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Music

Drops Of Colored Liquid Are The Controllers In audible color

Two designers developed an audio-visual instrument that matches notes to colors.

audible color from Momo Miyazaki on Vimeo.

Controlling music just gets simpler and simpler. If you thought moving shapes or waving your hand in the air to manipulate sound was a revolution, imagine making music using tiny drops of color-coded liquid. Copenhagen-based designers Momo Miyazaki and Hideaki Matsui created audible color, an audio-visual instrument that uses simple physical gestures for an intuitive interaction between sounds and colors.

Both designers are students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID), where they developed this playful sound project. Pipettes are used to drip colored water onto a clean white surface, and a webcam detects the color of each drop. Software built using Processing translates the color to a corresponding musical note and plays an arpeggiated sequence based on the colors present.

The basic concept behind the project is that three base colors (red, green, and blue) correspond to three different notes (A, D, and F). When these base colors combine to make purple, teal, and brown, new notes (C, E, and G) are generated. The size of the drops also effects the volume and frequency of notes played, so we’re guessing an accidental spill just might blow your headphones.

[via SHOCKLEE]

@abilaurel