Week 11 exercise - The Theremin

Concept 1

Create a group of small water flow falling out of a series of pipes. Electric signal can be detected when the performer’s finger interrupt with the waterfall, this will create a sound. Each water flow represents a key on a piano or a string on a string instrument such as harp. This is a very interesting way to play music, it may create good visual impact to the audience.

Concept 2

Another idea is using simple hand up and down movement to control the tone, there will be a visual meter to help performer gain the right tone. When the performer moves his or her hand up and down, some mechanism can detect the position of the hand and generate a corresponding sound, this is a very easy way to play a composition, but can be hard to control.

Comparison

To compare the prototypes, which are the implementation of the above concepts, we can use the Pugh Matrix. We can use the laser harp model in the example video as the baseline.

Accuracy

The easiness for the performer to consistently play the key he or she want.

Practicability

Does the movement needed for playing the composition easy to achieve and can be done consistently.

Reliability of the system

Weather the system can be used to play compositions consistently without having problems.

Complexity

Weather the system is very complicated that hard to learn how to use it to play, and play consistently.