Still at the music conference. Jim Frankel is demo’ing and playing videos of a number of new music technologies. I’m loving it!
But he just showed us a video of SoundBeam. It’s currently only available in the UK, but you basically aim two ultrasonic sensors at a person, and their motions make music. What blew my mind was when he showed a severely handicapped boy, making music by swaying around.
I would be hard for me to remember seeing anyone with that much joy!
David,
What an incredible product for our students who can not make music in traditional ways! Did they say when it would be available in the US?
Karen
David,
What an incredible product for our students who can not make music in traditional ways! Did they say when it would be available in the US?
Karen
(second try)
I’m gutted – I can see that there is something like a picture or a video included in the post, but I can’t download it – my system just crashes. Perhaps it’s just too big :o(
But the idea makes me think of a movie I saw some years ago called The Dancer about a mute dancer who hooked up with a research student. He developed a piece of kit which turned her incredible dance moves into sound.
Then there’s the scene in Mr Holland’s Opus, where he uses light to perform works of music at his deaf son’s school.
I know that these are works of fiction – and rather scmaltzy ones at that – but they inspire me. Barriers can come down!