augmented reality

Check out this insanity!

The 5 Gum Augmented Reality Music Mixer uses augmented reality – the idea of combining real world and computer-generated 3D graphics in real-time – to create a virtual DJ mixer that you control with controller “glyphs”.

The glyphs are used as the input device and allow users to:

• Change the volumes of each track by moving the glyph relative to the central reference glyph.
• Modify the tracks themselves by rotating the glyphs on their axis. This will add distortion, bit crusher and echo effects.
• Remove the audio track from the mix by covering or removing the glyphs.

The project is part of Wrigley’s 5 Gum “Stimulates Your Senses”promotion. Read more…

Times are touch, life is hard, and if you’re like me, you’re making your gear choices very carefully.

New technology, though, offers an alternative to expensive gear, effectively letting you laser print your music gear.

Check out ARDJ (Augmented Reality DJ) – an experimental DJ control system. By choosing which printed symbols are placed in the playing area, and how they are placed, you control the playback of audio loops.

See our previous post on augmented reality DJ scratching, for another example of how computers and cheap video cameras are changing music-making. Read more…

This is a fascinating demo of augmented reality scratching, via Vanderlin:

I was playing around with some AR markers the other day and came up with this idea. taking just a plain old vinyl record and attaching an AR marker to the label you can track the record in 3D space. The next question was, can you scratch the record?

So by figuring out the velocity of the records rotation and applying it to the payback of the audio you can scratch. There is some digital noise that needs to bee worked out, but sounds pretty good. Its still really hard to scratch, it takes some practice but is super fun. The next step is to figure out some nice triggers for different modes.

I like the idea of not needing a turntable but the actual spinning of the record helps with the scratching and playback. I made a couple modes, one where the record is paused and you can just scratch through the song. The other looks for zero velocity for x time and then continues on with the song. If there is velocity you then are scratching and the audio is affected. I think that this project has some legs can’t wait to play more.

With computers and cheap video cameras becoming ubiquitous, augmented reality virtual instruments could turn into a big trend in electronic music performance.

Leave a comment with your thoughts!