WaveShaper by Damien Di Fede is an audio synthesis app that lets you control a sound wave on an iPad. Use two fingers to control four parameters in real-time shaping and deforming included 20 audio files or  add your own audio files using the Documents folder in iTunes. There are also 8 preset slots for storing control point positions, touch-and-slide on the presets to scrub between them and you can share your recordings on SoundCloud from within the app.

Continue reading.... WaveShaper [iPad, openFrameworks, Sound]

Last week The Mill unrevealed their rear projected, 5’x 3’ interactive touch screen which is an interactive visualization of their portfolio (spanning 20 years) developed in Cinder. What makes this screen unique is extensive effort behind design and software development by the NY Digital team comprising Andrew Bell and an incredible group designers, flash developers and digital artists. For those that may be unaware, Andrew Bell is the main person behind Cinder, powerful, intuitive toolbox for creative programming, previously an in-house tool at the Barbarian Group where Andrew worked, now open sourced and developed by Andrew as part of the Mill’s R+D. We got a chance to to ask Andrew about the project including some making-of details and  features we will see in future releases of Cinder, including the forthcoming Cinder Timeline API – tweening library.

Continue reading.... The Making of the Mill Touch [Cinder]

The Creators was made as a final 3rd year project for the Information Visualisation Studio in the Bachelor of Design Computing at the University of Sydney, an interaction-design focused degree. The project was a response to a design brief that called for an interactive experience on a 42″ multitouch table that visualised data in a novel. The team chose realtime audio of the room as our dataset, as a meditation on cause and effect: the viewers become participators, creators, even if they are unaware of it.

Continue reading.... The Creators [Processing, Quartz Composer]

Created by on;(do) studio, modAxis is a musical instrument for the iPhone and iPad. By controlling positions of three circles you modulate FM parameters and ‘delay’ FX. Unlike DAW or typical musical instruments, such as midi keyboard, you can perform transformation of the ‘sound’ more intuitively with the use of multi-touch interface.

Red Cirlce icon is the first object when you touch the iphone or ipad screen. It create FM oscillator. X Axis is assigned to Harmonicity Ratio parameter. Y Axis is assign to Modulation Index parameter. Top left corner is minimum setting. The second icon is green circle. This circle controls Resonance lowpass filter modulation. X Axis assigned to filter modulation frequency parameter. Y Axis is assigned to modulation center position parameter. Top left corner is minimum setting. The third icon is blue circle. This circle controls feed back delay. X Axis assigned to Delay time parameter. Y Axis is Delay feedback parameter. Top left corner is minimum setting.

It’s a Free Download until December 31st.

Platform: iPhone/iPad
Version: 1.0
Cost: Free (before December 31st)
Developer: on;(do) studio

Few months since our preview of Little Bugger, the game is finally now available in the AppStore. Crafted in beautiful black and white, Little Bugger is a take on entomophobia (fear of insects). Squash as many insects as possible without letting any get away. Great sounds, very realistic insect movement and wonderful use of iPhone’s multitouch capability give the game a really special quality. Global ranking is included together with different difficulty modes, achievements and ‘Extended Play’ (NEW) – step by step increase in difficulty through 16 levels. Simply a must have.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: $0.99 (introductory price – limited time)
Developer: Statik

UPDATE 25.01.2010: We have 5 promocodes to giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment below and we’ll pick 5 random lucky winners later today. Thanks John!

It’s been 5 months and I am still anxiously awaiting the release or for that matter just a title of the new/still in development iPhone game from Mike Tucker (mike-tucker.com << must see).

There isn’t much information besides what you can see in the videos below. Hard to describe, space invaders like with uber-retro multitouch interface. That has probably told you nothing so you better hit play on the three videos embedded below.

Made with openFrameworks.

Mike Tucker currently resides and works in London spending most of his time at hi-res.net. See his portfolio site at mike-tucker.com.

Infractor is an interactive, artistic application that has been developed for a multitouch-table. It is based on the article database of the New York Times. The information can be searched, filtered and read by putting physical objects on the interactive surface.

The project has been carried out entirely in Processing. The reacTIVision-software was used for the tracking of the objects.

