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}
}