Imogen Heap - award-winning, including two Grammy awards, master of recording and creation of electronic music shows, begins her presentation. She joins her hands in a certain gesture, which, apparently, starts the program, then brings an invisible microphone to her lips, setting the intervals of repetitions with her free hand, after which she beats the rhythm on illusory drums with equally invisible sticks. Piece by piece, Hip creates music literally out of thin air, performing the song "Frou Frou - "Breathe In"".
The Mi.Mu Wireless Music Gloves, which Hip invented back in 2010, made this magic real. Eight years of research and development were required to prepare the product for sale, and finally the gloves, previously presented only in the form of exclusive prototypes, became available to everyone.
“I have always wanted more expressive control over the sound both in the studio and on stage,” said Imogen in 2012 and did not give up on her goal.
Inspired by works и , Mi.Mu gloves allow electronic musicians to go beyond equipment setups to actually perform in front of their audiences live.
The first pair of Mi.Mu gloves was created by Heep along with researchers at the University of the West of England in Bristol. The idea was to use them for the Earth Day show, the set up included the gloves themselves, a backpack and a custom jacket to fit all of Imogen's equipment. Advances in technology have reduced it all to the only gloves that Heep has consistently used in his performances ever since.
So far, only about 30 pairs of Mi.Mu have been made. They were intended primarily as prototypes for touring musicians and cost £5000 (about US$6400). But even at such a price, gloves quickly found their audience. For example, ) used them during her tour in 2015.
The first Mi.Mu models were hand-sewn by Rachel Freire, a clothing and costume designer who has worked on films such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Alien: Covenant. “It took me about two days just to make one pair,” Freire said.
A lot has changed since then, although Freire still makes gloves by hand, the process has been sped up a bit. At a small event dedicated to the launch of gloves on sale in London, the company showed a new version of Mi.Mu, which was demonstrated in their speeches и . Heep herself was absent from the presentation as she was on her way to Toronto to speak at a Blockchain conference.
Dr. Tom Mitchell, who helped Imogen develop the gloves from the start, and his team made a number of improvements to Mi.Mu.
The flexible sensors have been redesigned for greater accuracy so that they can pick up the finest finger gestures. This provides a greater variety of controls and allows performers to move in a more natural way. An advanced gyroscope ensures that the gloves always know where they are in XNUMXD space. Previous models often needed to be told which direction the musician was moving in order to avoid introducing errors.
Another big problem was the delay between movement and the sound's response to it. This time, the gloves use an 802.11n Wi-Fi interface to communicate, which ensures that when someone performs an action, the system instantly responds to it. Finally, the new gloves have replaceable batteries that the company promises will last for six hours on a single charge. At the same time, artists will be able to replace them right during the show thanks to a spare set. Interestingly, these batteries were originally designed for vapes, but in the end they were perfect for Mi.Mu. The design has also undergone changes, Mi.Mu have become thinner, and their shape has become smoother and more streamlined due to glued, rather than stitched, as before, parts of the structure.
“We want people to be free to express themselves,” Mi.Mu CEO Adam Stark said of the company’s future direction. Mi.Mu hopes that over time their gloves will cost as much as an electric guitar, but it will take some time. Meanwhile, the glove has found many uses that its creators never thought of, including use by disabled musicians. For example, suffers from cerebral palsy, he struggles to play the guitar and piano, but has no problem using gloves.
The Mi.Mu Musical Gloves are available for pre-order for £2500 (approximately $3220) with shipments starting July 1st.
Source: 3dnews.ru