Remember the film ‘It’s All Gone Pete Tong’? I’m sure you do. The story of famed Ibizan DJ Frankie Wilde, who loses the one tool a musician needs most: his hearing? As your recall, Frankie worked around his disability and was able to continue his career by mixing based on vibrations.
Now, imagine a disability that impedes motors kills or, worse yet, one that has resulted in complete body paralysis. Those suffering from such an ailment may not be so lucky. That is where Danish app maker Eye Conductor comes in. It is an app whose developers aim to provide people living with disabilities the capability of producing music.
The app use face tracking technology to follow eye movements and transforms them into musical notes or beats in a drum sequencer. Users can start their sequence by building a drumbeat and then choosing an instrument to play on top of that beat. They also have the option to play single notes, chords or add an arpeggiator that is in sync to the beat. Specifically, some of the translations are raising eyebrows transposed notes up an octave while opening a mouth can add a delay or reverb.
Though the app is still in prototype, its lead developer Andreas Refsgaard hopes to add features that will expand its capabilities past the live performance stage, and move into full digital production capabilities, with vast libraries of audio clips, effects, and the possibility to export compositions.
Source: The Creators Project