Infractor has been developed and designed by a group of students of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences.

more at infractor.org

(thanks Mike)

Multi Touch Sound Storm is a project by Subcycle Labs, the work of Christian Bannister a musician, designer and developer located in Portland, Oregon. A visual, multi touch interface to interact with sound combining beat slicing, granual effects, navigate the beat back and forth packaged in a minority report type transparent overlay of three dimensional objects constantly changing and fluctuating with the interactive motion. The video below is so rich that it is actually quite hard to follow what is actually going on but nevertheless a wonderful experience in skilful hands of the person interacting with the device.

Peter of CreateDigitalMotion writes:
Three-dimensional forms morph and vibrate using visuals programmed in Processing, making architectural-organic shapes and spaces that really begin to “look” like sound. These forms can represent synthesis and effects parameters (Christian has done some work with the Massive synth from Native Instruments), or can allow navigation through loops using touch. Gestures remap offsets and duration for audio, scrub and slice, and apply granular resynthesis.

Here are some of the additions in the latest build:
3D sound visuals for the texture of the sound, Switching between song segments with controller (old Kaoss pad in front of screen) and no I am not using Live (yet), Random color when new sound is selected, Integration of the joystick array (my Costa Rica project 2007.12.28), Real-time effect controls (distortion, bitcrush, delay/feedback, timestretch FX), Zoom and rate control of the sound, One shot effects on USB keypad next to the controller.

The system currently includes single touch – loop navigator, forward/rewind – two fingers upper half of screen, scrub – two fingers upper half of the screen, four fingers – granular synthesis, first nav toggle – beat slicer, second nav toggle – reverse.

Both videos are a pure pleasure to watch. You can get more information on Christian’s website including some videos on his vimeo account.

(via createdigitalmusic)

Morse Code does not need much introduction but for the case of argument it may be relevant to understand the cause of discovery before we address issues why this may be relevant now when more sophisticated methods of communicate are around us. What I will try to do in this article is outline few questions and arguments why Morse Code as a method of input might be considered as a more intuitive and effecting way of exchanging information then traditional keyboard. I will then go on to propose uses, which span beyond text replacement but rather in terms of opportunities in the modern day of exchange and interface with information.

Background

Morse code, created for Samuel F. B. Morse‘s electric telegraph in the early 1840s, is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm. Morse code uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message. The short and long elements can be formed by sounds, marks, or pulses, in on off keying and are commonly known as “dots” and “dashes” or “dits” and “dahs”. The speed of Morse code is measured in words per minute (WPM) or characters per minute, while fixed-length data forms of telecommunication transmission are usually measured in baud or bps.

The most popular current use of Morse code is by amateur radio operators, although it is no longer a requirement for amateur licensing in many countries. In the professional field, pilots and air traffic controllers are usually familiar with Morse code and require a basic understanding. Navigational aids in the field of aviation, such as VORs and NDBs, constantly transmit their identity in Morse code. Morse code is designed to be read by humans without a decoding device, making it useful for sending automated digital data in voice channels.

Here are some usage examples:

"]-- --- ·-· ··· ·       -·-· --- -·· ·
M   O   R   S  E        C    O   D  E

"]THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT MORSE CODE
- .... .. ... / .- .-. - .. -.-. .-.. . / .. ... / .- -... --- ..- - / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .

Interface

Traditionally, Morse code was extensively used for early radio communication beginning in the 1890s. For the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of high-speed international communication was conducted in Morse code, using telegraph lines, undersea cables, and radio circuits. Vibroplex is a tool we should also be familiar with. The paddle, when pressed to the right by the thumb, generates a series of dits, the length and timing of which are controlled by a sliding weight toward the rear of the unit. When pressed to the left by the knuckle of the index finger, the paddle generates a dah, the length of which is controlled by the operator. Multiple dahs require multiple presses. Left-handed operators use a key built as a mirror image of this one.

Morse code has also been employed as an assistive technology, helping people with a variety of disabilities to communicate. Morse can be sent by persons with severe motion disabilities, as long as they have some minimal motor control. In some cases this means alternately blowing into and sucking on a plastic tube (“puff and sip” interface). People with severe motion disabilities in addition to sensory disabilities (e.g. people who are also deaf or blind) can receive Morse through a skin buzzer.

