Bryan Premiers Mopho DJ Concept – Accelerometer & Gyroscope Scratchin’
“A New Method Of Digital Scratching…”
Nick J. Bryan, a student at Stanford University, has devised a new methodology for digital scratching. Eschewing the now prevalent Digital Vinyl System (DVS) use of time-coded vinyl, Bryan utilizes the accelerometer and gyroscope of two Apple iPod Touches to control the scratch data.
Each Apple iPod Touch transmits the scratch data wirelessly via WiFi to specialized Mopho DJ software, which receives the information and translates it with apparently very little latency as you can witness by the shaky video below. The screens displays the waveform of each track for a visual representation.
“An accelerometer/gyroscope-equipped smart phone is firmly attached to a modified record, placed on a turntable, and used to sense a performers movement, resulting in a wireless sensing-based scratching method,” Bryan declares. “The accelerometer and gyroscope data is wirelessly transmitted to a computer to manipulate the digital audio playback in real-time. The method provides the benefit of digital audio and storage, requires minimal additional hardware, accommodates familiar proprioceptive feedback, and allows a single interface to control both digital and analog audio. In addition, the proposed method provides numerous additional benefits including real-time graphical display, multi-touch interaction, and untethered performance (e.g. “air-scratching”). Such a method turns a vinyl record into an interactive surface and enhances traditional scratching performance, while affording new and creative musical interactions,” Bryan concludes.
When watching the video, it occurs to us that Bryan may be giving someone like Stanton a pretty good idea of how to incorporate Waveform ScratchinWhat we call scratching a waveform on a touchscreen around here...‘ into an upcoming product. Instead of replacing a turntable with a touchscreen (See: Scott Hobbs —Ed.) — why not incorporate LCD screen, displaying a track’s waveform, onto the top of a turntable platter?
Nick Bryan plans to present his Mopho DJ concept at NIME 2011 in Oslo, Norway (May 31-June 1).
More information on Nick Bryan and Mopho DJ.
