Known mostly to Americans for soundtracking one of the Millennial generation’s most traumatic TV moments, British singer Imogen Heap recently announced her latest project to develop gloves that allow musicians to interact with computers via gestures.
The gloves – which resemble a cross between a Theremin and JARVIS – are borne of Heap’s Gloves Project, which focuses on removing physical barriers between musicians and electronic equipment. The so-called Mi.Mu gloves are laced with sensors that pick up on an artist’s hand position and velocity of movement as well as the bend in their fingers and the distance between their digits, allowing musicians to alter pitch and toggle between sounds in a dance-like series of movements. The gloves also pick up on gestures such as closed fists and open palms.
In order to move the project into production, Heap has launched a Kickstarter to raise £20,000. As of press time, she is well on her way to surpassing that goal.
Will Heap’s Mi.Mu gloves be a breakthrough for musicians struggling with knobs and switches during live performances, or will they be another low-adoption technological misstep in the vein of the Segway? Only time will tell, but the implications of the technology spell advancements for all human-computer interactions and not only those on the stage.
Read more about Mi.Mu and Heap’s plans for the project in her interview with Dezeen.
