PalmDriver is an electronic device based on IR technology consisting of 22 sensing elements: the
distance of different zones of the hands’ palms are measured by the amount of reflected light.
PalmDriver is stable and responsive; as a consequence, sounds generated by the computer evoke on the
performer the sensation of “touching the sound”.
Image processing technology has been used for realizing the ScreenDriver system: -the built-in
web-camera of the laptop grabs images of the performer's hands; -internally the hands are "isolated"
from the rest of the body by considering those pixels whose luminance and color stands between
predefined values; -the reconstructed images are analyzed for detecting x-y position and dimensions
of both hands.
A video projector illumites the performer and, under control of the computer, creates proper
scenarios.
Handel, a
free-hands gesture recognition system (CMMR2004 - Springer)
Full paper
A traditional musical instrument is a compact and well defined tool where a specific action produces
always a specific sound. The new electro-acoustic instrument is a system, a sort of an exploded
instrument consisting of a number of spread out components: controllers, sensors, computers,
amplifiers and loudspeakers. Controllers and gesture recognition devices produce data-flows
information used by the computer for producing sound. How to link information to sound is referred
to as “mapping” that is "putting in relationship" data coming from controllers to algorithms which
generate musical events and sound. Here, the simple one-to-one mapping rule valid for traditional
instruments leaves room to a wide range of mapping rules definable by the composer to be used later
during the interactive performance.
About the role of mapping in Gesture-Controlled Live Computer Music (CMMR2003 - Springer)
Full paper
Improvising Computer Music, SMC04, Ircam, Paris 2004