September 20, 2011

New x-IMU plastic housing, accessories and auxiliary port modules

The x-IMU has just got better with the new x-IMU plastic housing. Its compact design does not feature mounting brackets. Instead its large flat underside was specifically designed to be compatible with adhesive-based solutions such as the x-IMU Velcro Strap and x-IMU Dual Lock Strips now available as x-IMU accessories.

We have also now started selling x-IMU auxiliary port modules that interface to a specific mode of the auxiliary port. The first module available is the super bright RGB LEDs module that can be driven by the auxiliary port in PWM mode to create any colour light. It is a simple solution to provide real-time feedback to a user from the host software.

July 21, 2011

See Imogen Heap's x-IMU gloves on YouTube

We are still eagerly awaiting for the TED Global 2011 videos to appear on-line but thanks to a audience member at Wired's Future of Music event we can all get a preview of the x-IMU based data gloves in action. Unfortunately the sounds quality isn't that great and with the camera positioned to one side we don't get to hear how she controls the surround sound through the performance.

July 12, 2011

Imogen Heap's x-IMU based musical gloves open TED Global 2011

A few weeks ago we were contacted by a customer with a project that really caught our attention.  Dr Tom Mitchell (senior Lecturer in Music Systems at UWE) and Imogen Heap (Grammy award winning musician) had already teamed up to create SoundGrasp using a 5DT glove to record and play samples during a performance.  They now wanted to incorporate x-IMUs to add whole new dimensions of control and debut the system at TED Global 2011. This was a project we had to be involved in.

After a few late nights in the lab, Tom and Seb Madgwick (of x-io Technologies) had the basic system up and running.  A week later and Tom’s expertise in music technology had evolved the system into a seamless interface between human motion and music production.  There was no doubt that Imogen's performance was going to be something special. Check out the coverage by the BBC, New Scientist and CNET.