[chuck-users] Reactable

[mike clemow]

Hans,

> I am really thinking about the usability of the interface for musical
> purposes. The Reactable TUI is a little like the Theremin, which is nice for
> making cool sounds with, but really hard for playing actual music (not
> intending a discussion about "what is music").

It's just an interface technology--not an application.  You can place
the fiducials on objects and the software will determine position and
orientation of the object on the table.  It also attempts to give you
primitive touch (i.e. finger-finding) information.  Now, what you DO
with this technology--in other words: your particular application--can
be judged as musical/non-musical or a good/bad application of the
technology.  So, if you design a theremin using the Reactables
technology, then you'll have a table-top theremin.  If you design a
composition tool, then you'll be looking at it in a completely
different light.

I think that this conversation was really about ChucK's OSC
implementation, which is not fully complete if you read the OSC spec.
I'm unsure, however, where stuff like this falls in the priority list
of the dev'rs.

-Mike




On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 3:41 AM, Hans Aberg<haberg at math.su.se> wrote:
> On 21 Jun 2009, at 06:01, mike clemow wrote:
>
>>> I liked the way oscillators were connected, which is a bit ChucKish. But
>>> as
>>> for the interface, as one only has two hands usually, perhaps two
>>> spacenavigators (or something) might be even more efficient. One needs a
>>> method to select or create an item quickly, but then item can be
>>> manipulated
>>> using a usual HID. And then, of course, question is how to make music,
>>> and
>>> not just sounds out of it.
>>
>> yeah, but you're really talking about the application rather than the
>> technology.  Reactables software give you a way to get orientation and
>> position of objects on a table.  What you do with it (including
>> whether or not you decide to make sound at all with this information)
>> is really up to you.
>
> I am really thinking about the usability of the interface for musical
> purposes. The Reactable TUI is a little like the Theremin, which is nice for
> making cool sounds with, but really hard for playing actual music (not
> intending a discussion about "what is music").
>
>  Hans
>
>
>



-- 
http://michaelclemow.com
http://semiotech.org