Open-Source 3D Webcam MIDI Controller
by Peter Kirn
Interested in using webcams to translate on-screen motion to MIDI? Want x, y, and z 3D tracking? Ben Tan writes to let us know about his in-development software project called Peripheral MIDI Controller (pmidic) which does just that. The current build is still a work in progress, but has added enough stability and features that it should be worth a look.
Grab your pen light and start waving it around for filter cutoff and resonance — whoo!
Right now, it’s Windows-only, but the libraries on which it’s built are cross-platform and could be ported to both Linux and Mac. (He’s using Intel’s OpenCV, which is the most popular, open platform for computer vision — odds are if you’ve seen slick webcam tricks, OpenCV was involved, because writing these algorithms from scratch requires a heavy-duty math and computer science background. And the app itself is built with the superb super-cross-platform wxWidgets library.)
If you’ve been looking to experiment with webcam control, this could be a good start — practicing interpreting the control data, experimenting with lighting, and experimenting with inputs all take time. And if you’re a coder, the project is open, so all of us C++ beginners can slog a little collectively.
Peter Kirn
Jaymis Loveday
James Grahame
Primus Luta
michaeluna
Kim Cascone
Ben Long
Tom Whitwell
John Jacobus
Chris Stack
Marsha Vdovin
Markus Schroeder
Matt Earp
Kristin Trethewey
Thanks Peter!
Just to let y'all know…that screenshot is from the previous release (Alpha). The current version (0.5) has a slightly better looking UI. I'll put up some better screenshots on the pmidic website soon. Videos of pmidic in action can be expected soon as well
Well, the editor (cough, cough) is supposed to do a screen grab — I was away at my Mac.
I'll fire it up on the PC and give it a go and snap something myself.
It's interesting!
Can you give me an advise for a webcam to buy? I need to check the specifications or all webcam is good for your software?
Thanks for your work Ben!
Nice Application Ben, I hope we will see it on mac OSX very soon.
BTW, there is a similar tool for OSX:
http://web.mac.com/pierre.couprie/iWeb/Logiciels/…
Midiwebcam is not Universal Binary but runs on my macbookPro.
Calibrating is not easy and I didn't find the way to keep the settings each time I quit.
So there is room for a competitor
Olivier
@phoban: Definitely check out EyesWeb, though I think it's also based on OpenCV.
There's also cv.jit for Jitter users:
http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~jovan02/cv
And JMyron for Java / Processing / Director / etc.:
http://webcamxtra.sourceforge.net/
Though neither of those is quite as extensive as the OpenCV-based stuff.
@Paolo: I'm still trying to find a reliable driver-free webcam that would work across platforms. See the discussion here:
http://createdigitalmotion.com/2006/11/02/creativ…
Thanks peter,
Creative Labs Live Cam Optia seem to be a good choice if it works without driver on XP sp2
YAY! some food for the tech-nerd in me!
This software is great. Although I've not yet managed to set it up as a midi input device. I want to use it to drive Absynth 8 and point the cam at glass box full of ants. I think ants would generate some interesting synth music.
then I'd like to point it at a lava lamp, then I'd like to find out how to translate the midi into data that I can set to the parallel port to a IO card and use it to control stepper motors that control a humanoid sculpture, which you could control with your body movement.
Then I'll try using it as a weather monitor by pointing the cam at the sky and listening to the approaching weather fronts.
I'm sure I'll think of some more ideas.
Cheers
Gav
[...] even gives a shout out to the open-source 3D webcam MIDI controller for Windows we looked at last [...]