Create music with the body

Sound consoles could become a thing of the past. The sound engineers may leave their consoles if it is actually an investigation in England. Scientists at the University of Leeds are trying to develop methods to capture human motion in three dimensions, which would create music with a simple arm movements. If the technique is perfected, would eliminate the need to move hundreds of buttons and knobs to achieve the perfect sound. It could also be used for people with mobility difficulties can view websites.

The system is developed in the music school of the University of Leeds and is to capture three-dimensional movements using infrared lamps. Dr Kia Ng, who leads the project, explained that the infrared light is projected against small reflective balls attached to clothing and monitored by twelve cameras. A computer recognizes the changes in the positions of balls and turns different gestures into instructions for music programs. With the system, anyone can control a musical composition.

"In fact, a person could interpret a note simply winking an eye or moving a foot. Anyone would be able to control a musical composition," said Dr Ng. Of course there is the risk that the wrong gesture leads to a terrible note. Thus the method will have a composition system that can guess what they represent a series of gestures. "The main challenge is to design the system to anticipate the movements," added the scientist. "To identify a movement not only need to know where an object has been and where it is, but where will," he added. Dr Ng expects the system to be tested in a live concert next year.