Edward Sensorhands is a continuation and expansion upon the midterm project we created using flex resistors. As our midterm project showed, however, flex sensors don’t work very well when blown over by a fan. We decided instead to attach them to handyman’s gloves in order to get better, more controlled results. The presentation by the gentleman from MalletKat gave us the idea to use the gloves, not as much to create a piece of completely original music, but to modify loops and clips, basically acting as a sort of DJ. While the user is limited by what kind of clips he has to work with, the amount of unique sounds and effects he can produce is unparalleled.

II. Description

The gloves use bend sensors on all the fingers of the left hand, and force sensing resistors (FSRs) on the tip of each right-hand finger. We chose the hands as the centers of gesture control because they are the most articulate part of the body, and the gloves provided a convenient mounting platform. The gesture controlling the bend sensors is the same as one uses to make a fist, and for the FSRs, it is simply tapping one’s finger on a tabletop. In the original plan we were going to use an infrared distance sensor as well, which would be controlled by raising and lowering one’s forearm.

III. Chronology and Project Description

We split the project up in order to best emphasize our individual skills, but it ended up generating a fair amount of crossover. Fernando set on designing the loops using various Reason patches, Jeff programmed the MAX patch and wired stuff, and I handled the construction end of things. Our first step was to make sure that our sensors would work as they were intended, and were not overly sensitive or finicky. Jeff’s electronics expertise came in very handy at this point, as he was able to use resistors to condition the bend sensors’ signals. Otherwise, all our sensors were very easy to use and wire, though the FSRs were somewhat of an unknown.

After we knew the gloves could theoretically work, each section was able to proceed pretty much independently. The gloves we used were chosen for their close fit and reasonable sturdiness. A loose-fitting glove would cause trouble with the sensors attached to it, as the bend sensors might not bend as much, and looseness at the tips might mis-trigger the FSRs. The first problem we noted in attaching the bend sensors was that when the user flexed his hands, the gloves stretched, meaning that we could not simply glue the sensor to the gloves. I headed down to the Goodwill and purchased a nice silk tie, then chopped it up to form the slide tubes for the sensors (see Figure 1). After testing it out, the sensors still did not slide easily enough for our uses, so we glued a cut up Ziploc bag around each sensor, which did the trick. After that it was short work to glue all the pieces in place. We were careful to glue the sensors so that they would not get caught inside the silk holders, but could still get significant bend during use. The input wires were soldered to the ends, which were in turn glued to the gloves.

Figure 1: Bend Sensors

While all this was going on, we were simultaneously working on the MAX and Reason patches. Fernando brought his extensive techno background to bear on creating some catchy beats, using the various patches available. Initially, the song Fernando created was exceedingly complex, so we pared it down to its elements and designed a more modular set of loops. A lot of what we created was handled by Fernando, and is beyond the scope of the course, so I can’t honestly say that I understood all that he did. However, the effects we chose to modify are quite straightforward. We chose ones which would show off the abilities of our system as well as possible. They are as follows: