Making music with physical objects...on your fridge!
Michelle Chang, Jenny Li
Contributions: All work, from design to implementation was split equally between the two of us. Go team! :)
The Wall Synth is an interactive music (or perhaps "noise" is a better word) making system that uses a camera, Fiducial markers, and Max MSP. The markers are magnetic, so users can make music on any magnetic surface. The interface is divided into columns (each of which is mapped to a particular instrument or sound). Turning a marker like a knob changes the speed and pitch of the sound, while moving it up or down like a slider adjusts the volume. Users can also add special effects to the sounds in each column by placing markers in the bottom row of the interface. This project was developed as part of a course on Sound and Music Computing with CNMAT Technologies.
Fiducial markers can be used to uniquely identify objects via computer vision. We used Max MSP to map individual markers to certain sound files, so users can essentially treat each marker like a unique sound bite / CD / mp3. The system is programmed to map the volume of a file to the y-axis, speed and pitch to a marker's angle. (See video for implementation details.)