It is interesting to see how technology changes the way we interact with the many devices that we own – from the remote control that helped shape the image of a couch potato to a touchscreen device as well as gesture-based gaming, here we are with another interesting application of hand gestures – to make sweet, sweet music. Of course, traditionally, hand gestures in music would mean manipulating a particular musical instrument with your hands – but what the Digital Ventriloquized Actor (DiVA for short) offers is something else – described as a singing synthesizer, the gestures of one’s right hand by DiVA’s operator will control the pitch as well as character of the sounds.
Closed-hand gestures result in consonants, while open-hand gestures end up with vowels. As for the left hand, it is not left idle, as it will also be hooked up with finger contacts in order to create stop sounds. Imagine the DiVA in a commercial setting – not only will there be a totally new genre of music, it would also translate to a new way for folks who suffer from speech disabilities to be able to make themselves heard in greater clarity than ever before. Will we see a new rhythm based game with a different implementation of DiVA?
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