used in the videos and the Phun application from the following URL: http://www.phunland.com/download/Phun_theme.mp3

Video of original version: Phun - 2D physics sandbox:


Interactive Physics: Algodoo, the educational version of Phun, optimized for the Classmate PC (Interactive Multimedia Technology, 1/16/09)



Engaged Learning and Social Physics: Phun, an Interactive 2D Physics Sandbox
Interactive Multimedia Technology, 6/08/08