toneglow is a project which will use the close integration of Physical Computing and Max/MSP to create an immersive interactive environment installed into any space. We aim to help people create music in groups. People who have never met will be able to play music together in an incredibly interactive way.
We are creating toneglow because we want to use interactive technology to bring people together and have the potential to develop a sense of unity amongst strangers. We want it to be highly useable by anyone no matter what their musical or technological experience is, and bring the ability to create music to anyone and everyone. We feel that a strong correlation between physical movements, light and sound is essential to the instant gratification of people using the system, and also will create more of a sense of fulfillment after its use. Essentially, we want people to walk away from toneglow wanting to tell people about it and feel accomplished with what they have created.
We are primarily aiming toneglow at people with less musical experience so they can create something without having to know the process behind it. As a side goal, we also want to spark an interest in people into the world of Physical Computing and music creation, and general computing beyond the everyday commercial use.
There will be a series of ‘pods’ which will be hollow translucent plastic balls containing a number of LEDs whose brightness or colour (if they are RGB) will be controlled by distance sensors and string potentiometers mounted inside. We will probably have two sets of different coloured LEDs inside, one sets brightness being manipulated from X axis control and one from Y axis control. As stated earlier, there is the possibility to use RGB LEDs to eliminate clutter inside the pods. The pods will be translucent so that the light is diffused more evenly and the so that the user won’t be able to see the internal circuitry. A small hole will be cut in the back of the pods so that the distance sensors will be facing the wall behind, and the pods will be hanging at the bottom of the throw of the string potentiometer from the ceiling about 30-40cm from the wall. There is also the potential for us to use distance sensors facing upwards on the pods as well as towards the wall so there is a slightly different type of X/Y control, but we could be limited by how high ceilings are in the rooms. Conversely there is the potential to mount string potentiometers onto the back of the pods instead of distance sensors, but we feel that this might make too much visual distraction with the number of strings coming out. Prototyping and experimentation will help us decide which is the best system to use. As the user moves the pod around, the distance sensor and string potentiometer will give different values and in turn will manipulate the sound. The sound produced from each pod will be different so the user can recognise what they are controlling, but the sound will interact with the other pods’ tones in a musical way. We aim to build around 6-8 pods, possibly more. If we created more, we would use multiplexing with the Arduino to get more inputs and outputs.
The information from each pod will be sent through Arduino to Max/MSP, using the serial port, to create an ambient musical sound, for which the movement of each pod will have a direct effect. The light produced by each pod will also be in direct correlation with the sound created by it. We want to assign each pod its own speaker which will be in close proximity so that the user will have a more definite connection to the music which they are creating.
Inputs
-Distance Sensor from each pod (ultrasonic or IR depending on tests)
-String Potentiometer from each pod (potentially distance sensors too depending on tests)
Outputs
-LEDs in each pod
-Serial Output to Max/MSP which produces sound -Speakers from computer
Housing
Translucent Plastic ball which contains distance sensor, LEDs and string potentiometer, wired to the Arduino at a central point. It will be held by people who want to create music so will be sturdy enough to be able to withstand this.
Presentation
We will create a short video demonstrating the use of toneglow and how people interact with it.
toneglowblog.wordpress.com 