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Air Drums

 to go with your air guitar
  (-2)
(-2) 		  [vote for,
against]

I've seen loads of variations on a theme, but I'm looking for a proper set of air drums (I know none of you will have seen them). I'm thinking you could achieve this with an add-on to a web cam, and the long winter evenings would just fly by.

For clarity, I don't want sticks or gloves either.
—neilp, Dec 05 2003

Air Drumming in VR http://parlevink.cs...vrlab/examples.html
[phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

The Theremin - could help. http://mindlounge.m...tions/theremin.html
[gnomethang, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Eyetoy http://www.eyetoy.com/english/index.html
a starting point perhaps. [neilp, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

airFX: http://www.kellyind...s/alesis_airfx.html
[Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]


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Annotation:







       I'm a guitarist myself, but always find myself playing the air drums in my car... makes for some pretty spastic breaking and acceleration when I really get that bass drum kicking
—luecke, Dec 05 2003
   

       there should be a law against that...
—po, Dec 05 2003
   

       jonthegeologist will be avoiding roads frequented by lueke, for fear of impending death.
—jonthegeologist, Dec 05 2003
   

       [pheonix] sorry, I should've said. I want a totally 'handsfree' drumming experience. no sticks. def. no stix. and no gloves. Exactly the same way you play air guitar.
—neilp, Dec 05 2003
   

       This is baked, surely. I turn into Keith Moon when I get behind mine.
—saker, Dec 05 2003
   

       This is an interesting "Ware Drummer" effect ... causes seem to be rythmic music, hair-band dilusions, and ADD ... (non-lethal) treatments are still in development
—Letsbuildafort, Dec 05 2003
   

       Do you want this to make a noise? Does your air guitar make a noise too?
—kropotkin, Dec 05 2003
   

       [kropotkin].. it's very quiet, certainly.

I'll re-over clarify. I want a set of air drums with no moving parts, that also make a loud enough noise when I hit them. Hence suggestion that this might be acheived by having a webcam pointing at me as I flail my arms, connected to a PC which makes appropriate noises.
—neilp, Dec 05 2003
   

       What's wrong with making the noises yourself. You got a mouth, don't ya?
—k_sra, Dec 05 2003
   

       "I want a totally 'handsfree' drumming experience."
How do you intend to accomplish that? If the idea is to have a computer watch your hands and, based on interpreting the positions of your hands, produce music, what difference does it make if you have to hold sticks or wear gloves to make it easier for the computer?		   

       I've reposted a link to an application just like I've described. I guess you could use your fingers instead of the drumsticks.
—phoenix, Dec 05 2003
   

       [k_sra], I have a sore throat and can't shout loud enough to disturb the neighbours.
—neilp, Dec 05 2003
   

       I've seen the set-up in phoe's link demonstrated on TechTV, and I agree, it's pretty much exactly as the author describes. You have to know where in the air to "hit" but that's to be expected with air drums.
—waugsqueke, Dec 05 2003
   

       [waugs] I've seen it too, and I disagree, that's not what I meant at all. my webcam solution costs webcam + $20 for the software. The VR version costs, surely $4000 and requires lots of cables and paraphenalia.

I quote: "I'll re-over clarify. I want a set of air drums with no moving parts, that also make a loud enough noise when I hit them. Hence suggestion that this might be acheived by having a webcam pointing at me as I flail my arms, connected to a PC which makes appropriate noises."
—neilp, Dec 05 2003
   

       I can think of 2 musical instruments that generated a noise without the user physically touching anything:
The Theremin as designed by Leo and used famously by Jimmy Page in Led Zep (and many 'creatures of the night & monsters' stylee 50s Movies).
The keyboard used by (the meek and self-effacing) Jean-Michel Jarre when taking over Houston (I think) for a gig. Basically, he broke a light beam which then tripped an optical switch which cued a keyboard Blah Blah....
I think that you might need a slightly more complicated light array to define 'contact' of a drum in space in front of you (BTW are you intending to have a traditional layout to this kit) but this might get you started. Looking for links..
—gnomethang, Dec 06 2003
   

       So the difference is what, neil? Cost? You want what's in the link, but cheaper.
—waugsqueke, Dec 06 2003
   

       So I take it that you are using a webcam as a sort of scanner, that can, by some means, sense where your hands are - maybe you wear a ring on each hand with a UV emitting led embedded in it, then the image "seen" by the webcam is filtered for everything but UV light - then some sort of software running on the computer scans the webcam image, finds the pinpoints of light, and then by the position and/or velocity of the pinpoints plays an appropriate drum sample at a volume proportional to the velocity. Something like that?
—xrayTed, Dec 06 2003
   

       "my webcam solution costs webcam + $20 for the software."
Prove it.		   

       "The VR version costs, surely $4000 and requires lots of cables and paraphenalia."
So you didn't even check out the product in the link?
—phoenix, Dec 06 2003
   

       hi [pheonix], honest, I'm not after an argument, I just think that what I'm describing is different in the sense that there is no wired connection between the user and the PC device. i.e. I don't want to have ordinary drum sticks with motion sensors I just want to wave my hands around. The link (excellent) is pretty close, but they still need the motion sensors to make it work. My idea's a bit more like the eyeToy add on for the PS2. - Cheers, N

p.s. I'm sure the Dutch guy's kit cost them more than $4000, and given my application's software only needn't bee too expensive.
—neilp, Dec 07 2003
   

       Oh my ear/air drums. Pun?
—The Kat, Dec 07 2003
   

       Perhaps I misread phoe's link then, because the setup I saw does exactly as you describe, neil. No motion sensors. It displays a web image of you on the computer screen, overlayed with a virtual drum kit. When you move your hands so that they contact the drum surface, the computer sounds that drum. You have to look at the screen to know where to move your hands, sort of the way meteorologists use Chromakey screens.   

       How is this different from what you describe?
—waugsqueke, Dec 07 2003
   

       [neilp] I'm not after an arguement either. I think I understand what you're looking for and I think it exists. What it costs is irrelevant to the idea and the HalfBakery as it's not something you or I control.   

       The sticks are probably necessary today to assist the image resolution software in tracking what it's supposed to. Tomorrow, when computers are faster and image processing algorithms are better, one might do away with the sticks and make them virtual as well.
—phoenix, Dec 07 2003
   

       I play a mean air bagpipe.
<hand in armpit>A-ma-zing Grace</hand in armpit>
—thumbwax, Dec 08 2003
   


 

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