The Gloves That Will "Change The Way We Make Music", With Imogen Heap

Some of you might remember Imogen Heap's musical gloves as far back as 2011 when she presented them at TED Talks and then again in 2012/2013 at the CTM Festival. She has now taken the project to Kickstarter here. At the time of this post, £43,078 of her £200,000 goal has been pledged with 29 days to go. The following are some details from the Kickstarter page and further below is a video interview from Dezeen.

via Kickstarter (be sure to check out the site for more!):

"What Exactly Can the Gloves Do?

The gloves capture the movements and postures of your hands. Our software allows this information to be mapped to musical control messages which can then be easily routed to your favourite music software

Specifically, the gloves track the following:

The orientation of your hand
The “flex” of your fingers
Your current hand posture (e.g. fist, open hand, one finger point)
The direction (up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards) of your hand
Sharp movements such as drum hits
This information is transmitted wirelessly to your computer, over WiFi (via the x-OSC board on the wrist).

In order to turn this information into music, we have developed software allowing you to “map” glove data to musical control signals (e.g. MIDI and OSC). The software also allows you to combine glove inputs to make complex controls. For example, the software would allow you to program the following:

'If I am making a fist with my right hand, and pointing downwards with my left hand, map the ‘roll’ of my right wrist to MIDI control change message 60 on channel 2'.

These mappings can then be used to control third party software such as Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro or Max/MSP or plugins such as Kontakt and Omnisphere.

This ability of the software to combine postures and gestures for mapping, combined with other innovative technological advances, means there are literally thousands of independently mappable controls with one pair of gloves (!) - more than most MIDI controllers on the market - all without having to even look at a screen during performance. You can create multiple parallel mappings, switch between sets of mappings, and load and save your projects to share or develop them over time. Finally, you can use the software to listen out for other inputs, as well, further increasing the richness of control and expressive mappability with your favourite music software."



The gloves that will "change the way we make music", with Imogen Heap from Dezeen on Vimeo.

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In this exclusive video interview, musician Imogen Heap demonstrates the electronic gloves that allow people to interact with their computer remotely via hand gestures.

The interview was filmed at Heap's home studio outside London, shortly before she launched her Kickstarter campaign to produce a limited production run of the open-source Mi.Mu gloves.

'These beautiful gloves help me gesturally interact with my computer,' says Heap, explaining how the wearable technology allows her to perform without having to interact with keyboards or control panels.

Pushing buttons and twiddling dials 'is not very exciting for me or the audience,' she says. '[Now] I can make music on the move, in the flow and more humanly, [and] more naturally engage with my computer software and technology.'

Each gesture-control glove contains a wifi-enabled x-IMU board developed by x-IO Technologies containing an accelerometer, a magnetometer and a gyroscope.

These work together with a series of motion sensors incorporated into the fingers of each glove that track the degree of bend and the spread of the fingers. The gloves can also understand postures such as an open palm, a finger-point or a closed fist.

The latest version of the gloves feature e-textile technology, where sensors and wiring are integrated into fabric. Heap is now exploring how to make further use of electronically conducting textiles, to reduce the number of hard components in the gloves.

Heap says they will not just change performance, but the production of music too: 'We really feel that they are going to change the way we make music.'

Heap’s Kickstarter campaign aims to raise £200,000 to develop and produce a limited production run of Mi.Mu gloves. If successful, she will make both the hardware and software open source, allowing people to develop their own uses for the technology. 'It’s really exciting to see what people might do by hacking them,' said Heap. The Kickstarter campaign closes on 3 May 2014.

The music featured in this movie is Me, the Machine, a track that Heap wrote specifically to be performed using the gloves.

for more information about the technology in the gloves, read the edited transcript of our interview with Heap.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers is a year-long collaboration with MINI exploring how design and technology are coming together to shape the future."