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Comment by mkl | Hacker News Reader

This seems like it would be really useful for electronic musical instruments. E.g. Linnstrument (https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument) which uses a grid of force sensing resistor strips. Do these sensors interfere with each other if they're sitting side by side?

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Agreed, if these can be put into an array without interfering with each other it seems like it'd make a really cool expressive instrument. Cost would be a concern, though many of the existing instruments are exactly low-cost as is.

This was my first thought too! Other stuff in this category I know of are the Roli instruments (Seaboard, Blocks) and the Haken Continuum. All of these are pretty darn expensive for the larger models and I wonder if this new tech would be a cheaper way to make these work.

Why? You could just hardwire the control. Simulating a finger adds nothing.

This might be interesting for musical instruments with more tactile feedback, like hand drums or violins. But an electronic control surface like that only exists because human musicians aren’t already robots.

I think you've misunderstood - there are no robots in my proposal. You use this sensor as a key, then touch it with your finger, and it can detect force and directionality. Put together a grid of these sensors and you've got an instrument with really expressive potential.

Ohhhh - yes that’s awesome, love that. It’s like 3d aftertouch.

Maybe you could just make a big one.

Yeah I doubt you couldn't make one long strip and a few dozen magnetometers in a grid below it. Might be tricky to implement close multitouch reliably though.

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