Signature - Q1, 2008 - (Page 34) Wacky Apps | By Colleen Marble | Image by Leonello Calvetti | Q1 ’08 The Toy Symphony project at MIT’s Media Lab has designed and tested a range of interactive digital musical instruments and compositional tools that allow players of all ages and skill levels to create original music. Bluetooth technology is now coming into play as well. Among the project’s devices is the Beatbug, a hand-held percussive instrument that lets users create rhythms and share them with other players. The original Beatbug design consists of a simple plastic casing with a piezoelectric disc that players beat like a drum. The disc records the speed and force of the rhythm, and the Beatbug repeats the rhythm in a continuous loop. Either of two players can then bend one or both sensor “antennas” to alter aspects of the rhythm. A stop button allows a player to end the loop and create a new pattern. As many as eight Beatbugs can be connected via cables to an audio interface, a mixer, an 8-channel amplifier and a computer, allowing a multiplayer, interactive performance. For solo performances, the Bluetooth enabled Beatbug sends data to a laptop, not audio gear. MIT researchers Roberto Aimi and Diana Young developed the Bluetooth wireless version. “Perhaps the most compelling aspect of this project is the simplicity in the Beatbug system, which has been reduced from an entire rack of equipment to a laptop and a Beatbug,” they write. To see and hear the Bluetooth OK, so you’ve created your own novel application of Bluetooth technology enabled version of the Beatbug in or know of someone who has. action, visit toysymphony.net, click on Share your Wacky Apps by e-mailing “Team” and check out Aimi’s page. signature@bluetooth.com. Gimme a Beat(bug) The rise of Bluetooth wireless technology is sweet music to the ears of member companies. Now meet the Beatbugs – no, not the next British invasion, but music nonetheless. MIT researchers are tinkering with ensembles in which Bluetooth enabled versions of these quirky instruments send percussive rhythms to laptops and to other Beatbugs. Experience More 34 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://Bluetooth.org
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