The Keepon Robot — a bopping yellow bot — was easily the technological darling of 2007. It sent even the most skeptical, hardened technomage into spurts of giggles. So, we’re giving you more: take note, because you, too, could learn to dance to the electrical sounds in the club if this robot can. (Thanks, Mandy, for all the links!)

And yes, Carnegie Mellon is advertising how cool they are in these videos. In these days of geek chic — and with involvement on various projects just beginning with the Keepon — I can’t really argue. (I wasn’t paid to say that, really. They didn’t give me an honorary doctorate, or, uh, a week of free tuition or something.)

There’s a side narrative with recent grad Dr. Daniel Wilson on the battle of man vs. machine, which is reasonably amusing. Here’s the Keepon bit:

Sure, at MIT building interactive LED-powered disco dance floors is a good way to decorate your dorm and procrastinate. But, Chris O'Shea of pixelsumo
reminds me, for the designers at Lightspace, it's serious business.
Clearly, the MIT students' DIY project was directly inspired by the
Lightspace team that's . . . wait a minute . . . headquartered in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Guess there's just something about Cambridge
that makes people want to build elaborate digital disco dance floors.
(See Chris' post on Lightspace)

Lightspace's interactive floors respond in subtle and ingenious ways,
which is why small children are so fond of them. (And, as we've learned
in the past on CDM, small children love heating up dance clubs.)

As seen on Slashdot: a group of students at MIT have constructed a Disco Dance Floor, with over 1,500 LEDs and covering 128 square feet. Dance on it, and pressure sensors trigger some 4,000 colors. Jeez, I knew I shouldn't have gone to Sarah Lawrence;
these MIT folks don't mess around. Not only are the colored patterns
surprisingly sophisticated, but it interfaces with a Linux audio player
to work with the grooves.

So how do you build your own? Check the detailed construction details,
though consider what they learned: don't ever do this: "Don't try to
build a disco floor in your lounge; it will consume your life. Now
there's a lesson they don't teach in any class." Okay, fine, but when
they say "As far as we know, there is no mention on the internet of
anyone home brewing a dance floor of anywhere near this complexity,"
can't you hear the gauntlet falling? (Hey, stop looking at me! I'm just a keyboard player.)

Dance Wednesday continues, so get your dancing shoes on. You
can trigger audio and video with a Dance Dance Revolution pad (or any
USB game controller).

Resources: You'll want some kind of PS2-to-USB converter so
you can plug it into your computer, for starters (here's an example). Then check out software like STEIM's JunXion (Mac OS X), which maps USB input to MIDI, or, better yet PSmaX (Mac/Windows), which is designed specifically for this purpose and runs standalone or (if you've got it) in Max/MSP. (Savvy Max users might also map the dance pad to the OSC
protocol.)

Examples of the system in action:

• Mapping tap dancing gestures to audio and video (Max/MSP)
• Geoff Matters rocks the DDR (with Max/MSP) at Remote Lounge
• Interactive Dance Dance Revolution performance
  with 4 DJs and 2 composers ganging up on one dancer (though in this
  case they actually just hooked the DDR up to a PlayStation and filmed
  the thing with a camera)
• DDR has even had life as installation art

Why would you want to do this, aside from the basic cool factor? A
dance pad could let your audience get up and jam, triggering sounds or
video, or you could use this as a cheap foot controller — and hey, if
you have four limbs, why should your hands have all the fun?

See also: game controllers as instruments, Unreal Tournament 2004 for music (part 1 and part 2), and how to use the P5 virtual reality glove with your Mac or PC.

As always, CDM is anxious to hear your tips, experiences, and see your
work, so just drop me a line if you're doing this kind of thing. I'll
even promote your next gig!