IMU-based (wearable) motion capture
It’s always an interesting challenge to replicate something with a high accuracy level, just using DIY tech:
Having the technology as a platform, it would make sense to apply it in other projects like:
- Human movement visualization tool
- Daily activity monitoring
The musical expressiveness of the foot
Does this sound completely off topic? It turns out that musicians, particularly guitar players have the choice of using different effect pedals to alter their tone. One of the quintessential expression pedals is called the Wha Wha, and it’s a swinging platform that you step on and swivel.
This effect has several drawbacks, though. It’s nature of use requires that you step only on one foot, altering balance, and generating strain if you play for long times. Also, the ankle gets pretty beat up from the repetitive, almost un-loaded repetition of the same fast movement. So here I see an opportunity to either produce the same effect with less biomechanic strain, or…
Get inspired to look at other ways of using the body as an interface of creative expression (because there are lot’s of other interesting things you can do, and most of them are constrained to boring on/off switch). What If we could have this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A7Pe8oGhq8
And unsurprisingly, there is research about this!
MoBoogie, an application that allows users to manipulate and arrange music through movement. MoBoogie is designed to foster experiences in creative expression for children and potentially adults. The application responds to users’ movements by changing variables in a continuous stream of music loops. Results from this study suggest that the creative expressions arose in the joint space of movement and music, and did not primarily have to be in one form or the other. This allowed users with limited experience in dance and music making to be creative in such forms of expression.
CoolMag, a tangible interaction tool to enable children to create different instruments collaboratively in music education. With CoolMag, children could learn the basic playing methods of different instruments.