Mi.Mu Glove for Music

(backer) It's worth taking a look at the comparison of existing data gloves on the website - http://theglovesproject.com/data-gloves-overview/ . These aren't the first to try and do this by any means but they are as far as I can see by far the most considered and refined for their purpose, think of it as the iPhone of data gloves.

The combination of flexibility, comfort, precision, being totally wireless & a an impressive sensor combination (individual finger flex in both directions + hand accelerometer & gyro) combined with in-glove haptic feedback mean there's truly incredible potential here for creating entirely new ways of interacting with software.

Like the iPhone, or the iPad, or the iPod it's not that the technology itself is revolutionary or unique but it's the way that the technology has been used to create an amazing product that makes this to me as if not more exciting than things like the Oculus Rift.

This isn't exactly a revolutionary concept. Onyx Ashanti[0][1][2] has built an entire performance around it (literally, the the whole system is custom built). And on a sort of parallel track, nerds like Herrmutt Lobby and DZA have done some really remarkable things pushing the boundaries of what can be done with off the shelf MIDI gear[3] as well as with game controllers[4].

Perhaps Mi.Mu will be the best execution of a MIDI/OSC glove to date—it will probably have to be if it's going to make it on stage with performers like Imogen Heap and Tim Exile.

I will say, sometimes an encoder is exactly what you need. Other times what you need is a long throw fader (to say nothing of the very particular engineering of crossfaders for scratch DJs). I hope designers and engineers continue to experiment in this space, but not every conventional interface needs 'disrupting', and they certainly don't all need to be made wireless. I always feel a bit annoyed when these developments are framed as a breaking down of walls between performer and audience, a paradigm shift away from the dark ages of electronic musicians hunched over banks of knobs and 'checking their email'.

It's a cliché, and I'm not even sure it maps to reality all that well. I'm fairly certain Miles Davis spent the majority of his time on stage looking at piano keys. And if not there, at his collaborators. Maybe occasionally a glance towards the audience. Maybe. Stevie Wonder never looked at anybody. It never mattered, because that was never the point.

[0]http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/11/way-out-from-behind-th...

[1]http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/10/open-source-music-berl...

[2]http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/04/fractals-bots-nodes-an...

[3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zN7Pjwjcp0

[4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQaMW_5oxyg

Was wondering when I'd see this here. Can't imagine what someone like Trent Reznor would do with it. Also, this would be great for VR!

Price-wise, I think the tech is a tad out of reach for most people right now. Something cheaper like Thalmic's Myo might be within most people's reach though. One dev even has a prototype of MIDI support for the Myo already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ipXPWX0cg

For reference, Imogen's gloves have been in development for quite a while now: http://theglovesproject.com/about-the-project

see http://www.sonami.net/works/ladys-glove/ too

I'm mostly impressed with Imogen's (and all the others involved) approach:

"It's really exciting to see what people might do with hacking them. The software is going to be open source, so is the hardware."

Even with the feedback vest, this seems like a something that'd be difficult to use for non-abstract musical compositions.