Hello All. Greg asked me to contribute something for him today while he was away and I couldn’t say no. My name is Brandon and I run a little blog called zerosign.net where I post about technology and my own personal projects. While I’m at it, I would like to clarify that I am NOT the blogger mentioned in the previous post. I am just a friend of Greg’s from his days as an EE undergrad and am here for only a visit - it is my understanding, however, that Greg may announce this new mystery blogger sometime next week but I’ll leave all the big news up to him :).
Greg said that I could talk about anything and with that in mind, I really wanted to promote an up-and-coming DIY project from one of the veterans - a little DIY gossip, if you will. Ladyada (the brains behind the MintyMP3 and the GameGrrl) has posted on her site this week, that she has a fresh new device coming out very soon. MIDIsense is her new gizmo that she has developed for EYEBEAM and is going to be realeased completely under a Creative Commons license. This sounds like it is going to be a fantastic and fully customizable project utilizing various sensors for your own creative purposes.
MIDIsense is a simple, yet extensible sensor interface system for artists, musicians and others interested in experimenting with sensors. The MIDIsense boards provide a simple way to integrate various common sensors with existing software such as Max/MSP, Ableton Live, etc. or directly to a synthesizer/sequencer with a MIDI in jack. Interface boards are available as kits and (possibly) assembled. Graphical configuration/calibration software is written in wx/Python and will be available for Windows/Linux/Mac OS X.
She goes on to mention that the device will be able to use several different types of sensors including ‘resistive’ type sensors and ‘capacitive touch’ button sensors. She should have the project available in kit form allowing you to make yours however you want. While I’ve never actually purchased a kit from her, I have used some of her work as the inspiration and guide for some of my own DIY projects (see NES in a GameGear).
Sadly, as I said, the project isn’t quite ready yet. However she gives us some pretty good teaser photos here. This is something that I’m really excited about and can’t wait to see how it all turns out.
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