cduong-looking outward 04-FabricKeyboard

The project is “FabricKeyboard”, which is a stretchable fabric that is used as a musical instrument. It is a physical interaction media based on fabric. The way it functions is that it is a multilayer design that is created in a way to look as though it has different ‘keys” that have extensions that can determine things such as touch, proximity, pressure, stretch, position, etc. The video was honestly so amazing to watch, especially with the range of sounds that they can make and it is just so interesting to think that technology has advanced so far that people can now produce sounds from a piece of fabric.

They used software known as MIDI that allows the FabricKeyboard to “plug and play” and they are currently exploring the OSC protocol to use it wirelessly. The algorithms that were possibly used to develop this work had to be working on different combinations of factors such as pressure, proximity, etc. to produce a specific type of sound and they had to determine exactly what types of sounds they wanted to produce.

They had to develop this fabric to look a specific way and it looks somewhat like a futuristic keyboard or piano, especially with the sounds that it makes. The creator’s had full control of what they wanted the sounds to be and how they wanted every little factor to affect the sounds.

The FabricKeyboard was created by the Responsive Environments team at the MIT Media Lab. This was created this year in 2017.

FabricKeyboard – Stretchable fabric (sensate media) as a musical instrument