Interface

Digital Audio Workstation software applications put the power of the recording and editing studio right in front of you on a computer screen. Tweaking the hundreds and hundreds of settings and parameters offered by such applications has been made easier with the addition of physical controls on a MIDI interface. But rather than be limited to a rigid set of pre-defined buttons, knobs and faders, students from the University of Applied Sciences Bremen have built a set of wireless, wooden devices with rotary dials called FlexiKnobs.  Read More

Too embarrassed to pull out your ancient, non-touchscreen mobile phone in front of your smartphone-toting friends? Sick of the sniggers and jeers as you search through your contacts using – gasp – buttons!? Desperately want to join the “in” touchscreen crowd but are still stuck in a contract that’s you can’t afford to break? Relax. New software, called TouchDevice, can give touchscreen capabilities to an ordinary mobile phone by using the phone’s microphone. In fact, it can even extend the touch surface beyond the screen to include the entire phone’s casing.  Read More

Until humans evolve huge brains like the Talosians, it seems we’ll have to rely on electronic headwear to allow us to control devices with our brainwaves – electronic headwear like the XWave from California-based company PLX Devices. The XWave is the first brainwave interface accessory for the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad that is worn over the head like a pair of headphones. Unfortunately, the device won’t allow you to scroll through playlists or select a contact to call with the power of your mind. Rather, like the Star Wars Force Trainer, it detects your attention and meditation levels for use in games and getting the old gray matter into shape.  Read More

Five years ago, Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger envisioned a technology that “could influence notions of community, identity, and connectivity with minimal impact on the physical environment.” Using an online design portal, users would select and try out a customized electronic processing device that they would then print onto their own skin. The DNA Tattoo, or Dattoo, could include printable input/output tools such as a camera, microphone, or laser-loudspeaker - it would be up to the user, as would the Dattoo’s aesthetics. Most intriguingly, it would capture its wearer’s DNA, to ensure an intimate user/machine relationship.  Read More

Following on from success with the iPhone, IK Multimedia has now released an AmpliTube app for the iPad. Using an iRig interface adapter, the app offers guitar and bass players real-time, mobile tone-modeling and multi-effects solutions on the bigger multi-touch screen of the iPad. It is available in both free and paid-for versions, the latter giving players 11 effects, five amps and cabinets, plus two microphones to play around with.  Read More

There are a huge number of apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch which make the most of the sensitive touchscreen display to mimic the playing of various musical instruments. Useful for learning, rehearsing and for just showing off to your mates, such things all suffer from the same problem - an awkward user experience. The Fingerist from EVENNO could change all that by allowing players to place an Apple smartphone or media player into the cradle of its guitar-shaped body, strap it around their neck, and then blast out some power chords using the built-in speaker.  Read More

On display at the Tokyo Make Meeting this past Saturday was Beatfly, a cleverly designed illuminated blimp created by Hideki Yoshimoto. Rather than just implement simple radio controls, he has playfully given Beatfly a number of control interfaces. You can drive it by iPhone, MIDI controller, Flash web interface, a standard keyboard, voice control, or even music.  Read More

Trying to get to your phone whilst it’s buried at the bottom of your bag is not the way to make friends with your local librarian. If researchers at Deutsche Telekom (DT) in Berlin, Germany get their way though, soon a magnet and a simple hand gesture could be all you need to silence any phone... provided it has a compass sensor.  Read More

A study at the University of Maryland has the potential to help movement-impaired people to control the operation of artificial limbs or computer systems without having to undergo extensive training or invasive surgery. The researchers have successfully reconstructed 3D hand movements by decoding electrical brain signals picked up from sensors placed on the scalps of volunteers.  Read More