Extended Applications of the Wireless Sensor Array (WISEAR)

David Topper

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

WISEAR (Wireless Sensor Array)8, provides a robust andscalable platform for virtually limitless types of data input tosoftware synthesis engines. It is essentially a Linux based SBC(Single Board Computer) with 802.11a/b/g wireless capability.The device, with batteries, only weighs a few pounds and can beworn by a dancer or other live performer. Past work has focusedon connecting "conventional" sensors (eg., bend sensors,accelerometers, FSRs, etc...) to the board and using it as a datarelay, sending the data as real time control messages to synthesisengines like Max/MSP and RTcmix1. Current research hasextended the abilities of the device to take real-time audio andvideo data from USB cameras and audio devices, as well asrunning synthesis engines on board the device itself. Given itsgeneric network ability (eg., being an 802.11a/b/g device) there istheoretically no limit to the number of WISEAR boxes that canbe used simultaneously in a performance, facilitating multiperformer compositions. This paper will present the basic design philosophy behindWISEAR, explain some of the basic concepts and methods, aswell as provide a live demonstration of the running device, wornby the author.

Citation

David Topper. 2007. Extended Applications of the Wireless Sensor Array (WISEAR). Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1177261

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{Topper2007,
 abstract = { WISEAR (Wireless Sensor Array)8, provides a robust andscalable platform for virtually limitless types of data input tosoftware synthesis engines. It is essentially a Linux based SBC(Single Board Computer) with 802.11a/b/g wireless capability.The device, with batteries, only weighs a few pounds and can beworn by a dancer or other live performer. Past work has focusedon connecting "conventional" sensors (eg., bend sensors,accelerometers, FSRs, etc...) to the board and using it as a datarelay, sending the data as real time control messages to synthesisengines like Max/MSP and RTcmix1. Current research hasextended the abilities of the device to take real-time audio andvideo data from USB cameras and audio devices, as well asrunning synthesis engines on board the device itself. Given itsgeneric network ability (eg., being an 802.11a/b/g device) there istheoretically no limit to the number of WISEAR boxes that canbe used simultaneously in a performance, facilitating multiperformer compositions. This paper will present the basic design philosophy behindWISEAR, explain some of the basic concepts and methods, aswell as provide a live demonstration of the running device, wornby the author.},
 address = {New York City, NY, United States},
 author = {Topper, David},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1177261},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Wireless, sensors, embedded devices, linux, real-time audio, real- time video },
 pages = {203--204},
 title = {Extended Applications of the Wireless Sensor Array (WISEAR)},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2007/nime2007_203.pdf},
 year = {2007}
}