More recently, with the massive SMS messaging adaptation there have been cases to prove Morse Code being a faster input than SMS.  Jay Leno did a text off between two text messengers and two Morse coders who won the contest. Unfortunately the video is not longer available.

Another recent case is Fun with flashing lights (HOW TO – Build a morse code generator) Arbitraryuser writes - “Not sure if you’re interested, but I put this together as a social experiment to see how long it would take for someone to notice that the lamp flashing in my window was actually morse code… less than 24 hours later the cops were at my door…. aka How to build a Morse code signaler and see how long it takes before someone figures it out.” - Link.

a series of paintings in which the individual panels visually & aesthetically blur different abstract data sources, including satellite images, stock market charts, corporate logos, or morse code communications. infosthetics

Opportunities

What the above examples suggest is that Morse Code is an interesting alternative input method that not only allows information to be inputted in a quick and efficient way but also that is not limited to tap devices only but body as a whole. The way we navigate the environment and operate devices using our touch sense, the current way of inputting data in the form of touch interfaces is limited to our comprehension of interface, ie seeing the available options and using our fingers to control the flow of information. Morse Code offers an alternative methodology of reading and writing information. Not only limited to fingers, but the information can be inputted by our gestures, motion, exhalation and many more.

Because the system is based on rhythm, this information can be transmitted in many different ways independently from seeing the input or relying on feedback. Taking keyboard import for example relies on 3 elements; knowing the position of letters (seeing), typing the letters (fingers) and once again receiving the feedback of typing by looking at what we typed (seeing). Similarly, contemporary touch interfaces such as multitouch devices like the iPhone rely once again on knowing where the information is (seeing), tapping on the information (fingers) and feedback, ie whether you selection was correct (seeing). With morse code as the form of input this interaction between the devices and user could be reduced to two elements; typing the information (fingers, shake, footsteps) and feedback (seeing, hearing).

What should also be considered is that this could begin to suggest custom designed acronyms for interaction. Take for example “confirmations”. If the application offers a choice, an “accept” button (in tradition sense) could be replaced with a single morse code input, a short code or an acronym. Applications could begin to develop own interaction language using morse code as basis. Learning to use application would imply learning morse code shortcuts or acronyms as an optional (additional) quick way of interaction. Important to note that this would be available to everyone with or without disability whether the input is using fingers or the rest of your body. Devices such as the iPhone offer accelerometer data input as well as touch where for example registered motion could replace tap.

When we look at recent interaction projects, art installations the embody similar principles. Motion capture that tracks your movements, attempts to recognise your behaviour patterns could be built upon morse code behaviours, rhythms with app behaviour acronyms that are custom to the application.

Memo Akten refers to this as “creating new instruments”, tools for interaction. His recent body paint projects allow interaction between the view and canvas by capturing their motion and projecting paint effects on a virtual canvas. Whilst this interaction is about fun, it does provoke questions of input of information and whether one could begin to understand these gestures as words using Morse Code.

Microsoft of-course is (technologically) leading the way. Their current natal project builds a lot on custom behaviour patterns but not established methods like Morse Code, why not?

Many references and many projects, probably too many to mention. What is certain is that Morse Code presents an established communication method that can be still used / implemented in contemporary projects. We do not need to reinvent patterns of behaviour but rather build on established ones. Morse Code, however old, is a simple, easy to learn and easy comprehend method. Whether this be gestural or text based communication, patterns are here, we just need to use them. ‘Multitouch’ is so 1840′s!

How to learn it

I have come accross this site that seems to outline few ways to easily learn morse code in 1 minute (not convinced). Another alternative, if you have an iPhone, to jailbreak it and use TypingSebastian (AppStore) with plugin for iGitDahText. The learning process should be fun and engaging. Do note that this requires a Jailbroken iPhone which will void your warranty. Other alternatives are Francis Bonnin’s Morse-It (AppStore) and Mc Morse Code (AppStore).

See also Morse Code Translator

and, An Xiao on Twitter as an Artistic Medium: Morse Code Vs Twitter:

Continue reading.... TouchOSC Editor [iPhone, Mac, Windows]