TouchMe music controller

TouchMe music controller

 
WINNER 2020 | Category: 1. Product

 

Entrant
Playtronica

 

Abstract

TouchMe is designed to bring interactivity into the everyday world. The idea is to connect humans and objects in one electric chain, measure the intensity of human touch, and covert in into sound. TouchMe is MIDI controller that can be used in music, education, artistic practice, therapy, and research of human perception.

 

Description

Created in 2014 to broaden a fresh path for musical education and to invent instruments from everyday life, Playtronica’s goal is to remodel the synergy between the physical and digital worlds thanks to the power of sound and touch. Playtronica explores and arouses curiosity by using music, play and creative opportunities. With a simple human touch, objects then turn into sounds.

In Playtronica’s universe, everything should sound. It focuses on the physical characteristics of objects and uses conductivity and resistance to map their own voice. With the development of conductive materials and smart textiles, Playtronica’s research is to bring that voice into everyday reality. Playtronica’s focus is in the field of experiential marketing and audio branding, collaborating with brands like Hermes, Issey Miyake, Ikea and Nike, museums like Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Exploratorium, Tretyakov Gallery and Garage Museum.

Playtronica’s toolkit is designed to bring interactivity into the everyday world. We use the conductive properties of objects to sense touch interaction and turn it into sound. The idea is to connect humans and objects in one electric chain and measure the intensity of human touch, which is technically a change of electric resistance. The TouchMe board measures the resistance values between the contact areas and converts them into notes. It sends the notes as MIDI signals to the selected online interface. Users can use a collection of online synths presented on Playtronica website, professional musical software or hardware synthesizers.

 

Project video