Inspired by Imogen Heap's Mi.Mu gloves, I wanted to create a hand synthesizer that allowed your hands to make music. These gloves were created in December of 2022. Through using Arduino, Pure Data, pressure sensors, an IMU sensor, a flex sensor, gloves, and a variety of securing elements, I was able to create a synthesizer that allowed a user to create music. One hand contains four pressure sensors on a person’s fingertips and the other has a flex and IMU sensor, allowing for full use of the hands to make sound.
I created a circuit to detect the values read from all of the sensors to serialize to my computer's port and get unpacked in Pure Data. Pure Data is a patch-based programming language that allows for a user to make oscillators and add effects to them, giving the user freedom to make their own unique sounds. I unpacked the values from the sensors and used them in my patch to give the user manipulability in what sounds were being made by the synthesizer.
This project gave me more experience in writing values through a serial port, reading those values in Pure Data, and familiarizing myself with patch-based programming. I hope to continue developing my patch-based programming skills in Pure Data so I can build on my sound engineering skills and discover more unique ways to create and interface art with technology.
Additional photo below.