An Instrumented Glove for Control Audiovisual Elements in Performing Arts

Rafael Tavares,Hugo Mesquita,Maria Teresa Restivo,Rui Penha,Paulo Abreu

doi:10.3991/ijoe.v14i02.8247

Abstract

The use of cutting-edge technologies such as wearable devices to control reactive audiovisual systems are rarely applied in more conventional stage performances, such as opera performances. This work reports a cross-disciplinary approach for the research and development of the WMTSensorGlove, a data-glove used in an opera performance to control audiovisual elements on stage through gestural movements. A system architecture of the interaction between the wireless wearable device and the different audiovisual systems is presented, taking advantage of the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol. The developed wearable system was used as audiovisual controller in “As sete mulheres de Jeremias Epicentro”, a portuguese opera by Quarteto Contratempus, which was premiered in September 2017.

Highlights

The development of the first glove-based systems for hand data acquisition started about 40 years ago
There is a rich ecosystem of Digital Musical Instruments based on glove systems being developed since the late 1980’s that range from experimental designs to consumer products, and there is an incredible amount of DIY projects
In the 1970’s, MIT researchers had demonstrated a general-purpose computer input based on direct interpretation of hand motion [2], but the truly first data-glove for gesture acquisition only appeared in 1977, developed by Tom Defanti and Daniel Sandin: the Sayre Glove

Summary

Introduction

The development of the first glove-based systems for hand data acquisition started about 40 years ago These systems have been used in many computer input applications, ranging from the analysis of gestures for sign language interpretation to the biomedical sciences. The first commercially available glove-based systems, the DataGlove was built by Thomas Zimmerman in 1987 and later developed in a new fibre optics version by Visual Programming Language Research Inc, the VPL DataGlove. This system quickly gained the attention of researchers of different fields and a number of devices simiiJOE ‒ Vol 14, No 2, 2018. We present a cross-disciplinary approach for the research and development of the WTMSensorGlove, a data-glove used in an opera performance to control through gestural acquisition the sonic and visual content on stage

Wireless Wearable Device

Results

Conclusion

Authors