Comments on: Sequencing with Smart Interactive Blocks: Siftables at TED

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:55:42 +0000

Interesting article. But honestly, comparing the Siftables with the AudioCubes is just plain stupid.
It’s comparing a prototype (that maybe would cost thousands of dollars if sold) with a moderate-priced product that actually exists, is accessible, works well and has proven its suitability in the real world.

By: runagate

runagate — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:15:13 +0000

Good point, Kyle. One’s arm doesn’t exactly like being held straight out and waved around for long periods.

As for feedback, acousmodules’ “P5 Control” VST plug-in is invaluable for data glove owners:

http://acousmodules.free.fr/acousmodules5_en.htm

A very nice 3D way of seeing what your waving hand is up to, plus finger clench.

“This plugin allows at the same time to visualize the eight controls which are send from a P5 Glove (X, Y, Z position and the bend of the five fingers) and to modify the values. It must receive the MIDI datas that are sent through a MIDI Router by the P5GloveMIDI from Ross Bencina (in absolute coordinates).
It can process the datas in the following manners :
- change the controller type
- scaling of the curve
- invert the direction
- shift
- transformation of the curves by simple mathematicals functions or a graphical transfert function
- lower and upper limit
- inertia, to smooth the irregularities of the P5 or create very smooth movements
- the thumb can trig a note from a threshold”

A $40 glove and a freeware VST and you’ve got quite an amazing piece of futuristic gear.

By: Kyle McDonald

Kyle McDonald — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:46:31 +0000

Having experimented a bit with 3D interfaces (basically "3 theremins at right angles"), I think one of the biggest issues is haptic feedback. Tracking with capacitive sensing, IR arrays, data gloves, or structured light 3D scanning are all fun, but have big learning curves due to the lack of haptic feedback. Free space 3D interfaces and physically manipulable 3D interfaces are useful for entirely different things.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:15:12 +0000

Yep, absolutely, Blockjam is a good comparison. I think what these are is smarter and more versatile — that is, not so tied to just one application.

It’s really that customization of feedback and parameters that’s cool here, as Aaron says (and I’m likewise very impressed)!

By: Aaron Liven

Aaron Liven — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:13:27 +0000

I am personally very impressed with the Siftables. With sample and screen customization as well as a large variety of different parameters, those could be an incredible live music tool. Of course you’d have to many more of them than the video showed, but very very cool.

By: d. h.

d. h. — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:00:09 +0000

sorry. didn’t get the link correct. wanted to say: reminds me of sony blockjam.
http://www.sonycsl.co.jp/IL/projects/blockjam/contents.html
:)

By: d. h.

d. h. — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:59:04 +0000

reminds me of sony blockjam. to me it seems that many of these "new" _tangible_ (fancy word, isn't it?) interfaces after some years are copied (or re-invented independently), recoloured, extended by an additional sensor and then presented as new again. nothing too bad about this, as long as development and evolution of man-machine-interaction continues.

By: runagate

runagate — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:06:14 +0000

I’ve tried thinking up a wah-wah that is nested on a sphere (so it can be turned this way and that) plus with up/down pressure sensitivity… more important to me now that I can’t use my p5 glove (which I use to send midi from 3D + pitch/yaw/roll and all five “finger bend” sensors so they operate much like faders). But gestural 3D, much as multitouch is gestural, was thought up by Gibson long before any of this was remotely feasible. I’m not a craftsman, though; I just want to use it. It couldn’t possibly be expensive to make this stuff anymore, but there needs to be a prosumer use like iPhones and Nintendo DS to bring the price down.

As to a 3D interface for sequencing:

1) There’s more room to draw. Imagine all automation channels spaced out with metatags to tell you what they’re latched to and what they control, distinguished by color and shape.

2) I use a lot of binaural processing and now that surround sound and high-def music storage are common I’d like to return to attempting to score in multichannel automated surround channels. 3D interfaces would certainly aid that.

3) 3D representations of recorded 3D gestural data: it’s all well and good to use a VR glove to “express” your automation, e.g. 3D mapped to filter cutoff, filter resonance and distortion wet/dry as a simple example. But in a traditional 2D view how in hell are you supposed to ever see wtf is going on between those three interrelated things? Or edit it? Whereas a knotty sphere of color in a time-based histogram that you could “scrub” through with a jog wheel would be heavenly.

I will stop there and see if ya’ll think I’m way out on a limb. It’d be invaluable to me but I can’t really assess whether it’d be useful to others.

By: Defyer

Defyer — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:04:03 +0000

2 XY’s can control 4 parameters, whereas a 3D interface should be designed in such a way that it can be manipulated with only one hand, otherwise you get only 3 parameters with both hands.

I think a neet (and weird!) solution would be a small ball suspended on some elastic strings (set on a cubic frame) which can detect tension changes and convert them into 0-127 values. An alternative would be using position sensors, though I’m not sure if that would be cheap.

But an easier solution would be a custom 3D joystick (basically an XY with push/pull)

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:53:06 +0000

On the 3D thing — well, absolutely. And it raises more questions, of course:

* no reason this very interface couldn’t be 3D, so…
* is this the kind of 3D interface you’d want?
* is it actually better to just work in two dimensions? is a surface actually preferable?

These are more questions than criticisms. :)