Handsome

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  The right hand, before I added the wrist plate.

Introduction

Music at a tap of your finger tips opens up a paradigm-shifting world of possibilities for performing musicians and producers. The superior form factor and flexibility offered by an untethered glove over a synthesizer allows for the facilitation of music production and live performance anywhere and at any time. I believe a production-level version of Handsome to be a potentially successful product in its multi billion dollar market.

Inspiration

I was inspired by a lifelong love for music. Having been both a performer and a producer for some amount of time, I understand the need for a portable method of music creation.

What it does

Handsome maps one note to each of five fingers. One can then play notes on the scale by touching the aluminum surface to another surface, for example another finger. Two additional notes are placed on each respective wrist; this ensures that the entire Western chromatic scale can be played. The Makey Makey interprets physical impulses as an electrical signal, and it translates this signal to a keyboard keystroke. I map these keystrokes to keyboard notes for a synthesizer or MIDI recording.

Moreover, one can chain the effect of playing by tapping the aluminum tips by passing the ground cable to the last person in the chain. As long as everyone else in the chain leading up to the person holding the ground is touching skin, up to some undetermined limit, the person with the ground can still play the notes on the original glove wearer's fingers. This allows for some fun group "human centipede" scenarios.

How I built it

I cannibalized some plastic from water bottle packs, gathered a bunch of leftover aluminum foil from Chipotle burritos ,and put the glove together with some tape. I then added the sound functionality with the Makey Makey. Makey Makey allows you to map an input signal to a conductive surface to a keyboard keystroke. Using this, I was able to use an online keyboard to have the fingers generate their notes.

Challenges I ran into

The lack of raw materials was difficult, and was the primary hurdle. I had to be pretty resourceful. Constructing a feasibly wearable glove with just tape, aluminum, and plastic was difficult. In particular, it was hard to get around the slippage of the Makey Makey's alligator clips.

What I learned

Never leave my multitool at home.

What's next for Handsome

The immediate boost that Handsome can use is a better form. Obviously, cannibalized plastic isn't going to cut it. A battery source would be useful in tandem with a custom pcb so as to avoid having to tether through the Makey Makey. This would work especially well with bluetooth for interfacing with computers and thusly Digital Audio Workstations and composition programs. In addition, Makey Makey does not differentiate velocities of impact, so you cannot actuate volume with a Makey Makey setup.

Currently, Handsome doesn't have a way of switching octaves. A solution I envision is to place "octave" keys under the second fold of each of the four non-thumb fingers on each hand. This should be able to replicate the flexibility of an actual keyboard, making Handsome a reliable tool for live music performers.

Built With

• aluminum-foil
• makey-makey
• plastic
• tape