ReacTable: Tangible controller for sound
Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:02 am
Hi,
I thought that some of you might find this interesting:
A friend of mine is working on the ReacTable-project. It is a "state-of-the-art multi-user electro-acoustic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface. Therefore this electronic instrument uses no mouse, no keyboard, no cables and no wearables."
It is mainly an application that works with a video- or webcam that registers movements of objects on a transparent table. Each object may represent a sound-generator, a filter or effect or whatever. Objects are connected by putting them close together on the table. You can find a description of the whole thing on their website.
They even have a video with Robert Moog playing on a prototype.
The reacTable application is now open-source and available for windows, osx and linux and can be downloaded from the site.
Theoretically it should be possible to build your own ReacTable-controller with nothing else than just a webcam, for the fancy optics that you can see in
this video you will obviously need a video-projector.
Looks promising, although - as far as I understood - it works with open sound control and can not to be used directly as a midi controller. But maybe its possible to write a patch in Max or PD to use it as one.
Instead of buying a Lemur you could just get some bricks from a toy shop, attach a video camera to your labtop and use the bricks as controlling-devices on a glass-table.
There is a niceoverview of tangible controller-interfaces on the website as well.
I thought that some of you might find this interesting:
A friend of mine is working on the ReacTable-project. It is a "state-of-the-art multi-user electro-acoustic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface. Therefore this electronic instrument uses no mouse, no keyboard, no cables and no wearables."
It is mainly an application that works with a video- or webcam that registers movements of objects on a transparent table. Each object may represent a sound-generator, a filter or effect or whatever. Objects are connected by putting them close together on the table. You can find a description of the whole thing on their website.
They even have a video with Robert Moog playing on a prototype.
The reacTable application is now open-source and available for windows, osx and linux and can be downloaded from the site.
Theoretically it should be possible to build your own ReacTable-controller with nothing else than just a webcam, for the fancy optics that you can see in
this video you will obviously need a video-projector.
Looks promising, although - as far as I understood - it works with open sound control and can not to be used directly as a midi controller. But maybe its possible to write a patch in Max or PD to use it as one.
Instead of buying a Lemur you could just get some bricks from a toy shop, attach a video camera to your labtop and use the bricks as controlling-devices on a glass-table.
There is a niceoverview of tangible controller-interfaces on the website as well.
