Build a technology to support Amir in making techno music!
Image description: A young man with a black beanie and a green jumper sitting in a wheelchair behind a DJ desk in a dark room with red and blue lights. (Image courtesy: SRF)
About Amir
Amir - DJ and producer at “Das Hertz” - was born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He is an technoartist enthusiastic about music and technology. He enjoys life, raves, and gaming and strives to pulverise the physical barriers when making music :-)
Challenge
When being behind the desks, Amir currently uses a highly sensitive joystick on his wheelchair to control the mouse cursor on his computer running the DJ software Traktor Pro. However, moving the mouse curser only in 2D is not only very slow but also very inprecise, which is very inconvenient when trying to mix the intended sounds. Therefore, Amir would like to have an alternative input modality, which would allow him to directly work with individual MIDI channels when mixing. For that, he would need to find a way to detect his intent or residual movement and translate that into a control voltage. This voltage can then be transferred to the intended MIDI signal, ultimately producing the technosounds for the crowd to dance to!
Solution
The found solution makes use of Amir's residual finger function. Pressure sensors below his fingers were used to control the knobs of his DJ software - the more Amir presses, the more the knobs "turn" in clockwise direction. By pressing on a second sensor located between his thumb and index finger, Amir can reset the knob to its initial value, what reflects as a nice drop in the music. To enable this, a circuit was built and a code was written for an Arduino Leonardo, which can translate the sensor signals in a MIDI signal which will be sent via USB to Amir's Computer.
After the hackathon, the team is now regularly meeting to make the system robust enough to be used in a club. Additionally, more functions should be provided to Amir: A total of three pressure sensors allow to generate continuous signals to turn three knobs simultaneously. A fifth sensor on Amir's cheek allows him to switch between various modes, which are different functions in his software, mapped to the three knobs. Additionally, a small OLED-display will inform Amir, which mode he is currently controlling. The team is working hard to get everything ready before Amir's next gig!