Use a webcam as a 3-axis midi controller

[Mary Mungo]

To use a webcam as a 3-axis midi controller, you will need :-

pmidic

and

midiox and midiyoke

Then wave your hands in the air and load up the Theremin device

The possibilities are endless

[kensuguro]

I believe you can also use max/msp and jitter. Cyclops to be exact. Or is that all old now. I saw that max/msp got an interface overhaul. good stuff. When I was working with jitter around 4 years ago, the processing bandwidth was so narrow (320x240 30fps) that the control data was pretty much useless regarding coordinate accuracy and temporal accuracy.. but atleast it seems 640x480 or dv quality is pretty solid these days. 30fps is still very slow tho. I thought roland's d-beam, or that strange thing alesis made pretty much did the same thing, just with more precision.

I'm not trying to ruin the original post, but let me continue.. I'm quite seasoned in this route.

At the end of the day, after you spend a while playing theremin, you do filter sweeps, etc.. I headed back for knobs. The video tracking stuff is great for stage presence tho. And to write papers about. Could get youa degree or two, and a trip to ARS electronica. I did one that used color tracking, used that to control AI enabled synths, used a combination of motion delta cumulation / average to control song generation, blah blah, and presented at SIGGRAPH emerging tech.. cool as a toy.

Comming to think about it.. this is a great discussion.. is interface free interaction all that important? Conceptually, yes, I think so. But practially, the precision is still not acceptable.. Apart from stage presence, is there really that much to gain from it? I mean, I can understand that new way of interacting -> new inspirations, different modes of thought. When I built a bunch of these camera interaction things, the experience was like.. "cool, that's fun" and didn't really lead to any musically fruitful experiences, or tools. Perhaps it's as simple as technology not being ready for this stuff just yet.

To me, so many things fall in the same category... using the wii-mote as midi controller, using any sort of camera, color tracking, blob tracking, inter frame delta tracking, feature tracking... it's all x-y.. and to me, it seems like a simple kaos pad is more dependable and accurate. Maybe not quite as visually extravagant, but as a tool, it makes more sense. OH, and darn, it won't get you a degree.

[basati]

seems it doesnt work with a mini dv camera in xp....
any experience?

a reason to get a webcam ?!




- many thanks for the links!

[Mary Mungo]

basati - It is possible to get webcams for free from your local Freecycle webgroup

kensuguro - I agree this device concept is limited at 30fps. With better resolution cameras though you do get tighter zone recognition but its a still not a 'good enough' frame rate but fun to play with as the possibilities are so many. (putting on white gloves and playing at being Jean Michell Jarre - lol)

The Kaos pad is much better as an X,Y controller but here we have an X,Y,Z controller!!!

Have you had a chance to play with Multitouch console? It seems a better response can be got using infrared cameras, though how true this is i'd be interested to know.

Super

[basati]

Thanks for reply.

[Mary Mungo]

Theres much greater accuracy with the Wiimote, that looks so good.

GlovePIE is an excellent application. I've been trying to get my MS strategic commander joystick to be recognised by midiyoke as an x,y,z controller for a while without complete success and this seems like the answer. But thats nothing to the revelation it can be used with VRGloves and microphones too!!! Now they should produce some very interesting midi messages!!!

Inspired

[braincell]

I agree with Kensuguro. I have also heard of the wii thing but I wonder how useful this is in the real world also. Maybe I should try my Novation touch pad. I never even used it.