Boing Boing

Boing Boing is a new musical performance interface that provides the musician with four sensor-equipped ping-pong balls. The performer can adjust the spring constants of each ball individually by raising or lowering the corresponding rod. Each ball has a 2-axis accelerometer inside, and all data is sent to the computer via a CREATE USB Interface. There are also simple knobs above each of the balls to adjust parameters such as pitch, etc.

The Boing Boing interface allows musical synthesis parameters to be controlled with a set of physical springs; while in traditional instruments we are accustomed to interacting with things that vibrate at higher frequency ranges, the vibrations of the springs occur at less than 20Hz, thereby making no audible sound. The use of such low-frequency control rates lends certain qualities to the resulting sounds that are recognizable to our ears, such as bounces, collisions, trembles, shudders, and shakes.

Below is a video of "Quiver" for Boing Boing as performed at the CREATE concert on 10 November, 2005 along with Lance J. Putnam and Wesley Smith.

  • Quiver - 18MB mpeg4, recent version of quicktime required.

    Publications

    Musical Interaction Design with the CREATE USB Interface: Teaching HCI with CUIs instead of GUIs
    Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (New Orleans, USA, 6-11 November 2006).